International

Netanyahu responds to reports that ICC could issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials: would be ‘Antisemitic hate crime’

Published

7 months ago

April 30, 2024

After reports that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague, Netherlands, was considering issuing warrants against Israeli officials, Netanyahu released a statement on X. U.S. officials have said they would try to block the move if the ICC goes through with it.

You have to hear this to believe this. pic.twitter.com/msPDwc3H7t

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 30, 2024

Read Benjamin Netanyahu’s full statement:

The international criminal court in the Hague is contemplating issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli government and military officials. This would be an outrage of historic proportions. International bodies like the ICC arose in the wake of the holocaust committed against the Jewish people. They were sent up to prevent such horrors, to prevent future genocides. Yet now the international court is trying Israel in the dock as we defend ourselves against genocidal terrorists and regimes, Iran of course, that openly works to destroy the one and only Jewish state.

Branding Israel’s leaders and soldiers as war criminals will pour jet fuel on the fires of anti-Semitism, those fires that are already raging on campuses of America and across capitals around the world. It will also be the first time that a democratic country fighting for its life according to the rules of war, is itself accused of war crimes.

The Israeli army, the IDF, is one of the most moral militaries in the world. It takes endless measures to prevent civilian casualties. Measures that no other army takes. It does so while fighting a terrorist enemy which uses its own civilians as human shields.

You know the truth. Hamas places its weapons, its terrorists, in hospitals, schools, mosques and throughout civilian areas. They do this in order to win immunity and maximize civilian casualties. So while Hamas shows no care for the lives of Palestinians and steals humanitarian aid meant for civilians, Israel is facilitating a surge of humanitarian assistance to Gaza. And we do this to ensure that the Palestinian population’s humanitarian needs are met.

Rather than commend Israel for abiding by the rules of war while fighting an enemy that violates every rule of war, including holding 133 Israeli men, women and children hostage, who is the ICC talking to? The democracy called Israel. And in targeting Israel, the ICC would be targeting all democracies because it would be undermining their inherent right to defend themselves against savage terrorism and wanton aggression.

Clearly, this threat by the ICC is not an attempt to enforce the law, Israel is not even subject to the court’s jurisdiction and it has an independent legal system that rigorously investigates all violations of the law. Rather, this ICC attempt is an attempt to paralyze Israel’s very ability to defend itself.

The government and people of Israel reject outright this grave threat to our security, this grave threat to our very existence. And I want to assure you, no ICC action will impact Israel’s iron-clad determination to achieve the goals of our war with Hamas terrorists. We will destroy Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in Gaza. We will release all our hostages, and we will ensure that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again.

Israel expects the leaders of the free world to stand firmly against the ICC outrageous assault on Israel’s inherent right of self defense. We expect them to use all the means at their disposal to stop this dangerous move. Six months after the terrible Hamas massacre of October 7^th, 80 years after the horrors of the Holocaust, the Jewish state calls on decent people everywhere to reject this outrage by the ICC, to stand with Israel as we fight the barbarians of Hamas and Iran, and as we work to secure a more peaceful world.

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International

Trump’s Middle East Policy Taking Shape

Published

4 weeks ago

November 8, 2024

Steve Postal

Follow Steve Postal: @HebraicMosaic

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What would a new Trump administration mean for the Middle East? Expect the following:

Increased Pressure on Iran and its Proxies

Brian Hook, Trump’s former special envoy to Iran who is believed to be leading Trump’s transition team for the State Department, stated that the new Trump administration would seek to “…isolate Iran diplomatically and weaken them economically, so that they can’t fund all of the violence…” coming from Iran’s proxies, “…all of whom destabilize Israel and our Gulf partners.” This approach contrasts with the Biden-Harris administration, who engaged the Islamic Republic diplomatically and economically, and even removed the Houthis from the Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity list from February 2021 through January 2024. That being said, Hook also stated that the new Trump administration would have “no interest in regime change” in Iran, and that decisions about the future of Iran lies with its people.

The Trump administration may green light an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites. GOP spokeswoman Elizabeth Pipko refused to say whether President-elect Trump would approve of Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear sites, stating that Trump should speak for himself on this issue and will do so when he assumes office. However, Trump had stated in October that Israel should strike Iran’s nuclear sites. In contrast, the Biden-Harris administration vocally opposed Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear sites or oil fields, and Israel’s attack plans were leaked to Iran through someone in the Biden-Harris administration’s Defense department.

Striving to End Wars in Lebanon and Gaza

According to Pipko, President-elect Trump wants Israel to end the wars in Gaza and Lebanon quickly, decisively, and with victory. Pipko contrasted this approach with the Biden-Harris administration’s “back and forth” policy, and that the Biden-Harris administration was pressuring how Israel conducts war based on election considerations. The Biden-Harris administration was guilty of “armchair quarterbacking” Israel’s wars in an unproductive way, including by leaking Israel’s plans to strike Lebanon, opposing the Rafah invasion, and opposing the killing of several arch-terrorists.

Trump will also likely prioritize the release of the hostages; Trump recently threatened Hamas, stating that if they did not free its hostages before inauguration day, it will pay “a very big price.” In contrast, the Biden-Harris administration has been spinning its wheels in endless failed diplomacy with Qatar, having not produced a hostage deal with Hamas since November 2023.

Pursuing a Conditional Peace with Palestinians

President-elect Donald Trump will likely re-visit his 2020 peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians, according to Brian Hook. Regarding the 2020 plan, Hook stated that “much of that work is still relevant today.”

On the issue of a Palestinian state, expect that the Trump administration won’t pursue a Palestinian state unconditionally for its own sake, as the Biden-Harris administration has. Hook conceded that Trump’s 2020 plan, which was endorsed by Israel and U.S.’ allies in the Gulf, “had a path to a two-state solution.” But Hook also recognized that Israelis are not focused on a Palestinian state now, and are instead focused on protecting themselves from terrorism in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Additionally, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas outright rejected the 2020 plan, and the plan also required the PA to provide security guarantees for Israel, recognize Israel, and allow Israeli citizens to remain in Judea and Samaria, all of which the PA did not agree to. If the new Trump administration seeks to revive this plan, it will likely revive these conditions for a Palestinian state as well. The PA will then in turn likely reject it a second time, proving again that the PA is not a partner for peace.

Expanding the Abraham Accords

President-elect Trump is also poised to expand the Abraham Accords. Trump brokered normalization deals between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. Reportedly, the previous Trump administration was on the verge of expanding the Abraham Accords to Indonesia and Mauritania, but were prevented from doing so once the administration’s term expired. During the past Trump administration, Saudi Arabia had been trying to get Pakistan to join the Abraham Accords as well.

In contrast, the Biden-Harris administration failed to add any countries to the Abraham Accords. Most notably is the administration’s failure to clinch an Israel-Saudi Arabia deal after chilling US relations with Saudi Arabiaand insisting on a Palestinian state as an integral part of any deal. The Biden-Harris administration seems content with now pursuing a bilateral US-Saudi deal that ices out Israel, which would completely undermine the spirit of the Abraham Accords.

Jared Kushner has had multiple discussions with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the issue of US-Israel-Saudi relations since President-elect Trump left office. So given past efforts, the new Trump administration could clinch Abraham Accords deals with Indonesia, Mauritania, Oman, and/or the big prize, Saudi Arabia.