President Joe Biden finally had to take a side in the war between Israel and Hamas -- but it might not help his cause.
Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced on Monday that he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three leaders of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, the U.K.'s Daily Mail reported.
The ICC is a permanent international court based in The Hague, Netherlands, established in 2002 to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression, according to PBS.
The United States, Russia, China and Israel are not members of the ICC.
The warrants issued by the ICC are basically symbolic when it comes to non-member states since they are unenforceable without that state's assistance.
The move Monday represented an unprecedented legal action by the court against the leaders of Israel, a major U.S. ally in the Middle East.
Israeli officials swiftly condemned the ICC prosecutor's decision as a "moral outrage of historic proportions."
The outrageous decision by the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, to seek arrest warrants against the democratically elected leaders of Israel is a moral outrage of historic proportions.
It will cast an everlasting mark of shame on the international court. pic.twitter.com/NJKYv06fyE
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 20, 2024
Surprisingly, Biden -- whose support for Israel's war on Hamas has been lukewarm -- also condemned the ICC's attempted prosecution of Israeli leaders.
"Let me be clear: Contrary to allegations against Israel made by the International Court of Justice, what's happening is not genocide," the president said during a Jewish American Heritage Month event Monday at the White House. "We reject that."
Biden went on to condemn anti-Semitism on college campuses and elsewhere, calling it "despicable."
He also issued a statement Monday in which he called the ICC's push for the arrest warrants "outrageous" and said there were "no similarities" between the democratic Israeli government and the "brutal terrorist organization" Hamas.
"The ICC prosecutor's application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous. And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security," the president said.
Although Biden's strong defense of a close U.S. ally arrived later than some may have hoped, it is still preferable to former comments where he seemed to attempt to straddle the line.
Unfortunately for the president, this bolder stance will not sit well with many in his base.
Hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters have already cast protest "uncommitted" ballots in state primaries because Biden has largely backed Israel since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.
In Michigan, Hawaii, Minnesota and Washington primaries in March, more than 200,000 Democratic voters opted to reject him by choosing the "uncommitted" option, according to the U.K.'s Guardian.
On Sunday, dozens of anti-Israel students turned their chairs on the president in a muted but pointed protest at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where Biden was giving the commencement speech.
Other graduates draped Palestinian flags over their gowns or wore traditional keffiyeh headdresses, according to ABC News.
President Biden told the graduating class at Morehouse College that he hears their voices of protest over the Israel-Hamas war, and that scenes from the conflict have been heartbreaking.
He said in his commencement address Sunday that, “I support peaceful, nonviolent protest.” pic.twitter.com/wT7RNVDopt
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 20, 2024
The surprise of the last seven months was that there was a dormant volcano of anti-Semitism under all the "tolerance" espoused by the left.
For all the outrage over a few Ku Klux Klan members -- who do not represent mainstream conservatism in any way -- at the Charlottesville, Virginia, rally in 2017, it turns out there are a multitude of anti-Semites on the left.
The reason isn't that they were taught to hate Jews -- it was the relentless narrative about Islamaphobia pushed in schools and colleges.
If you create a victim, there needs to be a slot for a hated oppressor, and the left seems to have fit the Jews into it conveniently.
Now, Biden is attempting to keep the narrative of Islamaphobia alive while trying to convince his base that the Jews are not the oppressors.
But the monster the left created is now attacking the creator, and there doesn't seem to be anything he can do about it.
