International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s decision to issue warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity was a corrupt act by “white-collar antisemites,” Evangelical Pastor Johnnie Moore said at the National Zionist Rabbinic Coalition Conference in Washington on Monday.
He also explained that Zionism had to be defended so that Western democratic institutions would respect the ICC and moral clarity would not be diminished.
Moore, KAIROS company CEO and former commissioner of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, said the ICC had equated the democracy of Israel to the Hamas terrorist organization that committed the atrocities of the October 7 massacre.
“Today, we witnessed a transparently corrupt decision made by white collar antisemites – antisemites which enable terrorism while seeking to diminish and then to dismantle the sacred democratic institutions [to] which they owe their own existence and which are meant to protect everything we cherish in the world,” said Moore. “Democratic countries must band together and exact a devastating cost for the corruption of the ICC. There are no ‘both sides’ here. Sanction those who are doing this, then reform it or shut it down.”
Especially so since the Hamas pogrom, Moore said “defending Zionism has become a proxy for defending all Western democratic values.”
“We will win but we must be diligent,” said Moore. “There is no time for complacency. It is an existential moment, a moment for choosing.”
Moore said the ICC decision was made out of political correctness rather than moral clarity.
Rejecting political correctness
“We are suspicious of political correctness. Spiritual leaders have an obligation not to be swayed by political correctness,” said Moore. “Jeremiah, Isaiah, Micah... none of them were swayed by the powerful political correctness of the day. They knew as we know that we need to be guided by God’s words.”
The reactions to the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, and other officials in a helicopter crash on Sunday showed a lack of moral clarity, according to Moore. The death of “two of the most objectively evil leaders in modern history” was met with statements mourning their deaths from many countries, including democratic states.
“I do not mourn the death of Iran’s leaders. Raisi, with the foreign minister, masterminded the ruthless murder of thousands in Iran, they are serial killers,” said Moore. “They called him the ‘butcher of Tehran’ for a reason. His bloodlust was most satisfied by slaughtering the most vulnerable, especially women and children, members of the LGBTQ community, the teenage children of his own political adversaries, and countless religious minorities – like the Baha’i and Evangelicals of Iran. Today is not a day to mourn. It is a day the long-suffering people of Iran celebrate and if the US gave them free Internet then we would hear their cries for help for the world to free them from this evil regime.”
Moore reframed political correctness as political corruptness and assured that Evangelicals had spoken with moral clarity since October 7.
“Every Evangelical leader has tried to do something to help Israel and the Jewish community since October,” said Moore. “I do not know a single Evangelical leader who has bowed under the pressure to abandon Israel or to make excuses for antisemitism exploding on our streets.”
He said that Evangelical leaders had advocated on behalf of hostages and against antisemitism on their radio and television shows. Moore said he had himself spoken to Arab leaders, having visited Saudi Arabia weeks prior, and spoke at the European Union and at colleges. In two weeks, he was set to travel for his fourth solidarity visit to Israel this year.
Moore described a complex but deep relationship between Jews and Evangelical Christians, bound in shared religious texts and values.
“We have no excuse not to know each other better, especially now,” said Moore.
Zionist Rabbinic Coalition chair Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt said before Moore’s speech that it was important for the rabbis to hear from Moore to understand, despite the protests in American streets and campuses, that they were not alone.