Thune threatens the International Court of Justice if it does not withdraw the warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest

South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune on Sunday threatened to hit the International Criminal Court (ICC) with sanctions if it does not withdraw its request to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Thune – who was nominated on Wednesday to be the next Senate Majority Leader if the GOP takes the upper chamber in January 2025 – warned that if the current Democratic leader does not take the international court, he will.

“If the ICC and its prosecutor do not withdraw their outrageous and illegal actions to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, the Senate should immediately pass sanctions legislation, as the House has already done bipartisanly,” Thune wrote in X. With Senior Leader Schumer doing nothing, the Senate Republican majority will stand with our key ally Israel and make this — and other supporting legislation — a priority for the next Congress. “

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In May, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, along with then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas terrorists for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity following the October 7, 2023 attack. All three Hamas leaders are believed to have since been killed.

Thune’s threats were made in conjunction with the bill introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in June — which closely followed a bill passed in the House with bipartisan support a few days ago — that called for sanctions against prosecutors who have gone after “the US, Israel, or any other national citizen wrongfully targeted by the ICC.”

The US does not formally accept the ICC’s mandate, but this is not the first time Washington has looked to halt the court’s actions.

In 2020, the Trump administration opposed the ICC’s efforts to investigate US soldiers and the CIA involved in war crimes between 2003-2004 in “secret detention facilities in Afghanistan,” and issued sanctions against ICC prosecutors.

However, the sanctions do more than target people through asset freezes and travel bans and, at the time, they are considered to have “far-reaching consequences.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, September 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

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“ICC service providers – from banks to vending machine companies – may reassess whether continuing to work with the facility is prudent given the risk of inadvertently violating US sanctions,” Human Rights Watch explained.

“[It] has created fear and uncertainty among non-governmental organizations, consultants, and lawyers working with the ICC in investigative and judicial capacity,” the organization added.

Richard Goldberg, who served on the White House National Security Council during the Trump administration and is now a senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that the 2020 sanctions are also “successful in shaking up the organization because we’re coming up on the election of a new attorney general.”

“Many believed that the presence of American sanctions made Karim Khan put the Israeli and US investigation on the shelf once he was elected,” explained Goldberg, referring to the chief prosecutor of the ICC who filed requests for the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant. .

Goldberg said the sanctions against the prosecutors may not be enough to prevent Khan from proceeding with the case against Netanyahu and warned the ICC official that he could view them as a “badge of honor.”

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan poses during an interview with AFP at the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais Royal in Paris on Feb. 7, 2024. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images)

Goldberg said he thinks lawmakers should consider going after the ICC as a whole instead of going after individual prosecutors in this case.

“It’s one thing to threaten sanctions against people involved in illegal programs to impeach the American or Israeli military, it’s another thing to use sanctions as a tool to cut off the ICC for money,” he told Fox News Digital.

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“I think that countries like Japan and Germany will put a lot of pressure on the ICC to withdraw if they think that their banks may get sanctioned by investing in the ICC,” he added.

Court decisions on arrest warrants are usually made within three months, according to Reuters, although it is unclear when the panel will reach a decision.

The last time the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC was asked to make a decision regarding the issuance of a warrant for the arrest of a head of state was when a request was made against Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2023. The panel reached a decision within one session. month of application.