The Israel-Hamas war|The reactions

Netanyahu: Recognitions are rewarding terrorism

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rages against Norway, Ireland and Spain's decision to recognize Palestine as a state. According to Reuters, Netanyahu says it is "rewarding terror".

- It would become a terrorist state. It would try to carry out the October 7 massacre again and again - and we will not agree to that.

Israel has recalled its ambassadors from the European countries.

..................................... 

Analysis: The peace brokers did not foresee this

Norway and Spain's recognition of Palestine as a state comes approximately 30 years after the Oslo Accords. The Norwegian peace brokers hardly saw this in front of them when they worked out the peace solution that meant a state for each people, writes Sigurd Falkenberg Mikkelsen in NRK. When recognition now comes, it will be without a state that works in practice, without hope for the two-state solution and without peace in sight.

Falkenberg Mikkelsen writes that Norway is now changing tactics. Instead of seeing it as a process owned by Israelis and Palestinians themselves, they want to exert pressure from outside.

Nathan Shachar writes in DN that harsh words from Israeli leaders after the Norwegian recognition hide a growing Israeli powerlessness. Jerusalem's position is weakened due to the situation in Gaza, the deteriorating relationship with the United States and the ICC's arrest warrant for, among others, Benjamin Netanyahu.

..........................................

US considers sanctions against ICC after statement

The United States may consider imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) following ICC prosecutor Karim Khan's announcement that he wants to execute an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

President Joe Biden has called Khan's announcement "scandalous" and several top Republicans are now demanding legislation against the ICC. One proposal is that employees of the ICC should be deprived of the right to travel into the United States if the court does not drop its charges against "the United States and its allies."

The country's foreign minister Antony Blinken was asked on Tuesday whether the White House is willing to support legal action against the ICC.

- There is no doubt that we must consider appropriate measures to deal with this deeply ill-judged decision, he replied according to the BBC.