'We don’t recognize their jurisdiction': Joe Biden makes his stand clear after ICC seeks arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu

WASHINGTON, DC: President Joe Biden has made it clear that the United States does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

He made these comments during a press conference with Kenyan President William Ruto at the White House on Thursday, May 23.

Joe Biden says there is no equivalence between what Israel and Hamas did 

His comments come in the wake of the ICC prosecutor’s request for an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his alleged crimes amid the Israel-Gaza war which has received a fury of reactions from various leaders around the world and both Democrats and Republicans in the US.

“We’ve made our position clear on the ICC. We don’t recognize their jurisdiction, ICC, the way it’s being exercised. It’s that simple,” Biden said.

“We don’t think there’s an equivalence between what Israel did and what Hamas did,” Biden added.

Earlier on Monday, May 20, Biden, while reacting to the arrest warrant, said it was "outrageous" to apply for arrest warrants. There was "no equivalence - none - between Israel and Hamas," he added.

Bipartisan response to ICC in the offing of sanctions bill 

Meanwhile, House lawmakers are working on a bipartisan response to the ICC.

“There are ongoing discussions, as I understand it, between Chairman Michael McCaul and ranking member Gregory Meeks, and the objective is trying to reach bipartisan consensus with respect to the International Criminal Court,” House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries told Fox News.

Chairman Michael McCaul who is representing Texas criticized the ICC, calling it a “flawed and politically motivated judicial body.”

He added, “Israel has a robust judicial system, so there is no need for the ICC to get involved here. Congress needs to respond with strong, bipartisan sanctions.”

Speaker Mike Johnson shares some great ideas about how sanctions will work 

"There’s some great ideas on the table. We’re down to the fine points of that," Johnson said. It indicated that a bill is expected to come in June.

"This is a great threat to the international community and to our allies, and to us ultimately, as explained earlier, so we're getting down to the fine points of that and, hopefully, it will be a bipartisan bill and that everybody will be able to stand together," he added.

One possible option is a House bill introduced earlier this month by Florida Representative Brian Mast and Representative Chip Roy of Texas.

Roy told the station on Wednesday, May 22, that he anticipated their bill would be “about 90% where we would end up,” but said it was up to Johnson and McCaul.

"There's a lot of back and forth right now between Democrats and Republicans," Mast said.

"Democrats want there to be a presidential waiver in any sanctioning so they can let these people in for UN General Assembly or whatever it is that they want. We totally disagree with that. It should be handling these people in totality," he added.

Internet agrees with ICC and blames Joe Biden for hypocrisy 

The internet seemed to side with the ICC and blamed Biden for hypocrisy after the arrest warrant against Netanyahu.

"He's on the wrong side of this," wrote one referring to Biden's strong commitment to supporting Israel's war on Gaza despite a slight change in the stance with the threat of sanctions. 

"The ICC isn’t judging equivalence, but if it were, Israel has been unquestionably worse, wrote one more. "They never made an equivalence and your recognition is irrelevant," wrote another. 

"I support the ICC position. But even though I disagree with our President regarding this, I have every intention of voting for him. trump would be worse for the US than Hamas is for Israel," expressed one. 

"He should change his stance before the ICC starts looking at America’s actions," wrote one. 

"This clown was happy when ICC issued warrant against Putin but is not happy when same parameters are applied to Israel, speak about hypocrisy," one lashed out. 

"Sad. We should have stopped supporting Israel from the beginning of their war on innocents," wrote one more while another expresssed, "He's right about the last line. What Isreal has done is orders of magnitude worse than what Hamas has done."

 

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.