Senate leader threatens ICC with sanctions

 Fox News:

South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune on Sunday threatened to slap the International Criminal Court (ICC) with sanctions if it did not drop its application for an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Thune – who was selected Wednesday to be the next Senate Majority Leader once the GOP takes the upper chamber come January 2025 – warned that if the current Democratic leader does not take on the international court, he will.

"If the ICC and its prosecutor do not reverse their outrageous and unlawful actions to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, the Senate should immediately pass sanctions legislation, as the House has already done on a bipartisan basis," Thune wrote on X. "If Majority Leader Schumer does not act, the Senate Republican majority will stand with our key ally Israel and make this – and other supportive legislation – a top priority in the next Congress."

In May, the ICC issued applications for arrest warrants against Netanyahu, as well as then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas terrorists for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. All three Hamas leaders are believed to since have been killed.

Thune’s threats were made in coordination with a bill introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in June – which closely aligned with a bill that passed in the House with bipartisan support just days prior – that called for sanctions against prosecutors who have gone after "U.S., Israeli, or any other allied citizen wrongfully targeted by the ICC."

The U.S. does not officially recognize the ICC’s authority, but it is not the first time Washington has looked to halt the court’s actions.

In 2020, the Trump administration opposed attempts by the ICC to investigate U.S. soldiers and the CIA involved in alleged war crimes between 2003-2004 "in secret detention facilities in Afghanistan," and issued sanctions against ICC prosecutors.

However, the sanctions did more than target individuals through asset freezing and international travel bans and were deemed, at the time, to have the potential for "wide-reaching consequences."
...

Israel is responding to a mass murder attack on Israeli non-combatants and the ICC appears to be siding with the terrorists.  Israel has a right to respond to terror attacks and destroy those trying to destroy Israelis.

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