Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands accused of war crimes, and the popular political consensus within the U.S. and Israel suggests he is thwarting an attempted ceasefire in the horrifying war on Gaza for his own personal gain. But he received a hero’s welcome this week from the U.S. Republicans who are eager to stoke divisions among Democrats and animate evangelical voters during an election year.
Thousands gathered at the capitol for protests as Netanyahu prepared to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, including Palestinian activists and Israelis frustrated with Netanyahu’s failure to end the war and bring the remaining hostages home. House Speaker Mike Johnson joined Netanyahu for a press conference to reiterate U.S. support for Israel after previously warning that any Democrats or activists who attempt to disrupt the prime minister’s speech would be arrested.
“Our dear ally Israel is in an existential fight for its very existence, and that fight extends to every one of its borders,” Johnson said.
The sheer scope of the human suffering caused by Israel’s occupation of Palestine has come into focus in the United States after months of mass violence, famine and displacement. Now, unconditional U.S. support for Netanyahu’s ruling coalition in Israel is increasingly a partisan cause, and in some wings of the Republican party, fueled by Biblical prophecy and far right politics.
Netanyahu is isolated and even shunned on the international stage, but Johnson negotiated the address to both houses of Congress back in May. Netanyahu’s presence on U.S. soil was supposed to provide the GOP with an opportunity to leverage Israel’s war effort as a wedge issue thought to divide Democrats and confound President Joe Biden. However, Democrats are more skeptical of Netanyahu today than they were months ago, and public perceptions of Israeli policy have shifted in recent years as a younger generation of Jewish Americans came to view Israel as an apartheid state.
Support for Netanyahu also positions Republicans against international institutions loathed on the right. In a historic ruling on Friday, the International Court of Justice found Israel responsible for apartheid conditions in occupied Palestinian territory, a charge levelled by Palestinians and human rights groups for years. In a separate action, international prosecutor Karim Khan announced in May that he is seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas officials, over alleged war crimes. Israeli media has speculated that the arrest warrants could be issued in coming weeks.
“It’s a source of shame to watch the Israeli prime minister receive some of the highest honors this country can give a foreign leader just days after the world court declared illegal his flagship policy of permanent occupation,” said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of research for Israel-Palestine at the pro-democracy group DAWN, in a statement on Tuesday.
Dozens of Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) announced they would boycott ahead of Netanyahu’s speech, which they called a partisan distraction from the urgent task of freeing U.S. and Israeli hostages and delivering humanitarian relief to the starving people of Gaza. Vice President Kamala Harris would normally preside over such a speech but bowed out due to a scheduling conflict.
Sanders, who is Jewish, said Netanyahu’s policies toward Gaza and the West Bank, and his refusal to recognize an independent Palestinian state as part of a “two-state solution,” are major barriers to peace. In a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Sanders said Israel had the right to defend itself after the October 7 attacks by Hamas but has since then waged a “total war against the Palestinian people” and made Gaza unlivable. He went on to say that Israel should not receive another penny in U.S. military assistance while Netanyahu is in power.
“Since this war began, among a population of 2.2 million people, at least 39,000 Palestinians have been killed and 89,000 injured – sixty percent of whom are women, children, or elderly people,” Sanders said. “Most observers believe that death toll is much higher, because thousands of people remain buried under the mountains of rubble.”
Some lawmakers used more heightened rhetoric. Jamaal Bowman, a progressive Democrat from New York City who recently lost a reelection campaign to a candidate funded by the pro-Israel lobby, called Netanyahu a “genocidal war criminal” in an op-ed published Wednesday.
The last time dozens of top Democrats boycotted a speech delivered by Netanyahu to Congress was in 2015, when Republicans invited him to speak against President Barack Obama’s effort to strike a deal with Iran over its nuclear weapons program. At least 50 House Democrats left their seats empty while Republicans cheered on Netanyahu for attacking the first Black president’s signature foreign policy effort.
“So, I think certain things haven’t changed,” Phyllis Bennis, an expert on Israel and Palestinian rights at the Institute for Policy Studies, told Truthout. “The goal of Netanyahu coming here is, he wants to prevent any possibility of an easing of tensions with Iran, and he wants tensions to remain high and wants the U.S. to take the lead on that diplomatically.” Iran and Israel are enemies, and the agreement forged by Obama would have successfully stifled any nuclear ambitions Iran had for several years — before being scuttled by former president Donald Trump.
This time around, the threat of regional war is even greater, thanks in many ways to Netanyahu’s maneuvering since October. Israel has been trading fire with Hezbollah across the Lebanese border ever since it launched its war in Gaza, and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant threatened to bomb Lebanon “back to the Stone Age” in June. Houthis in Yemen are still attempting to blockade Red Sea shipping lanes in solidarity with Gaza, despite U.S. airstrikes. Palestinian militants are increasingly active on the occupied West Bank, where a deadly raid on a refugee camp by Israeli forces left a trail of destruction and killed at least five people this week.
Meanwhile, extremists in Netanyahu’s government are working with violent settlers to expand apartheid in the West Bank and push Palestinians out of their homes, in violation of international law. Disruptive protests against Netanyahu’s government are a daily occurrence in Israel as families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza plead for a ceasefire agreement that has so far remained elusive.
Polling shows that confidence in Netanyahu among U.S. voters has plummeted since last year, with 25 percent saying they have no confidence at all. In a poll taken in March, 52 percent of Americans said the U.S. should halt weapons shipments to Israel, including 62 percent of 2020 Biden voters. A Gallup poll found that 75 percent of Democrats do not approve of Israel’s war on Gaza, a 12 point increase from November to March.
Democrats initially showed broad support for Israel after October 7, but trust in Netanyahu’s leadership waned as he lashed out at Biden over weapons shipments and as the death toll climbed in Gaza. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a leading Jewish Democrat, has called for new elections in Israel. Even Biden, a stalwart ally of Israel, has suggested that Netanyahu is prolonging the war to stay in power. Netanyahu must appease far right members of his coalition to avoid new elections and potentially face lingering corruption charges once out of office.
“In Israel, unlike here, former leaders who get convicted do go to prison, and he doesn’t want to do that,” Bennis said.
However, Netanyahu’s main mission while in the U.S. is to keep weapons flowing to Israel, and despite the backlash, Bennis said he will get the weapons. Even as the U.S. takes part in multilateral ceasefire negotiations, the Biden administration has continued to supply Israel with weapons for the war on Gaza, and progressive critics in Congress do not have enough votes to force a change in course.
Both the speech before Congress and continued weapons shipments will make Netanyahu look stronger to Israelis at home; it’s a formula for positive news coverage the prime minister has exploited before.
The visit will also help Netanyahu tighten relations with Republicans and Christian nationalists who believe it’s their religious duty to help Israeli settlers establish sovereignty over the land between the river and the sea, especially Jerusalem — ethnically cleansing Palestinians in the process. Netanyahu is also scheduled to meet with former President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Friday, where he will likely be showered with praise. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu’s national security minister, endorsed Trump in an interview published on Wednesday, saying, “With Trump, it will be clearer that enemies must be defeated.”
Despite being politically isolated and dependent on the far right in both Israel and the U.S., Netanyahu can still carry out his trip with confidence and swagger, knowing there is little risk of losing U.S. military support.
“His reason for being here is his own ambition and arrogance … it’s what keeps him out of jail,” Bennis said.
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