The ICC is targeting Israelis and Americans. J Street is defending it.
Israelis are facing a serious threat from an unhinged international court, and J Street is rushing to the court’s defense.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has unilaterally expanded its mandate so it can investigate and prosecute Israelis. The ICC may be issuing charges against individual IDF soldiers who fought in Gaza, subjecting countless Israelis to be arrested when they travel abroad.
The same court has already issued arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and is threatening to arrest U.S. soldiers for actions in Afghanistan.
The court’s actions are illegal. The court doesn’t have jurisdiction over Israel or the United States, yet that hasn’t stopped it.
The Biden administration called the ICC’s actions “outrageous.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog accused the Court of turning “universal justice into a laughing stock.” Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid called it “a reward for terrorism.”
Congress took action in January to pass a bill with bipartisan support to put sanctions on those who are aiding the court’s investigations into the U.S., Israel and our other allies. Yet, inexplicably, J Street lobbied against the bill and urged members of Congress to vote no.
Just as Opposition Leader Yair Lapid described of the ICC’s arrest warrants, J Street’s defense of the anti-Israel Court is “a complete moral failure.”
For 15 months, IDF soldiers, some as young as 18 years old, fought valiantly in a war Israel didn’t start against an enemy that has no regard for basic humanity. These soldiers deserve the pro-Israel community’s praise and appreciation for risking their lives to defend their nation and the Jewish people, not an arrest warrant from a kangaroo court being defended by a group that claims to be pro-Israel.
J Street has stooped to a new low in giving cover to a blatantly anti-Israel campaign. That’s not the mark of a “pro-Israel” organization.