Netanyahu’s Speech to Congress Disappoints Many Israelis: Latest News
Israel’s leader traveled some 5,000 miles and did not give an inch.
Addressing a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back on condemnations of Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza and lavished praise and thanks on the United States for its support.
He offered a retort to harsh international criticism that Israel had done far too little to protect civilian lives in Gaza and was starving the population there. And he remained defiant in the face of the global pressure over a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, giving little hint that Israel would back down from the fight anytime soon.
Here are some of the highlights.
He name-checked both Biden and Trump.
Mr. Netanyahu was careful to walk a middle path, thanking both Democrats and Republicans, including President Biden and the Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, for their support.
“I know that America has our back,” he said. “And I thank you for it. All sides of the aisle. Thank you, my friends.”
He expressed particular appreciation for Mr. Biden’s “heartfelt support for Israel after the savage attack” led by Hamas on Oct. 7. But he also made a point of praising Mr. Trump, who as president was more receptive to some of his expansionist policies.
He denied that Israel was starving Gazans.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has requested arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity for Mr. Netanyahu and the leaders of Hamas. But Mr. Netanyahu rejected accusations by the court’s prosecutor that Israel was deliberately cutting off food to Gazans.
“Utter, complete nonsense, a complete fabrication,” he declared.
Israel, he said, has enabled more than 40,000 aid trucks to enter Gaza during the war.
However, U.N. aid officials say Israel is responsible for most obstacles to getting aid to desperate Palestinians. Mr. Netanyahu said members of Hamas were stealing the goods.
He rejected blame for the heavy civilian loss.
More than 39,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the Gaza health authorities, who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. But Mr. Netanyahu again rejected Israeli responsibility. He denied deliberately targeting noncombatants and said the Israel Defense Forces had worked hard to protect them.
“The I.D.F. has dropped millions of fliers, sent millions of text messages and hundreds of thousands of phone calls to get Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way,” he said.
But those directives often confuse Gaza civilians who struggle to find any safe place to shelter amid the incessant airstrikes and bombardments that have lasted for more than nine months.
Mr. Netanyahu again blamed Hamas, saying it “does everything in its power to put Palestinian civilians in harm’s way” by using schools, hospitals and mosques for military operations.
International law requires combatants to avoid using such “civilian objects” for military objectives. But Israel’s critics say that Hamas’s use of civilian sites does not absolve Israel of its obligations under international law to protect civilians, nor does it explain the scale of death and destruction.
He played up diversity in Israeli society.
During the speech, Mr. Netanyahu called on a few Israeli soldiers in the audience to stand up, including one of Ethiopian descent and another who is Bedouin, citing their heroism and their important role in the Israeli military. It appeared to be an effort to convey that Israel and its military are not homogenous.
“The Muslim soldiers of the I.D.F. fought alongside their Jewish, Christian and other comrades in arms with tremendous bravery,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
Ethiopian Jews and Bedouins in Israel are often marginalized, but the prime minister offered a different portrayal.
He sketched out a vague vision of peace.
The Israeli prime minister has been accused by critics in Israel and some diplomats of dragging his feet in reaching a cease-fire deal with Hamas to end the bloodshed, possibly to preserve his own political longevity.
But Mr. Netanyahu said “a new Gaza could emerge” if Hamas was defeated and Gaza “demilitarized and de-radicalized,” adding that Israel “does not seek to resettle Gaza.”
He turned to past world conflicts to make his case, noting that the approach of demilitarization and de-radicalization was used in Germany and Japan after World War II.
There is broad concern, however, that in Gaza the trauma of the war will yield a new generation of radicalization.
The common enemy? Iran, he said.
“If you remember one thing, one thing from this speech, remember this: Our enemies are your enemies,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Our fight is your fight. And our victory will be your victory.”
Iran, he said, wants to impose “radical Islam” on the world and sees the United States as its greatest enemy because it is “the guardian of Western civilization and the world’s greatest power.”
He argued that Iran-backed militias like Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, whatever their aggression against Israel, are actually fighting a different war.
“Israel is merely a tool,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “The main war, the real war, is with America.”
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