U.S. Bringing Sanctions The ICC!

The Israeli lobby has a grip on Congress. The House passed the resolution to sanction the International Criminal Court.

I am done with the Democratic Party. I am done with the Republican Party.

I want to say a humongous fuck you to Israel, Donald J. Trump, JD Vance, Joe Biden, Congress, the Anti-Defamation League and AIPAC. The United States is officially losing their recognition as a leader in human rights, democracy and equality.

It was all good when the International Criminal Court was issuing warrants to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now that they issued warrants to Israeli regime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the U.S. wants to punish the court for standing up for justice.

Well folks, the U.S. just invited itself to an investigation. I will be happy to see Biden, Trump and members of Congress sanctioned or criminally charged for aiding in an active genocide.

The ICC’s targeting of Netanyahu has sparked backlash from Republicans and Democrats in Congress. The GOP-led Senate is expected to next take up the bill.

There remains widespread bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for US military assistance to Israel, but scrutiny over US support for Israel’s war against Hamas has intensified as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has grown worse. The issue has opened up a rift within the Democratic Party as progressives have been highly critical of the Israeli government.

The ICC issued arrest warrants last year for Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and a senior Hamas official, accusing them of war crimes during and after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel.

The prime minister’s office has dismissed the warrants as “absurd and antisemitic.”

Out with the old and in with the old.

The legislation calls for the warrants against the Israeli officials to be “condemned in the strongest possible terms.” And, according to the legislative text, the measure would impose sanctions with respect to the court over “any effort to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies.” The sanctions include prohibiting US property transactions and blocking and revoking visas.

Headquartered at The Hague in the Netherlands, the ICC was established in 2002 and is tasked with prosecuting individuals for crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The ICC does not have its own enforcement mechanism and has relied on countries’ support for arrests. Israel, like the United States, is not a member of the ICC and has challenged the court’s jurisdiction over its actions in the conflict.

The House passed the ICC sanctions bill in the last session of Congress by a vote of 247 to 155, with 42 Democrats joining Republicans in support, but it was not brought to a vote in the Senate, which was then under Democratic control. Congressional Republicans are bringing it back up now that they control both the House and the Senate.

Also I got a special fuck you to Poland. The far right president of Poland wants to protect Netanyahu if he does appear at Auschwitz for a memorial service.

America, do you want your taxpayer money going to Israel?

Duda asked Prime Minister Donald Tusk to bypass the ICC to ensure that Netanyahu can attend without the risk of being arrested.

There had been reports suggesting that the arrest warrant could prevent Netanyahu from traveling to Poland to attend observances marking the anniversary of the liberation in 1945 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by Soviet forces on Jan. 27.

Member countries of the ICC, such as Poland, are required to detain suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no way to enforce that. Israel is not a member of the ICC and disputes its jurisdiction.

The court has more than 120 member states, though some countries, including France, have already said that they would not arrest him. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán even said he would defy the warrant by inviting Netanyahu to Hungary.