As Netanyahu Meets US Lawmakers, White House Targets ICC, Hamas, US Anti-Semitic Rioters, Iran Oil Money

JERUSALEM, Israel – President Donald Trump signed another executive order on Thursday, this time targeting the International Criminal Court. It came as Israel is preparing for the next phase of the hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas. It's expected that three more hostages will be released on Saturday.

The president signed an order imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court in The Netherlands over its actions against Israel, especially issuing warrants for the arrest of top Israeli leaders. The warrants target Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others, including former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for their conduct of the war in Gaza.

America's sanctions include barring I.C.C. officials and their families from the U.S., an important restriction since the I.C.C. is a creation of the United Nations in New York. Trump accuses the I.C.C. of abusing its power and setting a dangerous precedent by trying to arrest top leaders who are doing their job. 

The I.C.C. condemned the White House decision and exhorted member states to stand against the attempt "to harm its independent and impartial judicial work."

In Washington, Prime Minister Netanyahu met with more Senate and House leaders.

Axios reports that while Netanyahu was at the White House, he gave his ideas for phase two of the hostage deal in Gaza. They include top Hamas leaders going into exile and Israel ending the war. Israel has refused to permanently stop the fighting until Hamas is no longer in power and its leaders are no longer in Gaza.

Netanyahu's spokesman claims he didn't present a plan for a second stage of the deal.

Saturday's expected Hamas hostage release involves three more Israeli men in captivity. It's the fifth such release in the last few weeks.

Netanyahu is supposedly seeking to extend phase one of the ceasefire so that Hamas might free two or three more hostages.

The Trump administration is also taking more action against Israel's enemies. One of the new Attorney General Pam Bondi's first moves is to launch a task force to punish the Hamas terrorists who attacked Israeli and American citizens on October 7th, 2023.

The Justice Department says it will seek to extradite the planners and perpetrators of that brutal assault, which killed 1,200 people in Israel, including 47 Americans.

The task force will also go after Hamas supporters and financial backers in the U.S. It aims to prosecute those who committed anti-Semitic hate crimes on college campuses and elsewhere in America.

For its part, the Treasury Department is targeting an oil network that it says generates hundreds of millions of dollars for the Iranian military and its proxies such as Hamas.

***Please sign up for CBN Newsletters and download the CBN News app to ensure you receive the latest news updates from a Christian perspective.***

After meeting lawmakers and administration officials, Netanyahu said they asked him a simple question.

They asked, “A country that is as small as New Jersey, from where do you get your strength?' I said: 'Our strength comes from our people and from our heroic soldiers, and from our faith and the understanding that we are fighting for thousands of years of Jewish history and for our right to a state of our own in the Middle East, in our historic homeland.' This is the truth – and it will take us very far."