Furious George Clooney called White House to blast Biden for calling wife Amal’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu ‘outrageous’

George Clooney called the White House and mauled a Biden aide after the president attacked an effort by Clooney’s wife to jail Israel’s prime minister, it emerged Thursday.

Amal Clooney last month signed a bid by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor to join Hamas leaders in demanding the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes — a move the president described as “outrageous.”

An angry Biden insisted there was “no moral equivalence” between Israel and Hamas and hinted at sanctions against the court that could have seen Clooney’s wife deported from the US.

The Oscar-winning actor nursed his anger after being transferred to Biden’s senior adviser Steve Ricchetti Washingtonpost reported, and his high-profile wife remains unrepentant about her role.

“I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that the perpetrator should be above the law,” she said in a statement.

George Clooney visited the White House where he was honored by the president in 2022

Clooney’s wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, was also among the guests

The A-list couple have long been among the president’s biggest supporters, and the actor donated more than $500,000 to Biden’s 2020 election campaign.

He also co-hosted an online fundraiser that contributed $7 million to his 2020 war chest.

But the row has cast doubt on whether he will take part in one of Biden’s biggest fundraising efforts of 2024 next Saturday, when he was to be the main attraction at a gala in LA alongside former President Barack Obama, TV host Jimmy Kimmel and actress Julia Roberts. .

Opposition to the court’s unprecedented measure continued this week when the House of Representatives passed a bill that would impose sanctions on the court.

But the White House has backtracked on its initial anger, claiming sanctions are “not the right response” to the court’s “overreach.”

It said it would “strongly oppose” a House bill that it claims could “require sanctions against court personnel, judges, witnesses, and U.S. allies and partners who provide even limited, targeted support to the court in a range of aspects of her work’.

Congress last week gave Netanyahu an open invitation to address both houses and House Speaker Mike Johnson denounced Biden’s backtracking.

“It is alarming that the Biden administration continues to undermine Israel and now 155 Democrats in the House of Representatives have voted to give the ICC a free pass to target our allies and undermine US national security interests,” he said.

Amal Clooney last month signed a bid by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor to secure the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (right) for war crimes in Gaza

Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, seen during a visit to Ukraine in 2022, accused the pair of “using starvation as a method of war, along with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza.”

More than 36,000 people have been killed in the Israeli assault on Gaza, according to a Health Ministry count in the Hamas-run enclave.

Dozens of people were killed Thursday in an Israeli attack on a UN-run school in Gaza’s Nusseirat refugee camp

The row was sparked by the May 20 announcement that prosecutor Karim Khan wanted to charge Netanyahu, along with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and two other Hamas leaders with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

He accused the Israeli government of “using famine as a method of war, along with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza.”

“These include malnutrition, dehydration, severe suffering and an increasing number of deaths among the Palestinian population, including infants, other children and women,” he added.

It soon emerged that Amal Clooney, a renowned human rights lawyer, was one of six legal experts who helped British prosecutor Karim Khan make his decision.

“I support the historic step taken by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to bring justice to the victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine,” she said in a statement from the couple’s Clooney Foundation.

‘As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child’s life has less value than that of another. I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that the perpetrator should be above the law.”

The actor and the president have known each other for years and the couple visited the White House in December 2022 when he was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors.

The actor and the politician, pictured together in 2009, have been friends for years, but the row casts doubt on Clooney’s involvement in a star-studded fundraiser for Biden’s re-election, which was due to take place in LA on Saturday.

Months later, Biden appointed him to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

Neither Israel nor the US recognize the court, but if the order is issued, Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leaders could be arrested if they visit any of the 122 countries that do.

More than 36,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the country invaded the Palestinian enclave in response to the October 7 Hamas terror attack that killed 1,200 people.

Israel has branded the court’s measure an “unfounded blood libel” against the country, while President Isaac Herzog called the measure “outrageous” and insisted it “cannot be accepted by anyone.”

“The blood libel will not prevent Israel from defending itself and achieving all its just war objectives in Gaza,” an Israeli official added.

Hamas also rejected the court’s proposal, saying it “strongly denounces the efforts of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to equate the victim with the executioner.”