Netanyahu intervenes in US presidential election due to pro-Trump attack on ICC arrest warrant for 'hunger weapon'
With an arrest warrant issued for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, the United States began interfering in the presidential election with a pro-Trump offensive, and security officials from the Trump regime met with Netanyahu.
On the same day, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced the world's first indictment on charges of 'using a weapon of war against hunger' when prosecutor Karim Khan announced an application for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The New York Times reported that Robert O'Brien, who was national security adviser under Republican Trump, led a delegation to visit Israeli leaders and met with Prime Minister Netanyahu on the 20th.
Aide O'Brien, who is expected to play an important role in the resurgence of Trump's Republican system, attended the meeting with former President Trump officials, including former Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates John Lacolta and former Swiss Ambassador Ed McMullen, according to the pro-Israel lobby group U.S. Israel. Marshall Wittman, spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, told the NYT.
The NYT revealed that the American Israel Education Foundation, an affiliate of this organization, supported and organized the expenses and necessary funds for their visit to Israel, confirming the Netanyahu regime's prolongation of war and the involvement of Israeli funds in the US presidential election.
O'Brien and other former Trump administration officials met with several other Israeli policymakers, including Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel's war cabinet.
Wittman, the AIPAC spokesman, said the visit had been planned for months and that former officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations had arranged and financed the trip to Israel.
O'Brien's delegation visited Kibbutz Nir Oz, where a Hamas attack occurred on October 7 last year, and the fields of southern Israel near the border with Gaza, where young Israelis were killed while dancing at a music festival.
Former aide O'Brien told the NYT today that Prosecutor Khan's decision at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Netanyahu was "disgraceful."
“I reminded the Israeli leader of the Trump administration’s decision to impose sanctions at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2020,” he said in a phone interview. “I have spent my entire career as an international lawyer, and I am disgusted by this prosecutor. “If he is really worried about genocide, he should look at the Chinese Communist Party and the Uyghurs’ oppression of Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang,” he told the NYT.
On this day, the International Court issued an arrest warrant for the crime of ‘using hunger as a weapon of war,’ but there was no case in which it was tried for this crime.
ICC prosecutors requested that Hamas issue arrest warrants for three senior leaders on charges of murder, hostage-taking, rape, and torture.
NYT said, “ICC prosecutor Karim Khan is attracting attention by including ‘charges of using starvation as a weapon of war’ in his announcement of arrest warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister,” and added, “The accusation of starvation is directed at Israeli leaders and is aimed at intentionally starving civilians.” “Killing has been considered a violation of international humanitarian law since at least the 1970s, and was designated a war crime only in 1998, when the International Criminal Court was established.”
In the ICC statute, the crime requirement for ‘using weapons of war against hunger’ is, firstly, in the act itself, the obstruction of relief supplies is defined as “an act or policy of depriving civilians of items essential to their survival,” which is linked to Israel’s damage to civilians in the Gaza Strip.
The second provision of the decree appears to apply to Israel's prolonged blockade, as it specifies the deliberate use of starvation "as a method of war."
Prosecutor Khan's statement said the evidence was gathered "including interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, authenticated video, photos and audio footage, satellite imagery and 'statements from groups of perpetrators,'" adding, "Israel has “Civilians were intentionally and systematically deprived of items essential to human survival,” it said.
The ICC prosecutor said, "The total siege of the Gaza Strip led to deliberate starvation," including the prolonged closure of border checkpoints, Israel's "arbitrary restrictions" on food and medicine after border crossings were reopened, and Israel The indictment included the long-term blockage of water pipes and electricity supplies from to the Gaza Strip.
The prosecution's indictment also cited attacks on aid workers delivering food.
In the warrants filed against Israel's Prime Minister and Defense Minister, prosecutors also specified specific charges of starvation and "extermination and/or murder," and specified both charges as "crimes against humanity."
The NYT said of the indictment charges, “The charges are partly related to the siege, and the indictment specifically mentions deaths due to starvation.”
NYT said, “Intentionally depriving civilians of food and water can be a war crime even if no one actually starves to death,” and added, “In contrast, crimes against humanity such as extermination and murder focus on the deaths that occur as a result.” .
“Hunger as a weapon of war has never been tested in court,” said Professor Alex de Waal, author of three volumes of “Hunger and Famine” at Tufts University. "I believe it may be easier to prove the charges in the Gaza context than in other conflicts because of the reliance," he told the NYT.
“There is always a margin of error in assessing food insecurity, you don’t know what is being smuggled in, you don’t know what food people are finding in the wild,” he said. “In Gaza, that’s not the case. In Gaza, we can be very accurate. “Hunger is different from other crimes in that it takes time and the consequences are predictable, so you have the opportunity to correct your actions.”
“I wanted to visit Israel to express my solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people after the Hamas-led attack on October 7,” O’Brien said. “I expressed to Prime Minister Netanyahu the view that the Hamas terrorist attack would never have occurred if Trump had still been president.” “I expressed it,” he told NYT.
He continued, “Former President Trump knew about the visit to Israel, but former President Trump did not request or direct Prime Minister Netanyahu to visit Israel,” adding, “He came as a private citizen.”
In a statement responding to the ICC announcement, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, "It is a disgrace" and "a complete distortion of reality." He added, "The Hague prosecutor's outrageous and false warrant is not only aimed at the Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, but also at the entire State of Israel."
The NYT said that Secretary of Defense Gallant "had no immediate comment" on the ICC decision.
Reuters reported on this day that Prime Minister Netanyahu criticized the Hague prosecutors' "disgusting refusal to compare democratic Israel and Hamas mass murderers," calling it "a complete distortion of reality."
U.S. President Joe Biden called the ICC's legal action "outrageous," and Secretary of State Blinken said it "could jeopardize hostage negotiations and ceasefire negotiations."
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri announced that the prosecutors' decision to seek warrants for three Hamas leaders "equates the victims with the executioners."
Hamas demanded that arrest warrants for its leaders be withdrawn, Reuters reported.