America v. the ICC

The launching by the Trump Administration of a diplomatic campaign against the International Criminal Court is welcome news. Secretary Marco Rubio is heralding a “whole-of-government approach to “dismantle” the Hague-based tribunal. Mr. Rubio accused the court of “waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles,” but with “the force of so-called international law.” He writes that the demolition will occur “brick by brick.”“Sovereign states over globalism” is how Mr. Rubio puts the animating spirit behind the effort to bring down the ICC. The court, though, has long been a locus for abuse — as have the invocations of “international law.” In 2024 the court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel’s former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Neither Israel nor America, though, are parties to the ICC.What Mr. Rubio calls the “world tribunal with near-unlimited reach,” though, has hardly demurred from imposing its authority — or its opinions. As America’s top diplomat notes, in 2020 the court probed “war crimes by members of the United States armed forces” in Afghanistan. That investigation is still open. A former chief prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno Ocampo, reckons that Mr. Trump is guilty of a “crime against humanity.”The ICC’s current chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has been suspended and faces a vote this month on possible dismissal over sexual misconduct allegations. Our Benny Avni has reported on how Mr. Khan’s warrants against the Israelis — which mandates their arrest in any one of the court’s 125 member states — could be distractions from the prosecutor’s own legal issues. Mr. Khan never bothered to visit Israel before issuing the warrants.A State Department official tells CNN that “Nations that refuse to reject the ICC’s false authority while relying on US assistance are likely to come under increased scrutiny” and that countries “that partner with US law enforcement, host a US military presence, or benefit from the broader US security umbrella are being called upon to reject the ICC’s purported authority to prosecute American officials and servicemen.” Europe, take note. State calls the ICC “an intolerable threat to U.S. sovereignty,” an “unaccountable global arbiter,” and a “supranational enforcement arm of a globalist bureaucracy.” Foggy Bottom warns that “No diplomatic option will be off-limits in the campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to Americans.” Reuters reports that travel bans, visa revocations, and further sanctions could be on the table to disable the court. The ICC lauds its own creation as “one of the most significant achievements of human civilization.” That achievement, though, has long been in abeyance as politics and an anti-American and anti-Israeli vendetta have taken hold. “International law” has itself become a catch all used by the likes of Mayor Zohran Mamdani to highlight alleged American and Israeli perfidy. Mr. Rubio is right to prosecute the prosecutors in the diplomatic arena.

America v. the ICC

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