JERUSALEM, Israel – Two of Israel's most famous leaders now face arrest if they go to almost any nation in the world. That's after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, citing alleged "war crimes."
The prime minister swiftly defended Israel's actions in Gaza, declaring, "No war is more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza after Hamas attacked us, unprovoked."
Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote the ICC's decision "has turned universal justice into a universal laughingstock."
The ICC charges Netanyahu and Gallant are guilty of "the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts."
"We are accused of deliberately harming civilians, while we are doing everything to prevent harm to civilians – and this is against an enemy who is hiding behind civilians and using them as a human shield. We are accused of starving a population while we are bringing in hundreds of thousands of tons of food to feed the population, and this is while Hamas is looting this food and it is starving the residents of Gaza," Netanyahu proclaimed.
The ICC's charges came amid evidence of another international organization's bias against Israel. A new report from the group U.N. Watch stated that a former United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) commissioner-general held a secret meeting in 2017 with terrorist groups, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. At the meeting, the UNRWA chief reportedly told them "We are one" and "No one can separate us."
As for the ICC arrest warrants, Netanyahu and Gallant could be arrested if they go to certain countries that have accepted the court's authority. Nations such as The Netherlands and Ireland agreed immediately to make the arrests if given the chance.
Josep Borrell, the European Union foreign policy chief, announced, "All members of the European Union are bound to implement this court decision."
Nomi Bar-Yaacov, an international attorney with Chatham House noted, "And to those countries, Netanyahu won't be able to travel. And that's a very, very big thing."
She added, "And they include the European countries and it includes the UK, it includes France, Germany. So that's very, very serious."
That doesn't bother some anti-Netanyahu Israelis, such as Tel Aviv resident Annette Shimoni, who stated, “I don't care if they arrest Bibi Netanyahu. As far as I'm concerned, he can sit in jail for the rest of his life."
But other Israelis say far-away judges can't understand what it's like to be Jews in a region where they are always surrounded by terrorists plotting to exterminate them.
"This ICC's purely anti-Semitic and it doesn't see what's going on around Israel," said Tel Aviv resident Ron Ackerman. "Maybe they should come here and live here for two, three months and they will understand everything.”
Netanyahu is hoping for a tough backlash against the court.
"This decision will have severe consequences for the ICC and those who cooperate with its decision, Netanyahu warned.
President-elect Donald Trump's presumptive National Security Advisor, Congressman Mike Waltz, promised, "You can expect a strong response to the anti-Semitic bias of the ICC and the U.N., come January."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says the United States should go after the ICC because that court is targeting the wrong people. He suggested they should pursue the Islamic terrorists who are forcing the Israelis to fight them.
Graham said on the Senate floor, "This is not a Bibi problem. This is a problem where there are Islamic terrorists – Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran – that want to kill all the Jews; not just Bibi. Now, why do they want to do that? They're religious Nazis."
Graham and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul want Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bring up a bill for a vote that the House has already passed.
The measure is called The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act (Senate Bill 224). It would impose sanctions on ICC employees or associates who aid the effort to prosecute Israeli leaders.
Graham posted on X, "The court is a dangerous joke. It's now time for the Senate to act and sanction this irresponsible body."
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