Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted a change in position by the Biden administration to not support Republican-led sanctions against the International Criminal Court over its pursuit of arrest warrants against the premier and defense minister.
In an interview to be aired Sunday, obtained by Politico on Wednesday, Netanyahu said he is "surprised and disappointed" by the Biden administration's flip.
"The United States said that they would, in fact, back the sanctions bill. I thought that was still the American position because there was bipartisan consensus just a few days ago," Netanyahu told Sirius XM's "The Morgan Ortagus Show" in the interview conducted Wednesday, according to Politico.
"Now you say there's a question mark, and, frankly, I'm surprised and disappointed."
Netanyahu addressed the Biden retreat in remarks during his meeting with former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley on Wednesday as well, decrying the administration's decision to "back off" sanctions, according to the Times of Israel.
"I hope that doesn't happen because it's important to send a message to the ICC that free societies will retain the right and the ability to defend themselves," he told Haley, who's in Israel to "express solidarity with Israel."
Biden last week called the ICC's move toward arrest warrants for Netanyahu and war cabinet member Yoav Gallant "outrageous" and bashed the court for its false equivalence between Israel and Hamas terrorists. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was a "profoundly wrong-headed decision." Both vowed to work with Congress on potentially imposing sanctions.
Enter House Republicans, led by Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Chip Roy, R-Texas, who earlier this month introduced a bill that would "sanction any individual working to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute American citizens or an official from an allied U.S. country, including Israel."
But then came the White House response on Tuesday: "Sanctions on the ICC are not an effective or appropriate tool to address U.S. concerns." Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre added that the Biden administration would "work with Congress on other options to address the ICC overreach."
"The administration seems to have decided that, for all its discomfort with the prosecutor's choice, it does not want to replicate the Trump approach," Indiana State professor and ICC expert David Bosco told Politico. "This is both about optics but probably in part about deep uncertainty that sanctions would do any good."
The "Trump approach" was sanctions on the ICC's former prosecutor, which were undone by the Biden administration in 2021.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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