Washington's Disgraceful Reaction to the ICC Warrants

Besides being appalling and cowardly, Biden’s response is absurd.

The responses from American politicians and officials to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant have been disgraceful. The president’s terse statement yesterday was an embarrassment. He said:

The ICC issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous. Let me be clear once again: whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.  We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security. 

Besides being appalling and cowardly, Biden’s response is absurd. Israel doesn’t have to be “equivalent” to Hamas for its leaders to be held responsible for the crimes that their government has committed on their orders. A government with an elected leadership that pretends to respect international law should arguably be held to a much higher standard in any case, but what matters is whether there are reasonable grounds for bringing charges against the officials in question. The ICC rightly concluded that there are. Biden has no answer for that. He sputters with outrage because the war criminals he has been ceaselessly arming may have to answer for their crimes.