US Makes Last-Ditch Effort To Save Close Ally As ICC Arrest Warrant Looms On Israel's Netanyahu

Even as Israel carried out further air strikes and shelling on the war-battered Gaza, the United States is making a last-ditch effort to prevent The Hauge-based International Criminal Court (ICC) from issuing arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials.

This comes as diplomatic efforts increased on Sunday to reach a long sought-after truce and hostage-release deal in Gaza as global opposition to the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory has also been growing in the wake of the looming invasion of the southernmost city of Rafah. Writing for the news site Walla, analyst Ben Caspit said that Netanyahu is “under unusual stress” over the prospect of an arrest warrant against him and other Israelis by the UN tribunal, 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 Biden administration, Caspit writes. Haaretz analyst Amos Harel writes that the Israeli government is working under the assumption that the ICC’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, may this week issue warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu. According to Harel, the US, which, like Israel, is not among the 124 countries that signed the Rome Statute of the ICC, is already engaged in the effort to block the arrest warrants.

‘Dangerous precedent’

Netanyahu’s latest public statement about the war said forthcoming decisions by the ICC could set a “dangerous precedent.” “We will never stop defending ourselves. Whereas decisions of the court in the Hague will not affect Israel’s actions, they would be a dangerous precedent threatening the soldiers and officials of any democracy fighting criminal terrorism and aggression,” he was quoted as saying by The Times Of Israel on Friday.

According to an internal US State Department memo, some senior US officials have advised State Secretary Antony Blinken that they do not find “credible or reliable” Israel’s assurances that it is using US-supplied weapons, in accordance with international humanitarian law. Under a National Security Memorandum (NSM) issued by President Joe Biden in February, Blinken must report to Congress by May 8 whether he finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of US weapons does not violate US or international law.

Internal memo

By March 24, at least seven State Department bureaus had sent in their contributions to an initial “options memo” to Blinken. Parts of the memo, which has not been previously reported, were classified. According to Reuters, the submissions to the memo provide the most extensive picture to date of the divisions inside the State Department over whether Israel might be violating international humanitarian law in Gaza. “Some components in the department favored accepting Israel’s assurances, some favored rejecting them and some took no position,” a US official said.

A joint submission from four bureaus raised “serious concern over non-compliance” with international humanitarian law during Israel’s prosecution of the Gaza war. The assessment from the four bureaus said Israel’s assurances were “neither credible nor reliable.” It cited eight examples of Israeli military actions that the officials said raise “serious questions” about potential violations of international humanitarian law.

These included repeatedly striking protected sites and civilian infrastructure; “unconscionably high levels of civilian harm to military advantage”; taking little action to investigate violations or to hold to account those responsible for significant civilian harm and “killing humanitarian workers and journalists at an unprecedented rate.” The assessment from the four bureaus also cited 11 instances of Israeli military actions the officials said “arbitrarily restrict humanitarian aid,” including rejecting entire trucks of aid due to a single “dual-use” item, “artificial” limitations on inspections as well as repeated attacks on humanitarian sites that should not be hit.

(With agency inputs)