Lindsey Graham
11/04/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/04/2024 14:15
In Case You Missed It: Editorial: Investigate the ICC Before It Escalates
In Case You Missed It
Editorial: Investigate the ICC Before It Escalates
A bipartisan group of Senators put The Hague on notice for its lawless campaign against Israel.
Investigate the ICC Before It Escalates
By The Editorial Board
The Wall Street Journal
November 1, 2024
The International Criminal Court has been warned. In a letter on Friday, six U.S. Senators-three Republicans and three Democrats-implored the ICC's overseer "to investigate the highly irregular and potentially illegal actions by the Prosecutor" in targeting Israel's leaders.
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), Ben Cardin (D., Md.), John Thune (R., S.D.), Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) and John Fetterman (D., Pa.) wrote to the Assembly of States Parties with "two grave concerns."
First, prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan didn't comply with the law in applying for arrest warrants. The Senators relate how Mr. Khan misled them that he would "meaningfully engage with the State of Israel," as required by the court's Rome Statute, "before any action was taken." Instead he stiffed the Israelis and announced his application for arrest warrants on CNN.
Second, "there is a cloud hanging over the Prosecutor and his office" from sexual-harassment allegations, suppressed shortly before Mr. Khan requested the arrest warrants and thereafter. We've reported on those allegations, which have since gained steam from an Associated Press investigation.
Mr. Khan has implied in response that this is all an Israeli conspiracy, which doesn't put to rest questions of bias. The ICC staff union doesn't trust the court's internal watchdog to investigate and has called for "a prompt, independent and thorough investigation led by an external panel."
The Senators write, "Any action by the Court regarding arrest warrants for Israeli officials without the benefit of a completed investigation into the serious allegations hanging over Prosecutor Khan would cast doubt on the Court's actions, and jeopardize the credibility of the ICC more broadly." That's sensible, but the ICC faces pressure from anti-Israel groups and states to tar Israel with the arrest warrants, probably soon after the U.S. election.
All of this is a danger to America. Today the court is after Israel, which doesn't belong to the ICC, for actions in Gaza, which isn't a state, in a defensive war against terrorists. Tomorrow the ICC could do the same to the U.S., another nonmember. The ICC still hasn't closed its investigation of the Afghanistan war, and Hamas isn't the only group to violate all laws of war and seek to win via international pressure.
The question is why President Biden rescinded President Trump's sanctions on the ICC in 2021, and why he and Sen. Chuck Schumer are currently blocking new, bipartisan sanctions from getting a vote on the Senate floor. Mr. Schumer, who loves telling Jewish audiences he's their shomer, or guardian, is protecting enemies who would put Israel and America in the dock.
Appeared in the November 2, 2024, print edition as 'Investigate the ICC Before It Escalates'.
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