Netanyahu presses Senate lawmakers to pass ICC sanctions legislation
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Senate Democrats again pushed for compromise legislation
Candid convos
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Senate leadership in Washington on Thursday, February 6, 2025.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Senate leaders to pass legislation sanctioning the International Criminal Court for issuing arrest warrants against him and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, which was blocked by Senate Democrats, in a private meeting on Thursday morning.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said that Netanyahu had urged senators to pass the ICC bill and “said it was very important to get that done. Very disappointed that it hadn’t passed, and called specifically on the Democrats to pass the ICC legislation.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told Jewish Insider that Democrats “told him [Netanyahu] we want to pass it. Schumer said there exists a compromise proposal that will keep the bill “as tough as ever” on the anti-Israel actions of the court “but won’t sanction American companies or other countries that have nothing to do with Israel.”
Asked if Netanyahu was supportive of such a compromise, Schumer said that “the ambassador [Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter] certainly was. The ambassador said he wants a bipartisan compromise.”
President Donald Trump also signed an executive order implementing sanctions against the ICC unilaterally later in the day on Thursday.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that the group did not discuss Trump’s calls for a new nuclear deal with Iran.
“I think there is, very impressively, a unified feeling that Iran is the main obstacle to peace and stability in the Middle East and the world,” Blumenthal added.
On the issue of Trump’s call for a forced evacuation of Gaza and U.S. takeover, potentially by U.S. military force, Blumenthal said that the plan for the future of Gaza “is not going to be resolved in an immediate, hour and a half in the Capitol.”
He said that there is “general consensus” both in the U.S. and Israel “that a forced evacuation of the Palestinians and United States troops on the ground are both unserious proposals as first articulated by President Trump and that they are nonstarters essentially,” but declined to detail what had been discussed in the room.
Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told JI, “It was a very candid meeting. We talked about both the generalities of the situation and also the specifics of the situation. I think everybody, both sides, came away with a better understanding of where we are now.”
Asked if he was more or less concerned about the several issues on the U.S. and Israel’s respective plates after the meeting, Risch replied: “I don’t think I want to make an assessment on that. I think that I would call it productive.”
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said that he would not go into detail about the meeting because he wanted to “respect the confidentiality of the conversation.”
“Without getting into specifics, we covered, pretty much, the waterfront, continued threats from Iran, the status of Gaza, the future of Gaza. We talked about Lebanon and Syria. It was pretty comprehensive,” Schiff told JI.
“I think it was a thorough discussion of the range of issues affecting the security of Israel, as well as the U.S.-Israel relationship, so I found it [to be] a very useful discussion,” he said.
In a statement, Netanyahu’s office said that senate leaders “expressed unequivocal support” for Israel and its “achievements in the war.”
The office said that senate leaders committed to passing ICC sanctions “in addition to” the executive order Trump is expected to sign and agreed that Iran must be stopped from obtaining a nuclear weapon and that Hamas must be removed from Gaza.
Netanyahu said prior to the meeting that he did not think that U.S. troops would be needed in Gaza to facilitate Trump’s plan.
Other lawmakers in the meeting included Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Jack Reed (D-RI), most of them senior members of Senate leadership leading key national security committees.
Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, met privately with Netanyahu.
Mast told JI that they had discussed “things that need to happen for a future of Gaza … There has to be, obviously, a partner there that’s willing to acknowledge that there’s going to be an independent and Jewish state, not no Israel at all; a total ending of the presence of Hamas and an ending of their existence; and the hope that’s on the horizon for what President Trump has laid out for a potential of reconstructing the area.”
Mast said on CNN yesterday that he is not “personally” in favor of placing U.S. troops in Gaza except for the purposes of rescuing American hostages, but that “all options are on the table.”
Several senators also gathered with Netanyahu on Thursday morning at the Willard InterContinental Hotel, located blocks from the White House. Among those who paid a visit were Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Blumenthal. Cotton also met individually with Netanyahu at the Willard.