April 29, 2024 (EIRNS)—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netnayhu was reported yesterday to be in a panic over the likelihood of an ICC arrest warrant being issued against him. According to the Times of Israel, several Israeli media outlets report that the U.S. is engaged in a campaign to prevent the warrants from being issued.
The Times cites analyst Ben Caspit, in the Walla news site, writing that Netanyahu is “under unusual stress” over the prospect of an arrest warrant against him and other Israelis by the UN tribunal in The Hague, which would be a major deterioration in Israel’s international status. Netanyahu is leading a “nonstop push over the telephone” to prevent an arrest warrant, focused especially on the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, Caspit writes.
Also cited is Haaretz analyst Amos Harel who writes that the Israeli government is working under the assumption that the ICC’s prosecutor Karim Khan may this week issue warrants for the arrests of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. The U.S., which, like Israel, is not among the 124 countries that signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, is already engaged in the effort to block the arrest warrants, according to Harel.
