Protecting the U.S. by Defending Israel from the ICC

Urgent action is required to protect Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant from the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutorial overreach. Rather than prosecuting actual war criminals—the ICC, for example, never even opened an investigation into Syria’s Bashar al-Assad—the court is straying from its intended purpose by going after a democracy that obeys the laws of armed conflict, never acceded to the ICC’s jurisdiction, and has a functioning judicial system. Though Israel is the first democracy to have arrest warrants issued for its officials, it will not be the last—the ICC has already investigated the United States for alleged war crimes. To stop the ICC from coming for U.S. leaders and servicemembers in the future, the United States should mount an aggressive defense of Israel now.  

To safeguard the United States, Israel, and other U.S. partners and allies from the ICC’s judicial excesses, the 119th Congress and incoming Trump administration should sanction ICC officials responsible for these unmerited prosecutions. But they will also need to do more. Given the low likelihood that the ICC rescinds the arrest warrants, U.S. policy will also need to focus on encouraging countries to sign bilateral agreements to protect Israeli officials and discouraging countries from enforcing the ICC’s capricious warrants by threatening specific adverse consequences.

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