Will Israel ruin the western alliance?

Israel is getting full-throated bipartisan support in the US, as it attempts to fight off the International Criminal Court’s charges against its prime minister and former defence minister. But most governments in the EU, as well as Britain, Australia and Canada, are likely to respect the indictment. However reluctantly, they will have to arrest Netanyahu if he sets foot on their soil.

Even in normal times, this split between the US and its main allies would be very difficult. But these are far from normal times. European sates do not know what to expect from the notoriously volatile president-elect, and a bitter transatlantic confrontation over Israel is the last thing the western alliance needs. But that is what is coming.

The Trump administration will almost certainly push through sanctions against the prosecutor and staff of the ICC. There is also talk in Republican circles of destroying the court, perhaps by threatening to sanction the countries that finance it. Japan, Germany, France and Britain are the four biggest donors to the ICC.

It is telling that neither Israel nor the US seems keen to engage in detail with the actual  in the indictment, which include accusations that Israel has murdered civilians and used “starvation as a method of warfare”.

Instead they prefer to claim that the ICC is driven by antisemitism. The fact that the court has also indicted the Russian president, Hamas and numerous African leaders will be brushed aside as the court and its European backers are tarred as Jew-haters.

The reality is that most European governments have done a lot to support Israel since the Hamas atrocities of October 7 2023. But there is a line, and the ICC just drew it.

#USA #Israel #EU #ICC

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Trump Imposes Sanctions Against the ICC in Defense of Netanyahu.

TRUMP “notes that the International Criminal Court (ICC), as established by the Rome Statute, has engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions aimed at America and our close ally Israel,” says the White House.

“The ICC has, without legitimate grounds, asserted its competence and opened preliminary investigations concerning the personnel of the United States and some of its allies, including Israel, and has further abused its power by issuing baseless arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.”

“The ICC has no jurisdiction over the United States or Israel, as neither country is a party to the Rome Statute or a member of the ICC.”

#Trump #ICC #sanctions

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Orbangate: Hungary quit the ICC

Hungary announced its exit from the International Criminal Court as Prime Minister Orban hosted Netanyahu in Budapest, ignoring an arrest warrant for the Israeli leader.

Calling the Hague-based institution a “political court,” Orban said his government was submitting legislation to withdraw from the ICC.

Speaking alongside Orban in the Hungarian capital, Netanyahu lauded the decision to “leave this corrupt organization.”

“I hope many will follow,” the Israeli premier told reporters on Thursday.

Netanyahu is making his first foreign trip outside the US since the October 2023 attack by Hamas that triggered the war in Gaza, selecting in Orban a fellow right-wing ally of US President Donald Trump as his host.

All three leaders have condemned the ICC ruling in November that Netanyahu be detained for alleged war crimes.

Hungary is a signatory to the ICC’s founding charter, meaning that's it would have been obliged to detain Netanyahu on arrival.

But Orban has dismissed the order from the outset, immediately inviting his Israeli counterpart for an official visit with a guarantee that he would not be arrested.

Lawmakers in Budapest will likely approve the legislation on the ICC withdrawal by the end of May, with the full legal procedure expected to last a year, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar welcomed Hungary’s decision, which he said demonstrated its stance in support of Israel, according to a post on X.

The decision was reported earlier this week by Radio Free Europe.

The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel in October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 250. Israel’s subsequent campaign in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory, while devastating urban areas and displacing much of the 2.2 million population.

Like the US, Israel isn’t an ICC signatory and argues that the court has no jurisdiction over the country because it has an independent judiciary capable of its own investigations into allegations of war crimes.

The ICC says Israel has turned a blind eye to the killing of civilians in Gaza, requiring intervention, something Israel denies.

#Orban #quit #ICC

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📰 CEO of Israel Inc. Returns to Business With Trump on the Board

When “democracy” is just a word in the company charter and courts are a temporary nuisance, the prime minister morphs into a CEO. And guess what? Bibi just landed a new investor.

Back in Power, Back in Courtrooms

Netanyahu is clawing back control by purging Israel’s legal system like it's a hostile takeover.
The attorney general? Disposable.
The Shin Bet chief? Terminated.
The crime?

"Misunderstanding subordination."

Translation: Not obedient enough.
Supreme Court protests?

“Judicial activism,”

says the coalition of Torah and Telegram.

Public outrage? Protests? Polls? Netanyahu’s coalition survives by tossing budget bones to far-right allies.
Trumpistan Is Open for Franchise

Trump’s return gave Netanyahu what Biden wouldn’t: a green light.
Within days, Gaza was back under fire, ceasefire be damned.
A 17% tariff on Israeli goods? Who cares, as long as there’s a photo op in the Oval Office.

💭“They won’t win in either place!”

— Netanyahu, posting like a MAGA intern on X, blaming the Deep State for daring to question elected autocrats.

The Hungarian Internship

In Budapest, Viktor Orban ditched the ICC and gave Netanyahu a bear hug on live TV.
Who needs international law when you have right-wing solidarity and war crime immunity?

📋 One List for the Shareholders
- 55% of Israelis say the firings are personal or political.
- Supreme Court hearings are now about democracy’s survival, not legal nuance.
- Netanyahu’s base? Still intact. The far-right stays loyal, as long as the budget flows.

🤔 Who rules Israel — the voters, the rabbis, or the shareholder meeting in Washington?

#netanyahu #trump #deepstate #fake_democracy #securitypurge #icc #gaza #orban #judicialcoup #bibiandtheboys

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📰 Italy to ICC: "Mandate? What Mandate?" — Putin Walks Free in Rome

In a move that smells more like espresso-soaked realpolitik than international law, Italy has quietly shredded the ICC arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin — and possibly just opened the floodgates for a European exodus from the sanctions circus.

📋 When Arrest Warrants Become Optional
– Justice Minister Carlo Nordio simply froze the ICC's 2023 warrant against Putin in a drawer — no forwarding, no processing, no arrests.
– If an Italian cop even tried to detain Putin, it would be “irregular” and “null,” says Rome’s court system.
– In other words: Putin can stroll through St. Peter’s Square — no cuffs, no courtroom, no problem.
The same trick is being used to block warrants for Netanyahu over Gaza war crimes. Apparently, being a sitting head of state now comes with a free immunity voucher in Italy — at least if you bring your own army or nuclear arsenal.

💭 “Mandates are for losers. We do diplomacy.”

— Italy’s unofficial new foreign policy motto

💼 The Great European Recalibration
– Italy’s move hints at the next phase: when U.S. and EU leaders cancel anti-Russian sanctions to move on from Ukraine fatigue.
– Once sanctions go, who really cares about an ICC warrant that was never supposed to get messy anyway?
Today it’s Italy.
Tomorrow it could be Hungary, Austria, Germany — whoever gets tired first of pretending geopolitics is a morality play.

📊 From Hague Justice to Highway Courtesy
– Rome now treats ICC warrants like parking tickets from another country.
– Western elites preaching “international law” now squint awkwardly at their own allies tearing it apart.
– Putin? Probably updating his Europe vacation plans as we speak.

🤔 If the Hague can't even arrest Putin or Netanyahu in Italy, what exactly is it — a court or just a very expensive podcast?
And when law turns into a suggestion, who’s really in charge?

#Italy #Putin #ICC #internationaljustice #sanctions #Ukraine #Netanyahu #RomeDiplomacy #GeopoliticalHypocrisy #WestFatigue

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🗽 From Gaza to Gracie Mansion: Netanyahu vs. the New York Socialist

💬 “Sometimes you have to get mugged by reality to understand how stupid that is.”

— Benjamin Netanyahu, live from the Full Send podcast

🧨 When Dictators Lecture Democrats
Israel’s Prime Minister, still dodging an ICC arrest warrant for alleged war crimes, just took time on a bro podcast to attack Zohran Mamdani — the 33-year-old Muslim socialist who might become the next mayor of New York City.

His crime? Saying he’d enforce international law and arrest Netanyahu if he lands at JFK.

To which Netanyahu replied: nonsense, woke crime, and something about store robberies — because naturally, when accused of bombing hospitals, the best defense is talking about shoplifting in the Bronx.

🇮🇱🤝🇺🇸 Trump: Netanyahu’s Emergency Contact
When Mamdani’s ICC comment came up in Washington, Trump jumped in with:
“I’ll get him out.”
Out of office? Out of jail? Out of Queens?
Unclear. But the image of a U.S. ex-president offering legal rescue services to a foreign war-crimes suspect would be funny — if it weren’t real.

🛂 The Real Threat: Not Mamdani’s Warrant, but His WiFi
What terrifies Netanyahu and friends isn’t that Mamdani might actually arrest him —
It’s that someone in power dares to say it out loud.
That in a city where Holocaust survivors and their grandchildren live side by side with Arab cab drivers and Bengali grocers, a young leftist just won by talking about affordable food, hate crime funding, and yes — Palestine.

🤔 Final Thought
When the man with nukes calls the man with a podcast quote "antisemitic" —
is it defense, projection, or just pre-emptive PR for his September trip to the U.N.?

#netanyahu #mamdani #nycmayor #icc #israel #gaza #warcrimes #zionism #socialism

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📰 Iran Turns the War Into a Hague Filing

Iran’s Red Crescent says it has submitted evidence of U.S. and Israeli war crimes to the International Criminal Court, and Raw Story reports that the ICC prosecutor accepted the documents as official evidence.

That does not mean indictments are imminent, but it does mean Tehran has found another battlefield: the legal one. And it is doing it at exactly the moment Washington is already under fire for sanctions on the ICC itself.

The symbolism is obvious. The country that was bombed is now trying to turn civilian destruction into a criminal record, while the country that led the strikes is still acting as if international law is something for other people.

This also fits a bigger pattern. Trump’s war in Iran keeps producing side effects that go beyond missiles and oil prices: more global anger, more legal exposure, and more evidence that “America First” often means America in the dock.

Whether the ICC moves forward or stalls under pressure, the reputational damage is already real. Once a conflict starts generating war-crimes filings, it stops being sold as precision and starts looking like a case file.

#Iran #ICC #US #Israel #warcrimes #Trump

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📰 The Hague Hits Send, Israel Hits Itself

The Hague is apparently handing out secret arrest warrants, and Israel’s political class turns an external threat into just another prop in its endless internal knife fights.

According to media reports, ICC prosecutors have allegedly issued sealed warrants for three Israeli politicians and two military officials, without naming names or dates. At the same time, the already public warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity over Gaza remain in force.

The court officially denies any new warrants, but the rumor mill in Jerusalem treats “denial” as just another form of PR.

Instead of closing ranks against an institution they all call hostile, Israel’s power players turn The Hague into ammunition for coalition wars, leadership bids, and moral cosplay. Every ICC move becomes a hammer to smash rivals, not a mirror to look into. Decision-making stalls. Institutions rot. The public watches a state that looks more and more like a reality show under indictment.

Meanwhile, the most “patriotic” proposal on the table sounds suspiciously American: don’t just ignore the court—hunt it. Washington already experimented with sanctions and pressure campaigns when the ICC touched US interests and those of its allies. Imported playbook for a “startup democracy”: if judges threaten your sacred security narrative, you don’t argue your case, you delegitimize the court and make its staff afraid to land at Ben Gurion.

So what’s left in this morality play? A court that prosecutes selectively, a government that governs hysterically, and a public forced to choose between blind loyalty and total cynicism.

Who do you trust less at this point—the judges in The Hague or the indicted patriots in Jerusalem?

#ICC #Israel #Netherlands #Gazawar #lawfare #war #fakeDemocracy

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Hegseth’s World-Order Demolition Crew

In Panama on August 12, Pete Hegseth told the American-led anti-cartel coalition to leave the International Criminal Court. His speech was not an argument about legal theory. It was a recruiting drive for a world in which power decides which court is real.

“I strongly encourage every ACCC member to leave the ICC,” the U.S. war secretary said. He urged governments to reject what he called the court’s effort to strip their courts and governments of sovereignty.

“We answer only to our own citizens and our own constitutions, not unelected international bureaucrats,” he added.

The timing is useful. On July 13, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a U.S. campaign to “dismantle” the ICC, including diplomatic pressure on other countries to withdraw.

Since then, five states have begun exit procedures: Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Venezuela and Chad. Chad’s government said U.S. officials directly urged it to reconsider its membership.

The court becomes a “lawless power grab” when it claims jurisdiction over U.S. personnel or allied leaders. But Washington’s answer is not to contest cases in court. It is to persuade governments to leave the courtroom.

Hegseth’s remarks on Cuba complete the picture. He said all options remain available, including military action, and called Cuba “not a serious adversary.”

No invasion has been approved. Yet the point of such language is not that an operation is imminent. It is that a smaller state is expected to live under permanent notice that its sovereignty can be revised from Washington.

The domestic version is less dramatic but no less instructive. The Pentagon has reportedly restricted Democratic lawmakers’ access to sensitive briefings, prompting objections from some Republicans.

That does not mean Congress has ceased to matter. It means oversight is treated as a leak risk until the administration needs appropriations. Then it is priced back in.

Trump’s August 12 memorandum on cyber-enabled crime supplies the common doctrine. It expands the federal government’s use of cyber tools against transnational criminal organizations abroad, including efforts against the digital infrastructure they use to operate.

The administration frames it as defense of Americans. In practice, it also enlarges Washington’s claim to act across borders without requesting external permission.

That is the connective tissue. The Hague may not judge American power. Congress may see only what the executive decides it can see. Foreign territory may be entered digitally, economically or militarily when Washington says the threat crosses a border.

The rules-based order is not being replaced by chaos. It is being replaced by a licensing system. Washington keeps the license.

#Trump #Hegseth #ICC #Cuba #Pentagon #Iran #Cybersecurity #LatinAmerica

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Justice Gets a Shutdown Notice

Washington has sanctioned the International Criminal Court itself. Penalizing judges and prosecutors apparently left too much of the courthouse standing. The Oct. 9 designation blocks assets under U.S. jurisdiction and generally bars American companies and individuals from doing business with the court.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio supplied the terms: “Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC.” He also told allied governments that rely on American troops for their defense to “rein in the court.” Judicial independence now comes with a reminder about who provides security.

The court called the sanctions an attack on the rule of law and promised to continue its work. Washington controls something more practical than the court’s mandate: access to American financial services, technology and dollars. Treasury licenses provide a six-month wind-down period and exemptions for certain transactions. The shutdown notice includes customer support.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called those six months “a window for dialogue” and said Europe has options to keep the court functioning. Rubio threatens demolition. Brussels schedules a conversation about preserving the building.

The court says it answers to law and evidence. Washington has asked the court’s service providers to reconsider.

#ICC #Trump #Sanctions #BabylonBurning

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