When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of the US Congress this afternoon, he did so in front of dozens of empty seats. The boycott by members of the Progressive Caucus, in protest against the man they consider responsible for war crimes in Gaza, was accompanied by protests outside the Capitol, the seat of the legislature, from where Netanyahu called on his closest ally to speed up military support for Israel: “Give us weapons faster and we will finish the job sooner.”
In addition to the two youngest congresswomen, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Maxwell Frost, and dozens of other progressives, there have also been two other notable absences: the virtual Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, and the running mate ticket Donald Trump’s electoral candidate, JD Vance. The empty chair of Vice President Harris has been especially conspicuous, because as the second authority in the country, she is president of the Senate and leads, together with the president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, these types of speeches in joint session. Today she was not behind Netanyahu, nor was Senator Vance present: both have claimed scheduling problems, she due to a trip to Indianapolis and he due to “campaign duties.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel
“This is a struggle between barbarism and civilization, between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life.”
They all missed the extended ovation of those present and a one-hour speech – twice as long as Volodymyr Zelensky on his last visit – in which Netanyahu thanked President Joe Biden for his support in the military operation in Gaza and the effort to free the hostages. “He came to Israel to be with us in our darkest hour,” he said, calling him “a proud Irish-American Zionist.” And he warned that the war will not end until Hamas frees all the Jewish hostages: “I will not rest until our loved ones are home.”
On the possibility of the conflict reaching a regional scale in the Middle East, with the involvement of Iran, he said that this “is a fight between barbarism and civilization, between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life.” Israeli soldiers, some of whom were present in the Congressional rostrum, “will rise up like lions,” he warned.
Netanyahu thanks Trump for moving US embassy to Jerusalem
There was no shortage of references to former President Donald Trump, who could return to the White House in January. “We recently learned that Iran organized a plot to assassinate President Trump,” he said, and thanked him for “everything he did for Israel, from recognizing our sovereignty over the Golan Heights to confronting Iranian aggression, as well as recognizing Jerusalem as our capital and moving the American embassy there.”
When Netanyahu arrived at the Capitol, some 5,000 people were protesting around the building, and they greeted him with chants of “war criminal” and “Palestine will be free.” Like Derrick, a 32-year-old who arrived yesterday by car from Charlotte (North Carolina) and says he is here to protest against the “illegal occupation financed by my taxes” and the “complicity in the bombing of civilian populations, in Gaza and in all corners of the world.”
Some 5,000 people demonstrated outside the Capitol, which was cordoned off due to Netanyahu’s visit.
“As far as we know, Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests that are taking place right now in front of this building,” Netanyahu said, calling them “useful idiots of Iran” from inside the Capitol. Protests have also taken place there, such as that of progressive Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who has raised a banner from her seat that read “genocidal.” Tlaib, the only representative of Palestinian origin, said she would not attend, but in the end she was seen in the chamber wearing a Palestinian scarf and accompanied by Hani Almadhoun, who said that “she has lost more than 150 members of her extended family in Netanyahu’s genocide.” Among those in attendance was also the billionaire Elon Musk, who told Fox News that he had been invited by Netanyahu.
This is Netanyahu’s first official trip since October 7 and his fourth speech before the US Congress (where he was in 1996, 2011 and 2015), making him the world leader who has visited the legislative building the most times. It is not his first time before a chamber so divided regarding Israel. He already experienced it in 2015, when he was invited by the then-President of the United States. speakerRepublican John Boehner, without informing the Barack Obama administration, which was working on the nuclear agreement with Iran that Netanyahu opposed. On that occasion, 58 Democrats boycotted the speech. The invitation for this Wednesday, at the initiative of Johnson, also a Republican, was sent in a letter signed by the four leaders of Congress, including the Democrats: the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the minority leader in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.
Some 5,000 people have protested in front of Congress against Netanyahu’s visit
Harris will meet the prime minister at the White House tomorrow, as will President Joe Biden, in two parallel meetings, which will precede Trump’s invitation on Friday to his Mar-a-Lago residence (Palm Beach, Florida). The Republican, who opposes military aid to Ukraine but supports that of Israel, has already said on several occasions that, if he were president, he would help Tel Aviv to “finish the job” immediately and “eliminate” the “terrorists” of Hamas. In addition to his plan for the mass deportation of 15 million undocumented immigrants, he also has on his agenda the deportation of “Hamas allies”.
Israel is the largest recipient of US economic and military assistance since World War II. Not only is it an essential military and geographic ally, surrounded by Arab countries, it also has cultural ties and advantageous access to the natural resources of the Middle East region. In addition to the $3.8 billion that Israel receives each year in Congress-approved aid, since the state’s founding, Tel Aviv has received some $130 billion from the US in military, economic and development aid.
US support for Israel has become a weakness for the Democrats this year, as Biden noted during the primary process, in which hundreds of thousands of citizens cast blank votes as a sign of protest against the president. Although Harris has been more critical than the president, who has a long history of defending Israel from the Senate, she will inherit his political legacy, so any statement in this regard will be scrutinized. For this reason, her absence today has been applauded and criticized by defenders and detractors of the Palestinian State.
Anyone who wants to be president of the United States should keep in mind that most Americans approve of military aid to Israel in its offensive in Gaza, which has been going on for nine months since Hamas’s incursion into the south of the country on October 7, when it killed around 1,200 Israelis in one day and took a hundred hostages. Since then, Israel has bombed the north, centre and south of Gaza, driving its populations progressively southwards, committing what the UN refugee agency has described as “possible war crimes” and taking the lives of around 40,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Source: www.lavanguardia.com
