Trump's Secretary of State Pick Rubio Strongly Defends Israel's Conduct in Gaza War, Slams ICC During Senate Confirmation Hearing - U.S. News - Haaretz.com
WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State-nominee Marco Rubio strongly defended Israel's conduct against Hamas in Gaza while sharply condemning the International Criminal Court (ICC), during his Senate confirmation hearing.
The Florida senator, long considered one of Israel's strongest allies in Congress though causing alarm among some activists for taking a sharp turn toward "America First" isolationism in recent years, is expected to be confirmed with relative ease.
"The ICC has done tremendous damage to its global credibility. It's going after a non-member state, just in the last 24 hours Israel's High Court filed an appeal even though it's not a member state. I've seen the filings from the prosecutor, Mr. Khan, and he argues they have the right to go after non-members for their activities within the confines of member states," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
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"The whole premise is flawed, beyond the process and precedent, which is very dangerous for the United States. This is a test run to see if we can go after a head of state of a nation that's not a member. If we can get Israel, they will apply that to the United States at some point," he continued.
Rubio added that "the premise of the prosecution itself is completely and utterly flawed. They went after Sinwar, well he never traveled around the world and he's not with us any longer, no risk of being apprehended. The moral equivalency of it was offensive. Hamas carried out an atrocious operation, sending a bunch of savages into Israel with the explicit purpose of targeting civilians. They knew there were no soldiers at the music festival, they knew there were teens and young families in the communities and [kibbutzim]."
Sen. Marco Rubio testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, Wednesday.Credit: Getty Images via AFP/KEVIN DIETSCH
Rubio noted Hamas "deliberately targeted civilians. The ones they didn't murder, the families they didn't eviscerate, the people whose skulls they didn't crack open, they kidnapped and to this day continue to hold innocents they took in a deliberate operation. Israel in responding to that had to go after Hamas. How can any nation-state on the planet co-exist with a group of savages like Hamas? they have to defend their national security and national interest."
"One of the horrible things about war is innocent people are caught up in it," he continued. "That's true of every conflict on the planet. But there's a difference between those who deliberately target civilians and those who do what they can to avoid civilians being caught up against an enemy who doesn't wear uniform, hides in tunnels, hides behind women and children and using them as human shields. There is no moral equivalency."
During his opening statement, Rubio further lauded the Trump administration's foreign policy as serving as a deterrent and providing America with diplomatic leverage. "There were no new wars, ISIS was eviscerated, Soleimani was dead, the historic Abraham Accords were born, Americans were safer as a result."
In his own concurrent hearing, meanwhile, CIA director-nominee John Ratcliffe specifically warned that "the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies continue to export mayhem across the Middle East, and Iran is closer to nuclear breakout than ever before."
The hearings come as the Trump administration and outgoing Biden administration find themselves imminently close to finally securing a Gaza cease-fire/hostage release deal. "Those have been brutally tough negotiations. I hate the fact that we even have to enter into them, with a terrorist group like Hamas, but we need to get our people out and then prosecute our objectives in this conflict," Trump's incoming National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told Dan Senor's "Call Me Back" podcast.