Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defiantly defended his country’s war against Hamas on Wednesday in an address to the U.S. Congress, vowing to pursue the fight against Palestinian militants until “total victory” and the return of the remaining hostages they are holding.
With thousands of pro-Palestinian, anti-war protesters in the streets outside the U.S. Capitol and more than 50 Democratic lawmakers boycotting his speech, Netanyahu said he was confident that negotiations for a cease-fire would eventually succeed. But he gave no hint of a breakthrough in the stalemated, monthslong talks.
Instead, he blamed Hamas for the continuation of the war, now in its 10th month. He attacked Iran for its funding of Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthis in Yemen, while assailing the nearby protesters and those at U.S. college campuses in recent months as “Iran’s useful idiots” helping Israel’s enemies.
“Iran is behind all the chaos, all the terror, all the killing,” he said to rousing cheers from most of the lawmakers in the House of Representatives chamber. Some of the Democrats who did attend the speech did not stand, applaud and cheer as often as many Republican lawmakers did.
Nonetheless, Netanyahu pointedly praised both Democratic President Joe Biden for his steadfast support in sending vast munitions to Israel for the fight against Hamas, and Republican former President Donald Trump for moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and other assistance during his presidency.
Netanyahu is meeting Biden on Thursday at the White House for an update on the war, and then flying to Florida to meet with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Friday.
Netanyahu compared the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel to Japan’s 1941 Pearl Harbor attack on a U.S. naval base that drew the United States into World War II, and the 2001 al-Qaida terrorist attack that killed nearly 3,000 people in the U.S.
He said that in fighting Hamas, “We’re not only protecting ourselves, we’re protecting you. Our enemies are your enemies.”
“Our victory will be your victory,” he declared. “We keep American boots off the ground. Give us the tools faster and we’ll finish the job faster.”
The U.S. has been Israel’s biggest arms supplier during the conflict.
“America and Israel must stand together. When we stand together, something really simple happens: We win, they lose," Netanyahu said. It was his fourth speech before Congress during his long tenure as the Israeli leader.
He said that when fighting ends, he hopes for a demilitarized and deradicalized Gaza where a new generation of Palestinians can “live in peace with us.” But in the meantime, he said, Israel must retain “overriding security control.”
Netanyahu introduced freed former hostages of Hamas and families of hostages watching the speech in the House chamber and lawmakers applauded. Meanwhile, security officers escorted out protesters in the gallery who stood up to display T-shirts with slogans demanding that leaders reach a deal to end the fighting and free the estimated 70 living hostages still being held by Hamas.
Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson first invited the Israeli leader, and he eventually was joined by the three other top-rung congressional officials, including two Democrats, in asking Netanyahu to update lawmakers on the state of the war.
Democrats who boycotted the Netanyahu speech said they were protesting Netanyahu’s conduct of the war and inability to reach a cease-fire.
One of them, Senator Dick Durbin, the No.2 Democrat in the Senate, said in a statement that Israel’s execution of the war in Gaza “is a brutal strategy beyond any acceptable level of self-defense.”
“Netanyahu’s refusal to consider any peace plan that gives both Israelis and Palestinians a guarantee of security is inconsistent with a peaceful conclusion to this age-old conflict,” Durbin said. “I will stand by Israel, but I will not stand and cheer its current prime minister.”
The likely Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, also skipped the speech in favor of a previously scheduled political speech to a Black sorority in Indianapolis, although she plans to meet with Netanyahu while he is in Washington.
Tall steel barriers ringed the Capitol Wednesday, and police deployed pepper spray as thousands of protesters rallied near the Capitol. Several protesters erected a large effigy of Netanyahu with devil horns and fake blood dripping from its mouth.
Some of the protesters carried signs that read “arrest Netanyahu” and “end all U.S. aid to Israel,” while shouting, “Free, Free Palestine.” Police lining Pennsylvania Avenue leading to the Capitol led away several protesters who were sitting in the street hoping to block Netanyahu’s arrival for his speech.
One protest organizer, Kaleem Hawa, told VOA, “The point of our mobilization today is that Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. And we want to send a message that he is not welcome in D.C. He’s not welcome in the U.S., and that Israel has become a pariah state because of the way they’ve conducted the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.”
Another protester, LouJane Lamasri, said, “He has the comfort of being invited to the U.S. He should be in handcuffs. He should be in jail. And he should be charged with his crimes and have to pay for his crimes against the Palestinians.”
Among the street demonstrators were a few supporting Netanyahu, including one who identified himself only as “Jeremy from Canada.”
“I am on the pro-Israel side, the pro-American side and the pro-Canada side,” he said. “The pro-Western values side, and I am against terrorists who hide beneath their civilians and start wars they cannot finish.”
The Israeli-Hamas war started with the October 7 Hamas terror attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages. Israel’s subsequent counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people, most of them women and children, according to Gaza health authorities, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. Israel’s military says it has killed thousands of Hamas fighters.
