According to reports in several Israeli media, the United States is part of a last-ditch diplomatic effort to prevent the International Criminal Court from issuing arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials.
In the news site Walla, analyst Ben Caspit writes that Netanyahu is “under unusual stress” over the prospect of an arrest warrant against him and other Israelis by the UN tribunal in The Hague, which would be a major deterioration in Israel’s international status.
Netanyahu is leading a “nonstop push over the telephone” to prevent an arrest warrant, focused especially on the administration of US President Joe Biden, Caspit writes.
Haaretz analyst Amos Harel writes that the Israeli government is working under the assumption that the ICC’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, may this week issue warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.
The US, which, like Israel, is not among the 124 countries that signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, is already engaged in the effort to block the arrest warrants, according to Harel.
Netanyahu’s latest public statement about the war said forthcoming decisions by the ICC could set a “dangerous precedent.”
“We will never stop defending ourselves. Whereas decisions of the court in the Hague will not affect Israel’s actions, they would be a dangerous precedent threatening the soldiers and officials of any democracy fighting criminal terrorism and aggression,” he said on Friday.
Ben Norton:
US officials are threatening to impose sanctions on the ICC.
Related - 2020 flashback: US Sanctions on the International Criminal Court - HRW
2020 — Trump Targets ICC With Sanctions After Court Opens War Crimes Investigation
🔗SOURCE ➡️ Times of Israel
Related: 4/27 — Netanyahu 'Frightened and Unusually Stressed" About Possible ICJ Arrest Warrant
4/26 — Netanyahu on ICC: "We Will Not Bow To It"
4/25 — UN Urges Probe Into Mass Graves at Gaza Hospitals Raided by Israel
4/24 — Germany to restart UNRWA funding as Israeli smear campaign collapses
4/5 — UN Rights Body Demands Israel Be Held Accountable for Possible ‘War Crimes’, Calls for Halt to Weapons Shipments to Israel
4/2 — Netanyahu: Whole World Is Ganging up on Us. It’s a Combination of Ignorance and Antisemitism
1/26 — UNRWA Sacks Staffers Who Allegedly Participated In Oct. 7 Attack; US Halts Funding [and Canada]
⬆️ Like Clockwork, Israel Drums Up UNRWA allegations After ICJ issue's verdict
1/26 — ICJ Ruling On Gaza Genocide Is A Historic Victory For The Palestinians That Israel Vows To Defy
12/8 — Netanyahu: Investigating Israel's War Crimes is "Pure Anti-Semitism"
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