The plane carrying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Florida for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump passed through the airspace of three countries that are parties to the International Criminal Court, despite an active ICC arrest warrant against the Israeli leader.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 showed Netanyahu’s aircraft, known as “Wings of Zion,” crossed the airspace of Greece, Italy and France before reaching the Atlantic Ocean.
All three countries are signatories to the Rome Statute, which obliges member states to cooperate with ICC arrest warrants.
So continues the collapse of the modern-day League of Nations
So all three countries failed to kill 2025 Hitler when they had the chance
For the love of Atlas, stop letting dictators get away with everything
So now the question is, what accountability and consequences are we going to apply to the Greek, Italian, and French officials who failed to do their goddamn jobs and aided and abetted a war criminal?
A fierce, strong-worded letter, of course
Slap in the wrist
It would have been awesome if someone shot his ass out of the sky
Fascinating to see all the colonial and post colonial grandstanding of the West culminate into this.
The champions of human rights and international law \s
No one is going to arrest him while he’s still PM
There are a lot of countries that absolutely would arrest him. Unfortunately close to none of them are the ones touting international human rights.
Here are a couple of his past flight paths:
He avoided Spain and took this detour instead.
This is a sad reality. I don’t understand why you’re getting down-voted for a realistic take. We live in a post-conscience world.
We live in a post-conscience world
I disagree. The only thing that changed is that (some) people stop pretending that exists some kind international law, and any and all treaties signed by all countries are subject to political and/or economical pressures. Enforcement of said treaties work the same way.
An legal obligation is a legal obligation we don’t give a damn about excuses
A legal obligation without enforcement isn’t really a legal obligation. See the current state of affairs in the US
Huh, I am curious to see how diplomatic/absolute immunity (just using the local jargon not colloquial terms) and that treaty mesh
Not. Which is why Netanyahu avoided several countries like Spain, which would have provided him a more direct flight to the US.
The countries listed were Netanyahu’s detour route where Israel exerts enough control to surpass their legal system.
What would the countries be supposed to do? Let’s ignore politics. I’m a small law-abiding country, I’m a member of the ICC. Let’s also assume that I’m aware of the warrant and have knowledge about the flight path and the passengers.
Now what? Shall I politely ask them to land in The Hague? Should I use force? Risk starting a war?
The only realistic option I see is to diplomatically request to use a different route. Or maybe make it so that I can pretend I was not informed.
Yes landing the plane with force is literally the law.
Or even easier, don’t give it flight space access. Flight space access is granted on request. Planes don’t just simply show up above an airspace and hope to not get shot down. It’s all with permission.
Should I use force?
Yes. You scrample fighter jets and force them down, using missiles if necessary.
Risk starting a war?
This does not follow. The war would be started by whoever illegally retaliated for a lawful arrest, not by whoever did the arresting.
The semantics of who “is to blame” for the war are ultimately irrelevant to the small nation trying to avoid being in a war.
Yes, the small nations of France and Italy
Obviously size is relative in situations like this, and compared to Israel+US France and Italy are indeed small
Yes, you have air traffic control command them to land. If they don’t, you escort them down with jet fighters. All that has occurred here is the ICC has shown that warrants can be situationally worthless.
Yes, you risk starting a war if you arrest a war criminal. That sucks. But that doesn’t mean you ignore the warrant for fear of consequence. Now our fucking idiot president here gets a huge, very unneeded ego injection knowing European powers are afraid to arrest criminals going to speak to a convicted felon.
Europe is America’s bitch. Always has been.
Israel is an American colony in the middle East.
Joe Biden once said if Israel didn’t exist, we’d have to invent one.
America has to fall for this genocide to end. There’s just too much money involved in this colony. There’s middle eastern oil which will be under the Greater Israel control, they will also control the Suez canal.
I’m American and I agree that nothing short of a catastrophic collapse is going to solve our own problems domestically, as well as put a stop to the laundry list of horrors we commit abroad.
Are you European or American?
Netanyahu did not show up at the border unannounced saying “let me through or else”. He got permission ahead of time. Had he not gotten permission, he would have had to find another country who did or gone around. Especially for Greece and Italy which don’t really stand in his way, the Mediterranean is right there!
Even assuming that Netanyahu calls the bluff and flies through, there are a lot of options ahead of all-out war. For instance sending jets to “intercept” his plane and escort him out saying “he refused to follow orders to land and we did not deem it worth it to escalate the situation”. It’s not like his airliner is armed or anything. But it would send a very different diplomatic message.
For France in particular, this is far from the first time he flies over its territory unimpeded. This is not a matter of military concerns, this is pro-Israel Macron taking a stance to show support for his ally. He’s not been very outspoken on Gaza because the domestic political situation is very delicate and anything he says can only weaken his support further, but his personal stance is hardly a secret and the military interceptors are under his full control.
Yes you can tell them you will arrest them if they fly over. And you should start a war.
Not sure what the point of joining the ICU if you don’t want to hold the laws.
Start a war? Part of the point of joining international organizations is to stop war from reoccurring so for you to casually suggest starting a war is to come from a completely unserious position.
You’re part of an international organisation. The other country is not part of that organisation. The countries in your international organisation would come to defend you.
Also France is no “small country”
Until the leaders of countries, and all those seeking that same power fear to misuse that power, war will be a natural state of our species.
Sure, you might have to start a small war or two, but eventually people will get the point that their leaders need to be held accountable by the people of those countries, or other countries will hold them to account.
Without any of that, we end up exactly right where we are, where leaders and countries can get away with genocide, completely invalidating any power those global institutions are supposed to wield.
The war would be started by whoever illegally retaliated for a lawful arrest, not by whoever did the arresting.
How do you arrest one person on a plane flying through the air?
You intercept with fighter jets and give them one last chance to land. That’s not my opinion, that’s literally how it works.
And if they don’t…? It’s a nice idea, but do you think they’re going to shoot down a plane with other people on it and everything will just be fine?
I don’t think anyone being above the law is just fine either.
My point was I don’t think there would be any real consequences if they didn’t land and obviously shooting them down would cause a lot more problems. For the record, I dont think either are ok, I just think that’s the reality of the situation.
You point missiles at em and shoot if needed
You withdraw fron icc. France and italy are in the nato, israel is not idiotic to start a war with the west
I blame Trump for putting them in an impossible situation
Implying any American president wouldn’t do the same? (cough like Biden admin)
Direct talks with not one but two war criminals?
That’s not normal.
And yet is what happened
Read a damn history book… all these countries were on the HITLER side of the war during WWII!
Smart people NEVER FORGET! They are all COWARDS and will always be!! Read… history!
They are selfish and in it for themselves! They don’t give a damn about the world… hence, history repeating itself again!
This comment is satire, right?
Did you know the Greeks have a holiday commemorating the day they told fascist Italy to go fuck off?
NEVER FROGET!
I love that the motto on the emblem is just, “No”
You know, I have always loved Greece and I never needed more reasons, but bathe me in olive oil and fetch me some toum
There’s a Greek expression I love: “Garlic and Onions, Left to Right”
I’m not entirely sure what it means, but I feel it in my bones.
Read a damn history book.
Like Greece and Italy would ever be on the same side of a war
