The US is working to prevent the issuance of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the attack on Gaza, Israeli media has reported.

According to the news site Walla, Netanyahu is leading a “non-stop push over the telephone” to prevent an arrest warrant being issued against him by the ICC, particularly communicating with the White House.

The Israeli newspaper Maariv has reported that Netanyahu is “frightened and unusually stressed” by the possibility of an imminent arrest warrant.

Sources close to the paper believe that the arrest warrants are only a matter of time.

The paper reported that Defence Minister Yoav Galant and Chief of Staff Major-General Herzi Halevi could also be served with warrants. ⠀

An internal State Department memo reviewed by Reuters on Saturday revealed senior US officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find “credible or reliable” Israel’s assurances that it is using US-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Other officials upheld support for Israel’s representation.

Under a National Security Memorandum issued by President Joe Biden in February, Blinken must report to Congress by 8 May on whether he finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of US weapons does not violate US or international law.

By 24 March, at least seven State Department bureaus had sent in their contributions to an initial “options memo” to Blinken. Parts of the memo, which has not been previously reported, were classified.

The submissions to the memo provide the most extensive picture to date of the divisions inside the State Department over whether Israel might be violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.

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      • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        My comment is a little tongue-in-cheek. But the satirical observation that many US Politicians would rather sacrifice the prosperity of the United States for the defense of Israel is a real and disturbing phenomenon.

        “I have said to people when they ask me if this Capitol crumbled to the ground, the one thing that would remain is our commitment to our aid…and I don’t even call it aid…our cooperation with Israel. That’s fundamental to who we are.” - Nancy Pelosi

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53x_zrkJwDs&ab_channel=annatom

        When there are many, many, bipartisan politicians whose biggest donor is Israel through documented Israeli PACs and who knows how much dark-money, calling the US the United States of Israel is absolutely appropriate.

        Now about the conflation. @Nakoichi@hexbear.net was claiming (correctly) that Israel doesn’t “control the US or[sic] its politicians.” Which is strictly, factually true, there aren’t Jewish mind control laser’s that force our political leaders to bipartisanally and unconditionally fund Israel to every US citizens detriment. But money is power, and while the politicians aren’t coerced with violence, they are absolutely expected to support every bill that was written by an AIPAC lobbyist otherwise they may find a primary challenge in their future.

        Calling the above observation “anti-semitic” as that poster was doing, is absolutely anti-semitic. All of the above common criticisms focus on the state of Israel. The original comment “United States of Israel” that was removed for an ambiguous reason, “cart before the horse?” have nothing to do with Jews, the race, nor Jews the Religion. So calling the criticism of a self-proclaimed secular and racially diverse state “anti-semitic” is absolutely conflating criticism of Israel, with criticism of Jews. A common rhetorical sleight of hand that is used by Netanyahu’s government and Zionists across all media.

          • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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            7 months ago

            But that is factually untrue. AIPAC as a registered lobbying organization pays politicians to support Israeli interests. That is their stated goal, and they are the legal arm of the state of Israel. Saying that Israel doesn’t “control” the US is true. But sticking your head in the sand and claiming that Israel doesn’t “exert influence on the US” is obviously untrue as the existence of numerous Israeli supported and funded registered lobbyist demonstrates.

            Just read the first few sentances of their website. https://www.aipac.org/ And this is just the official arm of the Israeli Government.

            “We supported 365 pro-Israel Democratic and Republican candidates in 2022 with more than $17 million in direct support through AIPAC.”

            How can you call that not exerting influence? What kind of liberal brain-worms do you have to have to come to that conclusion?