Tensions Rise Over ICC Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant as US Allies Mull Response

Controversy is intensifying and the stakes are rising over the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) recent decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The ICC’s move has sparked divisions, with the United States denouncing the warrants and some U.S. allies pledging to execute the warrants. The European Union’s foreign policy chief on Nov. 23 reminded the bloc’s member states that they are obligated to enforce the warrants, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned allies on Nov. 22 that if they tried to enforce them, the United States might “crush” their economies with sanctions.
Netanyahu’s office called the allegations and the warrants “absurd and false,” while Israeli President Isaac Herzog accused the ICC of siding with “terrorism and evil over democracy” and of acting as a protective shield for Hamas’s “crimes against humanity.”
In what appeared to be a bid to muster a unified front on the matter, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said that the ICC’s arrest warrants are binding for all EU member states and that their leaders can’t pick and choose whether to execute them.
“The states that signed the Rome convention are obliged to implement the decision of the court. It’s not optional,” Borrell said on Nov. 23 during a visit to Cyprus for a workshop of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists.
“Israel’s in a fight for its very life,” Graham said on Fox News’ “Hannity” program on Nov. 22. “And we live in an upside-down world where the prime minister of Israel and the defense minister of Israel are being prosecuted by a court in Belgium.”
Graham said he’s working with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on legislation that would sanction any country that assists in the arrest of any Israeli politician.
“So to any ally, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, if you try to help the ICC, we’re going to sanction you,” he said.