The ICC’s warrants came less than a year after Hamas invaded southern Israel and killed 1,200 people but have remained active as over 40,000 Palestinians have also been killed in the conflict so far. Israeli defense officials approximated that half were civilians.
Cotton appeared on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom on Monday to agree with soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) in suggesting that the Senate move on sanctions to prevent the execution of those arrest warrants. Thune called on the ICC to “reverse their outrageous and unlawful actions” and lamented that the House was able to pass sanctions on a bipartisan matter already.
“The House passed this bill months ago with more than 40 Democratic votes because the International Criminal Court is targeting Israeli officials to include Prime Minister Netanyahu for supposed war crimes when Israel is the victim of war crimes,” Cotton explained. “This bill that I helped draft is based on an executive order that President Trump issued in his term, and again, it passed in a large bipartisan vote.”
Thune called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to follow the other chamber’s footsteps — otherwise, passing this bill will be the “top priority” of the next Congress. Again, Cotton agreed that time is of the essence.
“Chuck Schumer could bring it up anytime. He could bring it up this week, much better use of time than, say, confirming the head of the Office of Government Ethics which we spent several hours on last week,” Cotton said. “Because this court, which is acting in a rogue fashion, could issue these arrest warrants at any time. We shouldn’t allow that to go forward without severe consequences against this kangaroo court and its rogue leader.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The ICC issued warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas’s then-leader Yahya Sinwar for their respective alleged war crimes. At the time, President Joe Biden referred to the warrants against Netanyahu as “outrageous.” Since the warrant, Sinwar was killed by the Israel Defense Forces.
These warrants have the support of Amal Alamuddin, the wife of actor George Clooney and a prosecutor working with the ICC, where she has offered her legal expertise since 2005. Alamuddin said it was a “historic step” to “bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine.”
