If there has ever been a true case of “preaching to the choir”, it was Netanyahu’s address to Congress yesterday. The 52 rounds of applause from the AIPAC stuffed wallets of sycophantic congressman were hard to tolerate. The opening applause sounded more like fans at Carnegie Hall begging their performer for an encore. It’s not surprising, since those in attendance are among the most diehard of supporters. Nothing Netanyahu said was unexpected, but his plea for more weapons at the end made his address sound like an infomercial.
Before getting into the specifics of what Netanyahu said, it is important to understand the central argument that is presented as the “special relationship” between Israel and United States. The narrative is that Israel and United States have the same interests; that both countries are close allies because of similar needs in this world. As Netanyahu is so fond of saying, “Israel’s victories are America’s victories and America’s victories are Israel’s victories” and the line he invoked at the address, “The Unites States and Israel must stand together. Something happens when we stand together, we win”.
A look at history will show that Israel and United States have a small overlap of interests, but they are not nearly as aligned as advertised. In fact, the United States has taken actions on behalf of Israel that are not in the United States best interests.
in his book, The Israeli lobby and US Foreign policy, takes a balanced view of this “special relationship”. He Believes that a Jewish State has a right to exist, and that the US should help Israel if its existence is being threatened. Mearsheimer also makes a strong case that Israel is not in any peril at this point, but that Israel’s refusal to negotiate on a two-state solution with Palestinians is the epicenter of its problems. Mearsheimer also sites ways in which the US has supported policy that is damaging to both countries. For example, Israel claims that it is enjoined with the United States in an effort to fight terrorism, when Israel is actually creating terrorists with their actions. The United States’ constant, unwavering, unconditional support has hurt both country’s image and standing throughout the world, along with their safety and security. Mearsheimer attributes these destructive policies to the influence the Israeli lobby has over US policy.Netanyahu slammed protesters
Netanyahu spent significant time berating protesters. He, of course, didn’t try to refute the points made by the protesters. That’s just not how modern political dialog works in 2024. He called up the old Russiagate chestnut calling protesters “useful idiots”, but this time, “Russia” was replaced by “Iran”. He provided no evidence for this allegation. He also said, “they should be ashamed of themselves” and that it was antisemitism, once again equating criticism of Israel’s policy with true antisemitism. He claimed that protesters “stood with Hamas”, when their real goal is stopping a genocide. Netanyahu also blames the universities for allowing protests. What he means is that it’s OK for universities to have protests, just not protests he disagrees with.
Imagine this. A foreign leader addresses US congress begging for more weapons and berates the US citizens for behavior he doesn’t like. He’s telling Americans what they can or cannot do. And congress applauded. This is a special relationship indeed.
Netanyahu denied Israel has killed innocent citizens
Perhaps his most outrageous moment was when he denied that Israel has killed citizens during the war. He feigned outrage that anyone could make such an accusation. Numerous sources have put the death toll at over 40,000. Even Biden, one of the biggest shills for Zionism ever, gave a death toll of 30,000. This number was given at the May 7 State of the Union Address. Others fear that the number could eventually be as high as 186,000.
Netanyahu compared October 7th to Pearl Harbor
Netanyahu tried to pull American heart strings by comparing October 7th to Pearl Harbor. It’s better than Adam Schiff calling Russian Facebook advertisements “the worst attack on US since Pearl Harbor”, but the analogy still carries little water. Pearl Harbor was the beginning of the US involvement in WWII, a war that had utterly devastating consequences. October 7th turned into an enormous overresponse by Israel, an actual genocide.
Netanyahu claimed he was framed by the Internation Criminal Court
Not surprisingly, Netanyahu denied everything that the ICC has accused him of:
Here’s a case in point: The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has shamefully accused Israel of deliberately starving the people of Gaza. This is utter complete nonsense. It’s a complete fabrication.
He purposefully neglected to say that the UN court, the highest court in the world, had recently called Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories illegal.
Netanyahu ignores IDF actions on October 7th (The Hannibal directive)
While Netanyahu accused Hamas of killing their own people, he failed to mention the Hannibal Directive that allows Israel to fire on its own people. According to the Greyzone, Israel issued this directive, telling the IDF to turn the area into a “killing field”:
According to Haaretz, the army was only able to restore control over Be’eri after admittedly “shelling” the homes of Israelis who had been taken captive. “The price was terrible: at least 112 Be’eri residents were killed,” the paper chronicled. “Others were kidnapped. Yesterday, 11 days after the massacre, the bodies of a mother and her son were discovered in one of the destroyed houses. It is believed that more bodies are still lying in the rubble.”
Much of the shelling in Be’eri was carried out by Israeli tank crews. As a reporter for the Israeli Foreign Ministry-sponsored outlet i24 noted during a visit to Be’eri, “small and quaint homes [were] bombarded or destroyed,” and “well-maintained lawns [were] ripped up by the tracks of an armored vehicle, perhaps a tank
Netanyahu Praised Trump
It must have been quite a site to watch the collective heads of Democratic congress members explode when they were caught by Netanyahu praising Trump for his assistance to Israel. They were trapped between their overwhelming support for Israel and their hatred of Trump with no seemingly sane way of reconciling that.
Netanyahu’s “vision” for Gaza
There were other troubling aspects to Netanyahu’s speech, such as his denial that Israel is a colonialist state and his vision of a future Gaza as a demilitarized state that can never pose a threat. He also talked about demanding leadership that doesn’t hate Israel. Unless Israel is willing to end its apartheid regime by ending its occupation and stopping the open-air prisons that Gazans live in, there is no chance to find leaders who won’t hate Israel. There was no talk from Netanyahu about any cease fire, long term peace or any change in Israeli ways. Even if Hamas could be eliminated, another group would rise up and take its place. That’s the way it is when people are oppressed. It’s astonishing that Netanyahu would even suggest, with policy kept as is, that another generation of Gazan’s should be taught to “not hate Israel”.
Netanyahu touts a NATO like security alliance
The most delusional idea that Netanyahu had was to form a NATO like security alliance in the middle east to help maintain peace. Considering how the West has exploited the mission of NATO by involving them in places like Libya, Iraq and Serbia, another security alliance is not what the world needs. One alliance with limitless mission creep is troubling enough. The West, especially the United States, uses NATO as its own mercenary army.
More weapons, please!
At a time when negotiation is needed, Netanyahu’s call for “more weapons so we can finish the job” does not bode well for the future. The scarier thought is “what does finish the job” mean? Does it mean “until the last Palestinian is dead”? Until all the land it taken over? Netanyahu was deliberately vague here. Only Israel with their special relationship can make that type of statement.
This article makes my mind go back to WWII and nazi Germany, and I wonder how much support from the west it had before Hitler started using. Was it like this? After Gaza has been resolved, will the west claim that they didn't support Netanyahu and his genocide of Gaza?
Also, it shows me how out of touch western leadership is with its citizens. People are protesting genocide everywhere any way they can. They're boycotting companies like Starbucks to the point where the company is really struggling. Yet our leadership is telling us that opposing this horrendous genocide means that we're anti-semitic. Not many of us are stupid enough to fall for that.
The standing ovations Netanyahu garnered from Congress is just sickening. How anyone can vote for a Democrat or a Republican is beyond me.
Agents of his government! this bought and paid for “war criminal Congress.” Ralph Nader on Xitter said over 300,000 have been killed, at two persons per bomb dropped. On his podcast he said the number was close to 750,000 when disease, water quality and starvation are addressed.