The Israeli ruler calls Iran’s useful idiots To activists // Of 259 Democratic lawmakers from both chambers, 127 do not attend the speech
▲ Protests yesterday at Union Station against the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the US Congress headquarters.Afp Photo
▲ Palestinian-American Democratic lawmaker Rashida Tlaib, speaking yesterday during the Israeli Prime Minister’s speech.Afp Photo
David Brooks and Jim Cason
Correspondents
The newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, July 25, 2024, p. 25
New York and Washington
Thousands of protesters chanting Free Palestine, Free and carrying signs demanding a ceasefire and an end to US support for Israel’s war in Gaza surrounded the Capitol as US Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the divided Congress in a speech that showed growing opposition to what many call genocide and greater solidarity with the Palestinian people.
End US military assistance to Israelread several six-foot-high banners carried by protesters as they marched around the legislature’s famed central building. Inside, demonstrators in yellow T-shirts demanding an immediate ceasefire stood in the galleries at the start of Netanyahu’s speech, while the only Palestinian-American lawmaker, Rashida Tlaib, sat in the chamber holding a banner that read: war criminalon one side, and guilty of genocide of the other.
It was Netanyahu’s fourth address to Congress but the first in which Vice President Kamala Harris, who typically presides over bicameral addresses in her role as Senate president, did not attend, and there were also dozens of vacant seats in the Democratic caucus, which staged a boycott.
The event was notable above all as a demonstration of how much Israel’s war in Gaza is breaking the monopoly of the Zionist narrative that has held sway in the capital for decades and reducing support for the government in Tel Aviv. A day earlier, more than 500 young American Jews occupied the ground floor of one of the Congress buildings to protest Netanyahu’s presence and Washington’s support for his war, declaring: not in our nameand hundreds more were arrested Wednesday for blocking a street and trying to disrupt an event called by legislative leaders from both parties to honor a man accused by the International Court of Justice of being a war criminal.
Waleed Shahid, a Democratic strategist and spokesman for the progressive group Justice Democrats, reported that 127 of the 259 Democratic lawmakers in both chambers of Congress boycotted the Israeli leader’s speech, a dramatic increase from the 50 total who refused to participate in 2015.
It’s a war criminal: Sanders
Senator Bernie Sanders, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others did not attend the event. I think in Netanyahu you have someone who is a war criminal, a demagogue.Sanders said in an exchange with reporters after the speech. “He is a liar who in order to save his political skin in Israel – where he is not popular – is prepared to create a famine of hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza.”
Protesters carried huge papier-mâché puppets, one of President Joe Biden with blood on his hands and one of Netanyahu with a label identifying him as war criminalAmong the protesters were relatives of Jews who perished in the Holocaust along with Palestinian-Americans whose families have been murdered by the Israelis in Gaza.
In his speech to Congress, Netanyahu singled out among the audience both families of Hamas hostages and Israeli soldiers with Jewish and Muslim backgrounds as he sought to project Israel as a diverse democratic state. Despite International Court of Justice rulings against him and his government, ample video evidence and survivor testimony, the prime minister dared to declare that Virtually no civilians has died in Gaza. He repeatedly praised President Biden as a vital ally of Israel, but never mentioned by name Vice President Harris, who is virtually the Democratic presidential nominee.
Netanyahu never mentioned the word Palestinian while characterizing his country’s struggle as a clash between barbarism and civilization before arguing that if the US speeds up arms deliveries to Israel, the war will end more quickly. And Netanyahu left no doubt about his close relationship with Donald Trump, whom he also repeatedly praised to the cheers of Republican lawmakers. The Israeli leader will travel to Florida on Friday to meet with the former president.
Facing an unprecedented level of protest against his government, Netanyahu attacked American protesters in his speech, suggesting that Iran was funding the protests and calling on activists useful idiots from Tehran. But the very fact that he felt compelled to denounce them, and justify his government’s position, rejecting the International Criminal Court’s findings that there is evidence of genocide, only shows how the political circumstances surrounding the Washington-Tel Aviv relationship have changed.
The Republican Party fully supports Israel’s war and occupation of Gaza, as has President Biden to date. But the political and electoral cost for Democrats has increased, especially among young people, who will be key in the election. Therefore, it is being observed whether Harris’ candidacy will lead to any change in the policy promoted by her boss. Some critics are circulating a video of a speech by Harris in March where she declared that Given the immense suffering in Gaza, an immediate ceasefire must be reached.unlike what Biden was saying. But the vice president’s advisers have sought to assure that Harris firmly supports the State of Israel.
President Biden and Vice President Harris are scheduled to meet separately with Netanyahu on Thursday. All will be watching for any changes in the script.