More isolated than ever, the US is the only major country to oppose the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC), after three of its judges issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, on November 21. When he was in office, Gallant was an important interlocutor with US authorities. According to a National Security Council spokesperson, the White House "fundamentally rejects" the double indictment. "We remain deeply concerned by the prosecutor's rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision," said the source, who said the ICC has no jurisdiction to rule on the case.
Like Israel, the US does not recognize the Court's authority. The Biden administration stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the reality of the war crimes that the Israeli army has committed in the Gaza Strip for over 13 months, the indiscriminate bombardments, the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure, and the constant blocking of the delivery of humanitarian aid.
In May, when ICC prosecutor Karim Khan called for the arrest warrants to be issued, Joe Biden called the move "outrageous": "Whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas." The American position reflects not only classic solidarity with Israel and rejection of the ICC. It also marks a denial of complicity on the part of the US, at a time when the issue has provoked division within the State Department that hasn't been seen since the Vietnam War.
Republican Representative Mike Waltz (Florida), tipped to become Donald Trump's national security adviser, opined on X that "Israel has lawfully defended its people & borders from genocidal terrorists. You can expect a strong response to the antisemitic bias of the ICC & UN come January." His colleague Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, called the ICC a "dangerous joke." In his view, it was time for the Senate to adopt sanctions against it. A bill to this effect was passed in the House of Representatives in June. In March 2023, the same senator hailed the "giant step" taken by the ICC, which had just issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. He expressed the hope that "the international community will continue to support the ICC in their endeavors to hold Putin accountable for the brutal invasion of Ukraine."
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