House Republicans are eyeing a bill to sanction the International Criminal Court because its chief prosecutor wants arrest warrants for top Israeli officials over their actions in the war against Hamas.
Senate Democrats, while largely condemning the International Criminal Court’s move, are cool to the idea.
“Right now I’m focusing on what we can do through our public advocacy,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, told The Washington Times.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced Monday that he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders — Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — that he accuses of committing war crimes.
The request for warrants must still be considered by a pretrial panel of three judges, so the prosecutor’s decision is not yet final. But some members of Congress — who overwhelmingly took issue with the ICC equating Israel’s actions with Hamas terrorists whose Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state started the war — want to take preemptive action before warrants could be issued.
“The ICC has no business going after anybody in any country that is a democracy with an independent judiciary,” Sen. James E. Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Times.
Mr. Risch of Idaho said he is drafting legislation to sanction the ICC to prevent action against Israeli officials but also to restore some checks and balances that the U.S. had previously placed on the court.
“We had sanctions in place under Trump. Biden took the sanctions down. We want to reestablish those sanctions,” he said. “Those sanctions had to do with the ICCs work against Americans in Afghanistan. We’re going to reinstate that, plus go after them for what they’re doing as far as Israel is concerned.”
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Benjamin L. Cardin said there is general agreement among lawmakers and President Biden that the ICC decision was inappropriate but that he wants to talk to administration officials about the best way to respond. Mr. Biden condemned the ICC’s move in a speech Monday where he said the civilian deaths from Israel’s military strikes in Gaza are not genocide.
“I think we all are hoping that we can get them not to move forward with that,” Mr. Cardin, Maryland Democrat, said of the ICC. “So we’ll see what strategies we think are best to do that.”
Mr. Risch said he hopes Democrats will support his sanctions bill but acknowledged that will depend on whether the Biden administration backs it.
“Obviously, if the administration goes, the Democrats will come,” he said. “This is not partisan.”
Lawmakers began discussing the topic Tuesday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken as he testified before the Foreign Relations Committee about the department’s annual budget request.
Mr. Risch asked Mr. Blinken if he could support a legislative approach to sanctioning the ICC.
“Let’s look at it. We want to work with you on a bipartisan basis to find an appropriate response,” Mr. Blinken said. “As you say, the devil’s in the details. So let’s see what you got, and we can take it from there.”
Mr. Blinken said the Biden administration’s intent in lifting the Trump-era sanctions against the ICC related to its investigation of U.S. actions in Afghanistan was “to find the best way to protect our service members who served in Afghanistan, and we believe that we did that.”
“But given the events of yesterday, I think we have to look at the appropriate steps to take to deal with again what is a profoundly wrongheaded decision,” he said.
Ahead of the questioning, Mr. Blinken’s testimony before the committee was interrupted by protestors from progressive feminist activist group Code Pink who shouted that “he is a war criminal” and “the blood of 40,000 Palestinians is on his hands!”
Progressive activists’ widespread protests against the rising civilian death toll in Gaza have divided the Democratic Party, forcing a debate about U.S. military aid to Israel and demands for Israel to stop its all-out effort to eliminate Hamas.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer on Monday denounced the ICC’s decision as “reprehensible” and promised to “keep support for Israel strong and unwavering” against what he claimed is a long-held ICC bias against Israel. But the New York Democrat has not said anything about sanctions or another potential legislative response. His office did not return a request for comment.
House Republicans are more likely to act, with Speaker Mike Johnson saying in a statement Monday that his conference is considering sanctions and other options.
Mr. Johnson slammed the ICC’s decision as “baseless and illegitimate.” He said it “has been advanced due to the Biden Administration’s pressure campaign against Israel and its outlandish State Department investigations.”
The State Department issued a report earlier this month that found “reasonable” evidence that Israel had violated international law in its use of U.S. weapons to launch attacks against Hamas.
“In the absence of leadership from the White House, Congress is reviewing all options, including sanctions, to punish the ICC and ensure its leadership faces consequences if they proceed,” Mr. Johnson said in the statement. “If the ICC is allowed to threaten Israeli leaders, ours could be next.”
Mr. Johnson’s office did not have further details to share Tuesday about ICC sanctions or other potential legislative responses.
Senate Republican Whip John Thune of South Dakota said if the House advances a bill to sanction the ICC and Mr. Schumer allows a Senate vote, he suspects there would be enough bipartisan support to pass it.
“I just think what the ICC is doing is unconscionable,” Mr. Thune said. “This is an organization that was set up to prevent and protect against events like the Holocaust, that now very well may be enabling that by this action.”
Some Democrats such as Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania said they are open to sanctions or another appropriate legislative response to the ICC.
“Their ruling is trash,” Mr. Fetterman said. “I do think it’s an important conversation to have if there’s any kind of appropriate kinds of consequences of that. And they just again destroyed their credibility.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.