It’s not a lesson that will include the arrest of a visiting head of state.
Socialist New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has walked back his threats to arrest Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his September visit to the city for the United Nations General Assembly.
Mamdani had sought to detain Netanyahu in support of the ICC, of which neither Israel nor the U.S. are a part.
The ICC, in November of 2024, issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The Court charged the two with war crimes related to Israel's military counterattack in Gaza when the Israelis responded to the Hamas attacks of October 2023. Those cross-border attacks resulted in more than 1,200 Israeli deaths, and another 251 were taken hostage.
After doing some homework, Mamdani determined the City of New York lacks the authority to make the arrest.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people,” Mamdani said in a video posted to social media Tuesday.
He went on to admit he would not attempt to arrest Netanyahu, backpedaling on a campaign promise, but he encouraged the federal government to make the arrest.
If it was not already clear the U.S. would not be arresting the prime minister of its Middle East ally, Rubio removed all doubt when he addressed the topic last week.
Rubio, widely seen as a presidential candidate in 2028, scoffed at the power claimed by ICC officials.
“When the ICC was born 24 years ago, they told us that it was merely a narrow backstop, a global court that would step in to prosecute only the gravest offenses. The truth is it was something far more radical and extreme. It was a global tribunal staffed by unelected globalist bureaucrats who claim their power is almost unlimited,” he said.
The ICC has continued to reach for more and more power, Rubio said.
In an appearance on American Family Radio Wednesday, Eugene Kontorovich, the senior legal fellow for Advancing American Freedom, agreed.
“We have to understand these institutions are created to be absolutely resistant to any kind of accountability. They're like cockroaches. They're going to be around after everybody else,” he told show host Jenna Ellis.
How it began
The ICC was created by the Rome Statute in 1998 and began its work on July 1, 2002, after 60 countries had agreed to the treaty.
A membership that sometimes fluctuates currently includes 125 nations over four continents.
Though it has no police force, the ICC takes its arrest authority from the Rome Statute, relying on the law enforcement agencies of its members.
Those countries are expected to use their own police and judicial systems to make arrests and transfer individuals to The Hague. Article 59 of the Rome Statute requires a nation receiving an ICC arrest request to take steps to arrest the person under its domestic law.
To date, no American citizen or U.S. official has been charged, arrested or tried by the ICC.
But there is friction.
The ICC prosecutor opened an investigation into alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan by U.S. military personnel and CIA agents.
The U.S. contends that the ICC lacks jurisdiction over U.S. nationals because the U.S. is not a party to the Rome Statute.
Both the Trump and Biden administrations criticized aspects of the Afghanistan investigation. The first Trump administration imposed sanctions against ICC officials over the investigation. The current Trump administration imposed more sanctions in response to the Netanyahu arrest warrant.
“We fought a revolution against a foreign power transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses. Independence is our birthright. We will never let foreign bureaucrats take that away from us. This administration will not sit by as the ICC and its allies seek to threaten our people. If they believe they can deprive us of our sovereignty we will teach them the full meaning of American resolve,” Rubio said.
It will take a “determined effort” to back up Rubio’s words, Kontorovich said.
What? Bipartisan opposition?
U.S. opposition to the ICC has seen a rare bipartisan stance.
“Republicans haven’t liked it; Democrats haven’t liked it. Nobody trusts a foreign court with judges not picked by Americans to prosecute Americans for offenses that are often broadly defined,” Kontorovich said.
Americans are more confident in their own jurisprudence rather than outsourcing it to a “global independent counsel,” he added.
“America has rule of law. If American troops do commit war crimes, we investigate, and we prosecute. The only point of the ICC is to second-guess the judgment of American judges,” Kontorovich said.
