Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Wednesday was meant to rally American sentiments in his favor; instead, it showed how much Netanyahu has broken the promise of a Jewish democracy and fractured the pro-Israel movement.
Timing has not been on Netanyahu’s side this year — his offensive in Gaza is now in its 10th month with no end of Hamas in sight; each day without a cease-fire kills what little hope the Israeli hostage families have of seeing their loved ones alive; and the onset of famine keeps the Palestinian death toll front and center in the global narrative.
Implied is the idea that Netayahu’s view of Israeli policy is the only legitimate one. Meanwhile, two-thirds of Israelis want Netanyahu to follow Biden’s lead and exit stage left, with recent polling showing dramatic support for Netanyahu to resign.
Plus, when he first planned to address Congress, Netanyahu ostensibly had the full-throated support of a U.S. president who was running for re-election. Even though he's the leader of a foreign state, Netanyahu had reason to believe he could motivate enough of a voting demographic to become a power broker in American politics. That, too, has shifted with both Democratic and Republican ticket changes: Vice President Kamala Harris, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nominee since President Joe Biden stepped down from his re-election campaign, declined to preside over the joint session. Donald Trump's vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, also wasn’t present, citing campaign commitments.
Especially against this backdrop, Netanyahu’s bombast was out of sync with reality. He essentially delivered an Israeli version of Trump’s infamous “American carnage” speech, offering no calls for peace and instead playing on the idea that “the world is in upheaval” in a “clash of barbarism versus civilization.” To resist this chaos, he argued, “America and Israel must stand together.” Implied is the idea that Netanyahu’s view of Israeli policy is the only legitimate one. Meanwhile, two-thirds of Israelis want Netanyahu to follow Biden’s lead and exit stage left, with recent polling showing dramatic support for Netanyahu to resign.
To bolster this sense of righteousness, Netanyahu outright lied about his administration’s policies. He claimed aid to Gaza was being stolen by Hamas, not blocked by Israeli forces, despite numerous eyewitness accounts and formal investigations showing that everything from crutches to chocolate croissants are being prevented from entering the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu vowed to continue the offensive until “total victory,” but once again failed to define what that means. That leaves us to assume that the razing of Gaza, continued ground troop invasion and blockade of humanitarian aid is part of a package deal he hopes leads to his end goal.
Netanyahu’s speech was met with boycotts from within the halls of Congress, with more than 100 Democratic members of congress and nearly 30 Democratic senators reportedly opting out.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., whose grandmother and extended family are in the West Bank, chose to protest in person, holding up a sign bearing the words “war criminal.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., in explaining his absence, said that he did not “want to be part of a political prop in this act of deception” and that Netanyahu “is not the great guardian of the U.S.-Israel relationship.” Thousands of protestors gathered outside the prime minister's hotel and outside the U.S. Capitol. The images beamed around the world show American discontent with Netanyahu’s rule and his policies. And if there's anything Israelis of all stripes unite around as a principle of their foreign policy approach, it’s this: Don’t mess with the U.S. relationship, not when Israel’s security depends on U.S. support on the world stage.
Let’s be real: Netanyahu could have quietly maintained the U.S. financial support and left the American public to wrangle with its own political demons. Instead, he decided the value of standing ovations from mostly Republicans and levying direct insults to American college students by calling them “useful idiots” was worth the risk of reminding a divided American public what an opportunist Netanyahu is.
Netanyahu proudly owned his choice to launch a ground invasion he can’t sustain and to gamble with Palestinian and Israeli lives in hopes of extending his own war powers. But the consequences will come. All Netanyahu has shown to the global community is that he is a failed leader who lives in a world of alternative facts and that, like Trump, he is a danger to the democratic future of his people.