My Take | Is this the end of international law and law of war as we know it?
Through sanctions and intimidation, the United States and Israel are chipping away at their foundations and attacking their representatives
Tony Soprano would have been proud. Sitting as an observer, a legal adviser of the US State Department threatened the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) oversight body that “all options are on the table” against the court.
“To be clear, we expect all ICC actions against the United States and our ally Israel – that is, all investigations and all arrest warrants – to be terminated,” Reed Rubinstein told the Assembly of State Parties in New York last week. “We will use all appropriate and effective instruments to block ICC overreach ... Our additional sanctions of June 5 should underscore our resolve.”
He was referring to Washington’s latest sanctions against four ICC judges who issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant. The sanctions followed those against ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan. Last week, the Trump administration also sanctioned UN monitor on Palestinian rights Francesca Albanese.
Other than pure gangsterism, it’s not clear what Rubinstein and his Washington bosses think they could legitimately achieve, as neither the US nor Israel recognise the court’s authority.
Writing on LinkedIn in 2024, Rubinstein even claimed that the Biden administration had a “massive programme to overthrow the Israeli government in the middle of a multi-front war”.
At a US Senate hearing in March, Rubinstein explained further: “During the Obama administration, the State Department was running money to fund an anti-government operation inside of Israel. Many of the same who were involved in the Obama administration State Department came back under president Biden, and it appears … the same playbook was being run.”
Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen said these were “conspiracy theories”. However, on the ICC, Rubinstein was not completely without legal basis, at least based on US law passed by George W. Bush during his “war on terror”.