The South Carolina Republican threatened sanctions against those who help the ICC against Israel and the USA that would impact economies in those countries.
FOX NEWS -- Friday on FNC’s “Hannity,” Sen. Lindsey Graham had a stern warning for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and anyone else willing to help a “rogue” International Criminal Court (ICC) as a nation enforce an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
GRAHAM: And you know, Israel’s in a fight for his very life. The Jewish state is under siege from Hamas and Gaza, Hezbollah and Lebanon. Iran has directly attacked Israel. And we live in an upside down world where the prime minister of Israel and the defense minister of Israel are being prosecuted by a court in Belgium. Now, let me say this, the court ruled that Gaza is a state.
No, there is no Palestinian state under international law. So that’s the first saying they got wrong. And Israel is not a member of the International Criminal Court, nor are we. In 1998, I fought the idea that we would join the International Criminal Court. Why? Sovereignty.
I do not want a court in The Hague trying American soldiers or American politicians defending our country. This is a direct threat to the state of Israel.
So to any ally, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, if you try to help the ICC, we’re going to sanction you.
HANNITY: Well, that means I want every ally and you saw little Justin in Canada and his position. What should the penalty be?
GRAHAM: We should crush your economy because we’re next. Why can’t they go after Trump or any other American president under this theory? We’re not a member of the ICC.
In 2002, they threatened to prosecute our soldiers in Afghanistan. We came down hard on them. In 2017, one of the first things that President Trump did was put sanctions against the International Criminal Court to make sure they would protect our own troops.
Biden took those sanctions and did away with them literally in the first month of his presidency. Now, what do you have? You have the International Criminal Court coming after the prime minister of Israel, the defense minister of Israel for trying to defend the Jewish state.
"If you help the ICC, we’re going to crush your economy."