Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be openly bullying President Joe Biden after the latter rejected a Republican effort to sanction the International Criminal Court.
Netanyahu told the Sirius XM radio program “The Morgan Ortagus Show” in an interview set to air Sunday that he was “surprised and disappointed” that Biden would not be supporting sanctions against the ICC, according to Politico. The publication obtained a clip of the interview, which took place on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the White House said it would reject the GOP-led effort in Congress to reprimand the ICC after its chief prosecutor filed warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and top Hamas leaders—a starling reversal of previous statements from Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“The United States said that they would, in fact, back the sanctions bill,” Netanyahu said. “I thought that was still the American position because there was bipartisan consensus just a few days ago.”
“Now you say there’s a question mark, and frankly I’m surprised and disappointed,” Netanyahu told host Morgan Ortagus, a former State Department spokesperson under Donald Trump.
While Biden previously called the ICC’s move “outrageous,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that “sanctions on the ICC are not an effective or appropriate tool to address U.S. concerns.”
Netanyahu and the rest of Israel’s leadership have little to gripe about, as the country has enjoyed nearly unceasing diplomatic and military support from the Biden administration since its brutal assault on Gaza began in October after a Hamas invasion of southern Israel. Israel’s latest assault on displaced Palestinians in Rafah hasn’t resulted in any policy changes, despite gruesome images of charred and burned civilians—and a new report that the bombs used were made in the United States.
While shocking, Israel’s new offensive is a continuation of what experts have described as war crimes from Netanyahu and the rest of Israel’s leaders, who recently said that their war could last another seven months. If Netanyahu and co. aren’t getting the message from the ICC or international protests to stop adding to the conservative estimate of more than 36,000 Palestinians killed, perhaps Biden needs to stand up to Netanyahu’s humiliation and take a more concrete step: ending weapons shipments to Israel.
