By Jenna Ellis for THE CHRISTIAN POST
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently acknowledged what legal experts had been saying all along: he has no authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant. But then he made an even more revealing statement. Rather than just conceding the issue, Mamdani called on the federal government to join the ICC and execute the warrant instead.
That comment exposes a much larger debate than one involving Israel or Netanyahu. It’s a question of globalism vs sovereignty. Who governs the United States? The American people through our constitution, or unelected bureaucrats in international institutions that claim authority above sovereign nations?
The ICC was created by the 1998 Rome Statute as a permanent international tribunal to prosecute “genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.” Its advocates argue that the court provides justice when nations refuse to prosecute their own leaders or military officials.
The United States, however, has deliberately chosen not to become a party to the Rome Statute. While the Clinton Administration’s UN Ambassador signed the treaty in its final days, Clinton never submitted it for Senate ratification. Later administrations of both parties concluded that allowing an international court to exercise criminal jurisdiction over American citizens or officials raised serious concerns about constitutional self-government and national sovereignty.
