A defiant Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, dismissed as “utter nonsense” criticisms by the United Nations, human rights groups and others that his government has committed war crimes in Gaza and derided protesters as “idiots” and tools of Iran.
The embattled Israeli prime minister told U.S. lawmakers that Israel will settle for “nothing less” than total victory over Hamas, and described a vision for a postwar Gaza seemingly at odds with the terms of a peace deal being pursued by the Biden administration. The fate of Israel and the United States are inextricably linked, he claimed, making the case that U.S. investments in Israel’s war aims also serve to defend the United States and “all democracies.”
“We help keep Americans’ boots off the ground,” Netanyahu thundered, claiming that “Israel fights on the front line of civilization.” He praised the United States’ extensive annual military assistance, but implored Congress to deliver more. “Give us the tools faster, and we’ll finish the job faster,” he said.
“This is not a clash of civilizations. It’s a clash between barbarism and civilization. It’s a clash between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life,” Netanyahu said to cheers and applause in the House chamber, as outside the Capitol throngs of police deployed pepper spray to keep protesters at a distance.
Netanyahu’s address, spanning about an hour, comes as his far-right government nears the start of its tenth month of war in Gaza, where local authorities say 39,000 Palestinians have been killed amid daily bombardment and famine, and as a majority of Israelis say they want him to leave office.
He arrived on Capitol Hill in a bulletproof motorcade, passing through a phalanx of security as protesters marched through downtown Washington, condemning the Israeli leader as an accused war criminal and calling on the Biden administration to end its weapons shipments to Netanyahu’s government.
In his remarks, Netanyahu accused pro-Palestinian demonstrators of standing with the Hamas militants who staged October’s savage attack on Israel, triggering the Gaza war.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” he bellowed, alleging that Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy in the Middle East, is funding such protests throughout the United States and chiding their participants “useful idiots” and antisemites.
Although more than 50 lawmakers said they were boycotting the speech, there were only a few empty seats in the House chamber. Some had been filled by guests, including a group of Israeli soldiers highlighted by Netanyahu in his speech. One, who responded heroically during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 “killed many terrorists, and saved many lives,” he said.
“I am past pissed off. I am past upset. I am absolutely ashamed of what is happening,” Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) told reporters on a conference call alongside other Democrats and former government officials who resigned from their jobs in protest of the administration’s Israel policy. “Our government has been actively complicit in genocide every step of the way,” Bush added.
Many of the Democrats who did attend did so with resignation. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) was one, saying earlier this week that he had chosen to show up out of respect for Israel but that he considers Netanyahu to be “the worst leader in Jewish history.”
More than anything, however, Netanyahu’s fourth speech before a joint session of Congress — a privilege afforded to few foreign leaders, and to Netanyahu more than any other in U.S. history — underscored Israel’s staying power as a fixture of American foreign policy and as the largest recipient of U.S. military aid. If Democrats have wavered in their support, Republicans, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), have welcomed Netanyahu with open arms, praising his leadership since Hamas launched its cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw upward of 250 taken hostage.
The Biden administration and many congressional Democrats, who have grown increasingly vocal in their displeasure with Netanyahu’s conduct of the war, have nevertheless shied away from inflicting consequences on a key U.S. ally, leaving unimpeded the flow of billions of dollars in weapons, intelligence, and diplomatic commitments central to the two nations’ security relationship.
The administration has also been at pains in recent weeks to stress the fervent, months-long efforts by senior officials to negotiate a lasting cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that would see the return of the remaining hostages and pave the way toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. Officials have claimed repeatedly that a deal is within reach, with a State Department spokesman, Matt Miller, telling reporters earlier Wednesday that Washington is working “to bridge the final differences.”
But behind closed doors, officials and even some former Israeli officials, have acknowledged that Netanyahu and his cabinet have shown little interest in ending the war. Families of Israeli and American hostages in Gaza also have increasingly criticized Netanyahu for failing to deliver their loved ones from captivity.
“This administration has been pretty clear with us consistently where they thought the pressure needed to be,” Jon Polin, the father of American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, told The Washington Post in an interview. “They have told us when they thought it needed to be Hamas — and right now their belief is it’s more in Israel’s court.”
Netanyahu’s former Army chief of staff-turned-opposition leader, Benny Gantz, also on Wednesday accused Netanyahu of intentionally delaying a cease-fire deal by months, and leaving more Israeli hostages to die.
Netanyahu told his audience Wednesday that his government was engaged in efforts to bring home the hostages, and that when he spoke to the hostages’ families earlier this week he “promised them this: I will not rest until all their loved ones are home.”
As Netanyahu spoke to American lawmakers, doctors in the Gaza Strip said the ongoing carnage from Israeli bombardment and severe shortages in critical medical supplies had rendered them unable to save those they might have been able to under normal circumstances.
Almost 200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Monday, when Israeli forces launched a fresh operation in the city of Khan Younis, targeting Hamas militants whom it accused of launching rockets from the area. Doctors in the largest remaining hospital in southern Gaza have said in recent days that their wards have been deluged with civilian casualties, leaving blood banks near dry and an emergency room filled with children.
“I pulled a curtain back and there was just a small girl alone, dying,” Javid Abdelmoneim, a medical team leader with Doctors Without Borders, told The Post this week by phone from Gaza. “In a system where there were staff and supplies, and she was the one trauma case, we could have saved her,” he added. But they couldn’t. “She looked like she was eight.”
Although Vice President Harris, who has replaced President Biden atop the Democratic presidential ticket, declined to preside over the address, an aide emphasized her “unwavering commitment to the security of Israel.” Both she and Biden will meet with Netanyahu on Thursday instead.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Netanyahu would travel to meet with him at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, their first meeting since Trump expressed his fury toward the Israeli leader for recognizing Biden’s electoral victory in 2020.
Republicans have sought to capitalize on deepening liberal opposition to the U.S.-Israel relationship, particularly on college campuses, and have framed Democratic criticisms as nothing short of anti-Semitic betrayal in Israel’s hour of need. The GOP, Republican leaders have argued, is Israel’s only true ally.
“This is a moment for moral clarity, and it is unconscionable to us that the president of the United States and some of the leaders in the Senate are unable or unwilling to stand and say what is good and what is evil,” Johnson said last week.
Netanyahu also is no stranger to flame-throwing in U.S. politics. He used his last address to Congress, in 2015, to blast the Obama administration’s efforts toward an Iran nuclear deal, infuriating the White House.
While he sought to tread a more bipartisan line on Wednesday, praising the Capitol as a “citadel of democracy,” and avoiding partisan distinctions, he has made little effort in recent years to disguise his preference for the GOP, which has abstained from questioning Israel’s human rights record and its treatment of the Palestinians.
Steve Hendrix in Tel Aviv, Louisa Loveluck in Jerusalem, Marianna Sotomayor, Mariana Alfaro and Ellie Silverman contributed to this report.