ICC can't act against Israel without US backing — Israeli official

The International Criminal Court could not act against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top IDF brass without overt or tactic support from the United States, an Israeli diplomatic source told The Jerusalem Post.

“Where is [US President Joe] Biden? Why is he quiet while Israel will potentially be thrown under the bus?” the source said.

In Washington on Monday, Deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel spoke out against the court’s actions on Israel.

“We continue to believe that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the Palestinian situation,” Patel said.

In Jerusalem, the Prime Minister’s Office is worried that the ICC will soon issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzl Halevi.

In light of this growing concern, Netanyahu posted on X Friday that, "Under my leadership, Israel will never accept any attempt by the ICC to undermine its inherent right of self-defense.”

“The threat to seize the soldiers and officials of the Middle East’s only democracy and the world’s only Jewish state is outrageous. We will not bow to it,” he stated.

“Israel will continue to wage to victory our just war against genocidal terrorists and we will never stop defending ourselves,” Netanyahu stressed.

“While the ICC will not affect Israel’s actions, it would set a dangerous precedent that threatens the soldiers and officials of all democracies fighting savage terrorism and wanton aggression,” Netanyahu explained.

US House Speaker: 'Israel has the right to defend itself '

US House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called on the ICC to “stand down on this immediately,” in a post on X. “Israel has the right to defend itself from terrorist organizations seeking to destroy it.”

“Note to the ICC: the real criminals are with Hamas and in Iran,” Johnson wrote.

Such warrants if issued, would come more than half a year into the IDF’s military campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas and would be expected to focus on those actions.

Already in November, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan confirmed he was conducting an investigation into possible war crimes in the West Bank, Gaza, and east Jerusalem, which had begun already in March 2021 and dated back to events that began on June 13, 2014.

That investigation, Khan said, “extends to the escalation of hostilities and violence since the attacks that took place on 7 October 2023.”

Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute which governs the court, but the Palestinian Authority signed onto the statute in 2015, and as such, the ICC has concluded that it has jurisdiction to adjudicate issues relating to those territories.

In an editorial on Friday, the US-based newspaper The Wall Street Journal urged the United States and Great Britain to intervene.

“Mr. Khan’s candidacy was championed by his native Britain and supported by the US, so both countries may influence if they warn Mr. Khan of what will happen if he proceeds. If they don’t, President Biden and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak risk finding Americans and Britons next under the gun.”

The WSJ noted that “Even as Hamas fights from beneath cities and behind human shields, and Egypt blocks refugees’ escape, Israel has a civilian-to-combatant casualty ratio that compares favorably with other urban conflicts.”

It continued, “There’s a reason the US isn’t a party to the ICC and Congress has long authorized a President “to use all means necessary and appropriate” to resist ICC arrests of Americans and US allies. Warding off prosecutions against a democratic ally is also necessary.”

Former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman wrote on X that former US President Donald Trump had ordered that the ICC be sanctioned “if it indicted Israeli leaders,” but that “Biden rescinded the order. 

“It’s time for Biden to restore threatened sanctions before the ICC becomes a kangaroo court!” he wrote.