Netanyahu Heads to Trump, Vows Crackdown on Terror Nests and Corrupt ICC

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced at the start of Sunday's Government meeting that he will fly to Washington on Monday at President Trump's personal invitation, setting up a high-stakes meeting at the White House followed by his attendance at the memorial service for the late Senator Lindsey Graham. Netanyahu praised Graham as one of Israel's staunchest allies since the country's founding, calling his attendance at the service a fitting tribute to a man he considers a true friend of the Jewish state. During the Washington visit, Netanyahu confirmed he will also raise every outstanding issue with President Trump, with the ongoing situation in Iran topping the agenda.

On the security front at home, Netanyahu detailed a sweeping counterterrorism operation now underway across Judea and Samaria, confirming that Israeli forces have entered villages, conducted thorough sweeps, seized weapons, and carried out arrests exactly as ordered. He revealed that troops stormed a hospital in Nablus to apprehend two accomplices who had been hiding there, and confirmed that the terrorist's home has already been sealed as a precursor to demolition. The homes of additional accomplices have likewise been mapped for future action, and Netanyahu made clear that Israel stands ready to expand operations against what he described as terrorist nests on a far broader scale, with further details to be provided by the Defense Minister.

Netanyahu also seized on the recent removal of the International Criminal Court's Prosecutor by an overwhelming majority of member states, framing it as long-overdue vindication. He argued the ouster exposed a man already accused of sexual harassment by multiple former staffers, who had reversed his own past criticism of Israel's legal system before rushing to pursue warrants against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant purely to deflect attention and rally anti-Israel sentiment around himself. Netanyahu revealed he spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio the previous night, who reaffirmed Washington's determination to act decisively against the ICC, an institution Netanyahu described as a threat to global justice and to the sovereign right of democratic nations to defend themselves without answering to what he called a corrupt bureaucracy in The Hague.