The illegitimate "International Criminal Court" imposed arrest warrants against top Israeli officials late last year, seeking to punish the Jewish state for conducting a defensive war against terrorist aggressors who deliberately target and endanger civilians -- in order to prod corrupt and bigoted institutions into leveling specious and outrageous "genocide" condemnations against the country that was attacked. The ICC was happy to comply, just as the disgraceful governments of Ireland and South Africa seek to literally re-define 'genocide' in order to indict Israel. And as the United Nations is simultaneously and once again preoccupied with fanatically persecuting Israel, Poland's leaders shamefully threatened to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
Yes, based on a bogus warrant from a morally bankrupt global "court," the Poles were actually going to prevent the duly-elected leader of the world's lone, tiny Jewish state from paying is respects at Auschwitz:
Have been planning a tentative trip to Poland to visit Auschwitz next year. If the Polish government won’t allow the Jewish state’s leader to visit the infamous death camp to pay respects, based on illegitimate “genocide” propaganda, I’m not sure we can proceed with planning. https://t.co/Tdg4BWSank
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) December 23, 2024
Poland faced a backlash, including canceled delegations and public protests. And now, a reversal:
Poland's government adopted a resolution on Thursday that would enable Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend events in the country later this month to mark 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp without facing the risk of arrest under an International Criminal Court warrant. It was presented as a largely symbolic policy, as Netanyahu is not expected to attend the event. Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed the move by his government, which doesn't refer directly to Netanyahu or the ICC arrest warrant against him, but rather issues a blanket guarantee of security to all senior Israeli officials to attend the Auschwitz memorial service...
President Andrzej Duda had called for a special exemption to let Netanyahu visit Poland for the Auschwitz memorial service, which will take place eight decades after Allied forces seized the notorious death camp from German troops and liberated the surviving prisoners on January 27, 1945. Duda had sent a letter to Tusk urging an exemption for Netanyahu, who's attend the annual event several times previously, according to a statement confirmed by the Polish president's office. Duda highlighted the significance of the 80th Auschwitz memorial service, saying any representatives from Israel, particularly those in leadership positions, should be able to participate without legal obstacles.
Perhaps the timing is coincidental, but this about-face happened on the same day the US House of Representatives passed sanctions against the source of the warrants Poland had been saber-rattling to enforce, before retreating:
The House passed legislation sanctioning the International Criminal Court on Thursday in protest of its arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In one of the new Congress' first acts, the bill passed 243-140, with 45 Democrats joining Republicans in support of it. The bill now heads to the Senate, where Republican Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has promised a swift vote to have it on President-elect Donald Trump’s desk by the time he takes office...The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act would sanction any foreigner working to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute U.S. citizens or those of an allied country.
One wonders if that last bit may have caught the attention of the Polish government, which promptly decided this misadventure needed to be put to a swift end. As the story notes, dozens of Democrats joined Republicans to pass the bill, signaling bipartisanship and likely Senate passage. We saw a similar show of force last week on the Laken Riley Act, which also attracted a similar number of Democratic votes for the crackdown on criminal illegal immigrants. For awhile, it was unclear whether enough Senate Democrats would back the bill, in order to break a possible filibuster. Then as more of them announced their support, some even co-sponsoring the legislation, the dam broke. The vote to advance the bill was a lopsided 84-9, even after 159 House Democrats had opposed it. Who were the nine, you may wonder? I'll leave you with this:
The nine Senators who voted against the Laken Riley Act:
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) January 10, 2025
Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Andy Kim, D-N.J., Ed Markey, D-Mass., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Tina Smith, D-Minn., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Interesting to see both New Jersey Senators joining the extremes fringe. Between the two of them and Minnesota's Tina Smith, they are out on a bit of a limb, considering that their states only voted for Kamala Harris by mid-single digits last year.