Arrest warrants for Israeli leaders amplify Democratic rupture

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision this week to indict Israeli leaders on charges of war crimes in Gaza has reignited the clash among Democrats over Israel's handling of the war with Hamas. 

On one side, Israel’s staunchest Democratic allies quickly lashed out at the court, accusing it of pro-Palestinian bias and undermining the right of Israel to defend itself from terrorist threats. 

On the other, liberal critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the ICC’s move, saying the humanitarian crisis in Gaza created by Israel’s military operations warrants the court’s scrutiny.

And Democratic leaders in the White House and Congress — while siding squarely with Israel in the near term — will face the more protracted challenge of easing the tensions between the feuding factions of the party on a prickly issue that’s severed them for years.

That internal clash has intensified since Hamas’s terrorist attacks Oct. 7, 2023, which killed almost 1,200 people in Israel and led to the kidnapping of roughly 250 more. While Democrats of all stripes have asserted their support for Israel’s right to self-defense, Netanyahu’s forceful response — which has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza — has splintered that united front, alienating more liberal lawmakers who are now accusing Netanyahu of human rights violations while calling for President Biden to cut off weapons shipments to Tel Aviv. 

It’s that liberal group that’s cheering the ICC for its decision Thursday to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, charging the pair with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

“This is a matter of human rights violations of genocidal proportions,” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) said. 

“The International Criminal Court has sought to exercise jurisdiction, and we'll see what happens,” he continued. “I don't disagree with their decision that is supported by, certainly, probable cause to think that human rights violations have occurred.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, portrayed the ICC’s move as “a very important step” in pursuit of wartime accountability.

“We are seeing collective punishment in the killing of a despicable amount of Palestinians,” she said. 

Across the divide, Israel’s closest Democratic allies have a decidedly different view. Those voices maintain that Israel is merely defending its borders from Hamas, Iran and other hostile forces in the region. They were not appeased by the ICC’s move to indict a Hamas leader, Mohammed Deif, alongside Netanyahu and Gallant, saying it only highlighted one of their core concerns: that the court is promoting false equivalencies between the elected leaders of Israel, America’s closest Middle Eastern ally, and the terrorist leaders of Hamas.

“Israel is fighting an existential war, and I think the indictments issued by the ICC are misguided and wrong,” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) said. 

Neither the United States nor Israel have endorsed the ICC’s charter, meaning the court has little recourse to prosecute alleged crimes by citizens of those countries. Still, the court’s critics say the charges against the Israeli leaders send a dangerous message to the world about which side holds the moral high ground. 

“The goal has to be peace for all the people in the region,” Schneider said. “And I think actions like this certainly make that climb steeper.”

Democratic leaders have sided with Schneider’s camp. Biden issued a brief statement on Thursday hammering the arrest warrants as “outrageous.” And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) delivered a similar rebuke a short time later, calling the ICC’s move “shameful.”  

“I stand with the Biden administration in fundamentally rejecting this unserious decision,” Jeffries said in a statement.

Netanyahu went a step further. In dismissing the charges, he accused the ICC of antisemitism.

But a number of Democrats on Capitol Hill dismissed those accusations, arguing that not every denouncement of specific actions taken by the Israeli government constitutes bigotry. 

“There are plenty of examples of increased antisemitism in the world that we need to address,” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said. “But because there's antisemitism doesn't necessarily mean that Benjamin Netanyahu isn't capable of violating the law.” 

Kildee stopped short of endorsing the notion that Israeli leaders have committed war crimes — “I never prejudge any criminal accusation,” he said — but he also criticized the prime minister’s conduct in the conflict, which has featured severe restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza and a ban on foreign journalists entering the territory freely. 

“I think Netanyahu has culpability,” Kildee said. 

The charged debate is already surfacing in the internal discussions among House Democrats as they analyze why they failed to flip control of the lower chamber in this month’s elections. 

During one of those formal “listening sessions,” which are being organized by Democratic leaders, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) argued that one reason they didn’t fare better was because the party wasn’t vocal enough in defending Palestinian civilians as the humanitarian crisis grew more severe in the months after the initial Oct. 7 attack — a criticism that also dogged Vice President Harris throughout her unsuccessful run for the presidency.

That argument — and the certain pushback from Israel’s Democratic allies — is sure to challenge Jeffries and his leadership team heading into the next Congress, when President-elect Trump will be in the White House, Republicans will control both houses of Congress, and GOP leaders will almost certainly seek to exploit the Democratic divisions by bringing contentious, Israel-related bills up for votes.

Jayapal, the Progressive Caucus chair, appears ready for that debate. She’s already pressing congressional leaders to honor the Leahy law — which bars the State and Defense departments from delivering aid to foreign countries known to violate human rights — while cheering the ICC for putting teeth into international law. 

If America’s enemies conducted a war the way Netanyahu has in Gaza, she argued, Washington wouldn’t blink if the international community accused them of human rights crimes. 

“If the ICC were to do this for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin we would not dismiss it, or say that the ICC is not a good organization,” she said.

“The reality is that there is serious evidence here that collective punishment was applied to the Palestinian people, and that international humanitarian laws have been violated.”