The ICC Arrest Warrants: Even a Strong U.S. Reaction Should Not Include Sanctions

(Editor’s Note: This article is part of our new symposium on the ICC and the Israel-Hamas war. Listen to the author and other top experts discuss the ICC Prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants related to the Israel-Hamas conflict on the Just Security Podcast here .)

Shimon Peres famously said that if a problem has no solution, it  is not a problem, but a fact – not to be solved but to be coped with over time. So it is with the U.S. reaction that has already begun to unfold to the International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s announcement on Monday that he is seeking arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant .  That there will be a reaction within the United States is inevitable.   That the reaction will be strong was already amply clear in the run-up to the Prosecutor’s announcement, as news accounts emerged that such a request would be forthcoming.   House Speaker Johnson called the idea of such warrants “disgraceful” and warned that “[t]he Biden Administration must immediately and unequivocally demand that the ICC stand down and the U.S. should use every available tool to prevent such an abomination.” Twelve U.S. Senators , including the Minority Leader, wrote to the Prosecutor that:

If you move forward with the measures indicated in the report, we will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States. You have been warned.  

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