Biden push­es back against ICC alle­ga­tions against Israel: ‘What’s hap­pen­ing is not geno­cide’

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden said the admin­is­tra­tion does not view the deaths of Pales­tini­ans in Gaza as geno­cide dur­ing a cel­e­bra­tion for Jew­ish Amer­i­can Her­itage Month at the White House on Mon­day evening. 
The president’s com­ments come after he crit­i­cized a deci­sion by the pros­e­cu­tor of the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court to file arrest war­rant appli­ca­tions for senior Israeli offi­cials such as Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu, his defense chief, and three Hamas lead­ers over alleged war crimes. 
“What­ev­er these war­rants may imply, there is no equiv­a­lence between Israel and Hamas. It’s clear that Israel wants to do all it can to ensure civil­ian pro­tec­tion,” Biden said. “Let me be clear: Con­trary to alle­ga­tions against Israel made by the Inter­na­tion­al Court of Jus­tice, what is hap­pen­ing is not geno­cide. We reject that.”
The ICC announced ear­ly Mon­day it was pur­su­ing war­rants for the arrests of Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Min­is­ter Yoav Gal­lant, as well as the fol­low­ing senior Hamas lead­ers: Yahya Sin­war, the head of Hamas in Gaza, Mohammed Deif, the head of the mil­i­tary, and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of its polit­i­cal bureau.
Last week, nation­al secu­ri­ty advis­er Jake Sul­li­van also empha­sized that the admin­is­tra­tion does not view Israel’s actions in Gaza as geno­ci­dal. 
“We do not believe what is hap­pen­ing in Gaza is a geno­cide. We have been firm­ly on record reject­ing that propo­si­tion,” Sul­li­van told reporters at the White House last Mon­day.
The wa …