'We have special forces': Netanyahu unbothered by global threats of arrest

'We have special forces': Netanyahu unbothered by global threats of arrest

Submitted by
MEE staff
on
Wed, 07/29/2026 - 16:53

The defiant Israeli prime minister spoke to Fox News during his Washington visit for Lindsey Graham's funeral

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, speaks to Fox News pundit Sean Hannity in Washington, DC, on 28 July 2026 (Screengrab)

Off

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on Tuesday that he was not too bothered by the International Criminal Court's (ICC) arrest warrant for him, because Israeli special forces would protect him should any country try to take him into custody. 

"It scares me in this sense. For you, you travel internationally, God forbid you had a medical emergency, and you need to land, and you're about to land in a country that recognises the ICC. It could complicate things. Do you worry about that?" Fox News pundit and decades-long personal friend to Netanyahu, Sean Hannity, asked during the interview. 

"Yeah, I think about it," Netanyahu responded. "You know, we have special forces around. I served for five years."

"The IDF is pretty tough," Hannity said, referring to the Israeli army.

"Yeah. Let's give them a new task," Netanyahu replied. 

Netanyahu flew through the airspace of several ICC member states this week on his way to Washington, prompting critics to accuse those governments of aiding an internationally wanted leader.

Netanyahu left Israel aboard the official government aircraft known as the “Wing of Zion” on Monday, ahead of talks with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday.

Flight-tracking data showed the aircraft passing through the airspace of Greece, Italy and France before crossing the Atlantic, while a widely shared map of the journey indicated that it also entered Canadian airspace on its approach to the US. 

Greece, Italy, France and Canada are all parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC.

The Hague-based court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu on 21 November 2024, saying there were reasonable grounds to believe that he bore criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts in Gaza.

Netanyahu and Lindsey Graham conspired to use sex claims against Khan to delay warrants

Read More »

"It's the corruption of the international system. It's an unelected bureaucracy that sits in The Hague that could arrest American soldiers because you don't recognise this corrupt body any more than we do," Netanyahu told Hannity.

"And they could say that the president of the United States is a war criminal. That American soldiers valiantly fighting next to us, shoulder to shoulder against the tyranny in Tehran, that they're war criminals. They could pick them up."

The prime minister said he would be coming to New York City for the United Nations General Assembly in September, regardless of what legal avenues, if any, mayor Zohran Mamdani decides to pursue.

"This just hate-spewing elected official [is] pitting one group of New Yorkers against the others. He's turning them against New York Jews. I mean, what are we, in the 1930s? What is this?" Netanyahu said.

Mamdani has repeatedly said he would protect the right of all Jewish New Yorkers, but Israel has accused him of antisemitism for calling on the federal government to arrest Netanyahu on account of the ICC warrant. 

'Wall of granite'

Netanyahu spent just under 90 minutes with Trump at the White House on Tuesday before both leaders headed to the Washington National Cathedral for the funeral for South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch and vocal supporter of Israel, and potentially the loudest in Trump's ear. 

The Israeli prime minister told Hannity the visit with Trump was "one of the best meetings that we've had", but he had also indicated to the Israeli press on Tuesday that it was a meeting among several senior officials, meaning he did not get a private one-on-one with the president. 

Such a decision would suggest Trump's advisers did not want Netanyahu to influence the president one way or another. 

"I always hate to disappoint our would-be critics who are trying to find cracks in our alliance, and what they find, like today, is a wall of granite," Netanyahu told Hannity.

Trump himself has sounded less than pleased with Netanyahu's behaviour of late, telling Fox News earlier on Tuesday that Netanyahu wants him to keep attacking Iran when he may no longer want to.

Netanyahu's quiet visit to Washington highlights Trump's frustration with the leader

Read More »

"We have a common commitment. We don't want to see this fanatic regime in Tehran have nuclear weapons to threaten every American and to threaten the peace of the world and to threaten the existence of Israel," Netanyahu said.

"So we have a common goal, and it's going to be achieved either through diplomatic means or other means. But we're both committed to that."

However, Netanyahu has made it clear he is no fan of those diplomatic means. 

Not long after the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding in June, Israel intensified its attacks on southern Lebanon, all the way up to the capital Beirut. 

A key part of the agreement was for Israel to cease hostilities in Lebanon, where it says it's going after its Iranian ally, Hezbollah. 

Trump then told reporters he believed Israel's attacks were disproportionate and were killing too many civilians.

"Do you believe there are moderates that would like a deal and a better Iran?" Hannity asked.

"I'm sceptical about the deal, and I say it openly," Netanyahu said.

"But the only way it would be achieved is if Iran understood these various factions. They're not ideological factions as much as they differ on the assessment of how tough we are," he added. "I think at the end, it's our resolve. It's our common resolve to make sure that Iran doesn't get nuclear bombs to threaten every American with."

The US intelligence community, under the Trump administration, had assessed that there was no imminent threat from Iran before the US and Israel launched their joint war on 28 February - so much so that the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, resigned within hours of the first missiles being launched. 

US-Israel relations

News

Post Date Override

0

Update Date

Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19

Update Date Override

0 ...