President Biden: “We Reject ICC’s Application for Arrest Warrants Against Israeli Leaders”

Biden criticizes the ICC for its “outrageous” suggestion that Israel and Hamas are comparable.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor’s choice to concurrently request arrest warrants for Hamas and Israeli officials is rejected by President Biden. During a Rose Garden celebration honoring Jewish American Heritage Month, the president declared, “We deny the International Criminal Court’s request for arrest warrants against Israeli officials. Despite what these warrants might suggest, Hamas and Israel are not comparable.Despite accusations made against Israel, genocide is not taking place.
The Biden administration vehemently condemned the International Criminal Court’s efforts on Monday to get arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials and Hamas leaders, claiming that the court’s actions placed the terrorist group and a major US partner on an equal footing.

In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan revealed that the international court is requesting arrest warrants for a number of individuals, including Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to their respective roles in the October 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing conflict that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
According to Khan, the prosecution team is also requesting warrants for top Hamas figures and Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
Monday, Biden referred to the ICC’s activities as “outrageous” in a statement.
“Let me be clear,” the president said in the statement, “whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas.”
Speaking later on Monday, at a White House event honoring Jewish American Heritage Month, Biden restated his position that the International Criminal Court’s pursuit of an arrest warrant is unjustified.
“It’s clear Israel wants to do all it can to ensure civilian protection,” Biden said. “Let me be clear: What’s happening is not genocide.”
At a time of strained ties between the president and Israeli leadership, Khan’s pursuit of the warrants offered Biden, a lifelong backer of Israel and its right to exist, an opportunity to speak out loudly in behalf of the US’ key Middle Eastern ally. For the first time this month, Biden placed restrictions on US aid to Israel because of Israel’s intended invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, during an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett. In an effort to persuade Netanyahu to consider alternatives other than launching a military assault in a populated area, Biden has also had candid conversations with the Israeli prime minister on several occasions in recent months.
With this declaration, the ICC has officially requested an arrest warrant for the leader of a major US ally for the first time. Netanyahu joins the ranks of Russian President Vladimir Putin and late Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi, both of whom the ICC had attempted to apprehend.
The ICC prosecutor, Khan, brushed off criticism regarding the court’s efforts to get the warrants. “Nobody is above the law,” he told Amanpour.
Israel and the United States are not ICC members. However, should the court issue an arrest warrant for either Netanyahu or Gallant, the ruling would severely hinder the Israeli leader’s ability to travel to any of the 124 nations that have ratified the court’s laws, including major US allies like Germany and Britain. This would force the member states to assist in the efforts to extradite the individuals who are the subject of the warrants.
The US and a few of its allies expressed their condemnation upon learning that the ICC is requesting warrants for the Israeli leaders. Britain claimed that the court’s efforts to bring the fighting to a halt were “not helpful.” The United States “fundamentally rejects” the court’s decision, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, adding that it “could jeopardize” attempts to broker a ceasefire and hostage release agreement between the warring sides.
Officials from the Biden administration also questioned whether the ICC had the authority to request those arrests.
Rep. Speaker Mike Johnson declared that House GOP leaders will consider sanctions in reaction to the court’s ruling, calling the ICC’s actions “baseless and illegitimate.” John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, stated that the Biden administration intends to maintain regular communication with Congressmen, but he refrained from endorsing any Republican initiative to impose additional penalties on the International Criminal Court.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who supports the ICC’s ruling despite frequently disagreeing with Biden on Israel, said he was in favor of the ruling. Sanders is a Democrat in the caucus. One of the most well-known Jewish lawmakers in the nation, Sanders has expressed disapproval of Israel’s military campaign.
“The ICC prosecutor is right to take these actions,” Sanders said in a statement, adding it is “imperative that the global community uphold international law.”
Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Vice President Joe Biden both strongly condemned the ICC’s actions, while several prominent Democrats in the Senate steadfastly declined to voice their opinions, highlighting the party’s widening division over Israel’s conduct of the war.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan responded to CNN’s Manu Raju when asked if she agreed with the ICC ruling, saying, “I would say that I’m not supportive of Netanyahu or Hamas, and I think we’d be able to move forward a lot better if both were to go.”
However, several people sided with Biden.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio senator up for a challenging reelection, attacked the ICC prosecutor. He told CNN, “I don’t see any moral equivalency between a terrorist group like Hamas and the democratic government of Israel.”
The United States is in a precarious position because of the criticism of the ICC’s initiatives. The US is backing an independent initiative by the ICC to catalog and look into Russian war crimes connected to its ongoing activities in Ukraine.
Kirby declared that those efforts will continue to have US backing.
“I would remind everybody that it is an actual war aim of Mr. Putin to kill innocent Ukrainian people,” Kirby told reporters Monday. “I mean, he’s deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure with the aim of killing innocent civilians.
“That is not what the IDF is doing,” Kirby added.
Kirby stated that the US is still pushing for “more discriminative, more targeted, [and] more precise” actions from the Israeli government in Gaza.

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