Nobel committee thumbs its nose at US, Israel

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Nobel Prize delivers a political jolt

Senate debates get testy

Trump polls signal midterm risks

Plans to livestream execution turns stomachs 

Plans to livestream execution turns stomachs 

Programming note: Hello! We are Steff Danielle Thomas and Colin Meyn filling in for Cate. Please send your tips, comments and story ideas to sthomas@thehill.com or cmeyn@thehill.com.

Nobel committee made quite a statement with this year’s peace prize: 

The Associated Press | Eranga Jayawardena

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Navi Pillay, a leading figure in international human rights law, coming as Israel and the U.S. seek to tear down the institutions she has helped build up. 

“At a time of existential challenges – including more wars and conflicts than the world has seen in a long time – international law is no longer just a supplement to peace and security. It is an absolute necessity,” the committee wrote in its announcement. 

“And yet, the system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack. We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice.”

Pillay’s resume: The jurist previously served as the United Nations human rights chief and was a judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

As a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, she helped establish that sexual violence and propaganda could constitute genocide.

She is currently an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice, in a case alleging that Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority.  

Perhaps most controversially, Pillay led a U.N. commission that found last year that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. 

Angry reactions: Israel’s government fumed over the choice. 

“If there were an award for lies, hatred, and blood libels, Navi Pillay wouldn’t just be a contender. She’d be a frontrunner. Her role in the relentless, politically motivated demonization of Israel and promotion of the genoLIE speaks volumes,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry wrote in a post on the social platform X. 

President Trump shared a post from attorney David Schoen, who worked on his second impeachment trial. 

“Today the Nobel Committee shamed itself beyond repair and demeaned the once great Nobel Peace Prize by giving it to the UN’s Navi Pillay.  Pillay is an unabashed hater of America and Israel,” Schoen wrote in a post on Truth Social. 

Timely move: Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday that the U.S. is imposing full blocking sanctions against the ICC, escalating its fight against the global judicial body.

“We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling their ability to operate........

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