A group of influential Republican senators has sent a letter to International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan, warning him not to issue international arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, and threatening him with “severe sanctions” if he does so.

In a terse, one-page letter obtained exclusively by Zeteo, and signed by 12 GOP senators, including Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Florida’s Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz of Texas, Khan is informed that any attempt by the ICC to hold Netanyahu and his colleagues to account for their actions in Gaza will be interpreted “not only as a threat to Israel’s sovereignty but to the sovereignty of the United States.”

“Target Israel and we will target you,” the senators tell Khan, adding that they will “sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States.”

In their letter, the dozen Republican senators remind Khan that the U.S. “demonstrated in the American Service-Members’ Protection Act the lengths to which we will go to protect [its] sovereignty.”

The ASPA, signed into law by George W. Bush in 2002, has since become widely known as “The Hague Invasion Act” because it authorizes the U.S. president “to use all means necessary and appropriate” to bring about the release not just of U.S. persons but also allies who are imprisoned or detained by the ICC.

  • no banana @lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    But they really want the ICC to have Putin, huh

    Maybe they don’t, I don’t know. Republicans are kind of unpredictable on that.

    I’m not even saying the ICC should judge the case in any particular way, just that a court should be able to go through the process they need in order to make a judgement.

    • wewbull@feddit.uk
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      2 months ago

      No they don’t, and that’s just another reason to use the veil of Judaism to attack them. They just want to have their oil and gas (in both cases).

    • BrikoX@lemmy.zip
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      2 months ago

      US didn’t “endorse” the ICC arrest warrant of Putin exactly for the same reason. They are not part of ICC, since half of their intelligence members and past presidents could be charged there for war crimes.

        • BrikoX@lemmy.zip
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          2 months ago

          No. Like any court, they only deal with people physically in front of them.

          • uis@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Oh. I thought past presidents that could be charged with warcrimes implied long dead.

            And side question: is it worth keeping those fossils alive to bring to ICC? The Old Rat is 71 and does not become younger.

            • BrikoX@lemmy.zip
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              2 months ago

              What I meant was that if they were signatories to the Rome Statute at the time, actions they committed would quality for war crime charges.

              As far as if it’s worth it? I would say yes. It would legitimize US in the global community. Right now everyone knows US is the biggest hypocrite on the world stage.

  • DoctorNope@lemmy.one
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    2 months ago

    I dunno, it seems to me that if someone starts threatening you over something you’re investigating, you should probably take that as a sign to investigate even harder…

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Note that the American domestic fascist party also supports a (foreign) jewish nationalist ethnostate (zionism), despite being the main group promoting antisemitism domestically.

      It’s almost like authoritarians and fascists are defined by their authoritarianism and fascism — authoritarians of a feather, genocide together — instead of their religion, race, or ethnicity…

      • intrepid@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        The common factor between their support of Zionism and their domestic antisemitism, is hate. They support Zionism since they hate the Muslims. They’re domestically antisemitic because they hate the Jews. They’re motivated and driven by hate. They are the poison that the civilized world dies on.

        • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          There’s an additional aspect. An interpretation of the end-times prophecy. Some believe (primarily evangelicals) that God promised the Holy Land to the Jewish people, and that reestablishing Israel’s political boundaries will begin the end times. So as much as they may hate the Jews, they must be in power in Israel.

  • bartolomeo@suppo.fi
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    2 months ago

    I’m not the most well read person around but why was there a letter disclosed exclusively to some obscure news agency? Or is it a well known agency that I’ve just never heard of?

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      Mehdi Hasan recently created Zeteo because MSNBC fired him, most likely because he kept calling out the israeli spokesperson Mark Regev for lying all the time.

      Because the public is desperate for news agencies which aren’t fully powered by Zionist propaganda their launch was pretty huge and he got a lot of paid subscribers.

      Zeteo is currently one of the most reputable news agencies. They’re employing a lot of major news names, many which got fired from mainream positions for speaking the truth about israel.

      • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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        2 months ago

        I don’t think Rubio or Cruz will ever be elected as president. 12 extra nutty Republicans don’t speak for the rest of the nuts.

        • IcePee@lemmy.beru.co
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          2 months ago

          Let’s see if the other Republicans can turn it 'round. The recent trajectory of the party has not been promising, though.