It is not a surprise that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a well-known foreign leader in Washington. Nor is it a surprise that he has entertained very close relations, both personal and professional, with both Republicans and Democrats, in addition to enjoying good media coverage in the US.
He studied in the States and worked in Israeli diplomatic missions in Washington and New York. This background has served him well with the executive and with both Houses of the US Congress. From May 1996, when he was first elected Israel’s prime minister, until today, he has dealt with five US presidents, including former presidents Bill Clinton (Democrat), George Bush (Republican), Barack Obama (Democrat), and Donald Trump (Republican), and Democratic incumbent Joe Biden. It is likely that he will also deal with the next US president after the presidential elections are held in November.
He is the only foreign leader who has addressed a joint session of both the Senate and the House of Representatives four times. On one occasion, he appeared before such a session without prior coordination with the White House. That was in March 2015, when then Republican speaker of the House John Boehner invited him without the consent of Barack Obama, who I would say properly saw fit not to invite him to the White House.
We saw a repeat of this on 24 July when Netanyahu, invited by Republican Speaker of the House Mark Johnson, stood before the Senate and the House to deliver almost an hour-long speech that was full of lies. Netanyahu has blood on his hands for the thousands of innocent Palestinians who have lost their lives owing to US-made bombs delivered to the Israeli army over the last ten months of the war Israel has unleashed on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the 7 October attacks by Hamas last year.
Nevertheless, this time around incumbent US President Joe Biden received Netanyahu at the White House, and there was a separate meeting with the presumptive candidate of the Democratic Party in the presidential elections later this year, Vice-President Kamala Harris.
The remarks delivered by Netanyahu in front of the joint session of Congress were met by sustained applause that surprised many Americans and led Nancy Pelosi, the former Democrat speaker of the House, to describe the speech as the worst ever given by a foreign leader before the US Congress.
As expected, Netanyahu turned the joint session of Congress into political theatre. Known for his penchant for over-dramatisation, he likened the 7 October attacks against Israel to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941 and the 11 September 2001 attacks on Washington and New York City combined.
He spoke about the necessary unity between the US and Israel in fighting the “forces of barbarism” and said that his country, in fighting these “forces” and standing firm against Iran, was in fact defending US interests, meaning that the US will not need to send boots on the ground to the Middle East. This is a message that will be appreciated by both Republicans and Democrats, who have come to shun military involvements in the troubled region.
Recognising that the US is in a critical election cycle, he praised both Biden and former president Trump for their steadfast support for Israel and called on the administration to provide the “tools” – meaning weapons – to Israel so that it can “finish the job” faster. The “job” here refers to the “total victory” that Netanyahu says is one of the main objectives of the Israeli war on Gaza.
Throughout his speech, there was not a single word about a political settlement of the Palestinian question. On the contrary, Netanyahu claimed, as all Zionists do, that Israel will forever keep the land that “the Jewish people have inhabited for the last 3,000 years”.
His vision for the day after in Gaza ran counter to the official US position. He said that Israel would keep control of the Strip for some time to disarm Hamas and de-radicalise the Palestinians so that a new generation would be ready to live in peace with Israel. Of course, there was no time frame suggested in this regard, and it is a position that leaves the door wide open for the open-ended Israeli control and presence in Gaza.
Netanyahu also dealt with another vision of his concerning the larger Middle East. He spoke about a military alliance that would include the US, Israel, and “Arab partners,” suggesting that this would carry the name of the “Abraham Alliance” to counter Iran and its affiliated organisations in the Middle East.
Such visions are dead on arrival, at least as far as Egypt is concerned.
When I was a teenager, I read a fascinating book by former US president John F Kennedy entitled “Profiles in Courage.” In the book, Kennedy chose nine 19th-century US Congressmen who against all the odds decided to stand up firmly and courageously against vested interests in order to uphold the principles that they held dear. I still remember a quotation from the book in which Kennedy said that “the courage of life is less spectacular than the courage of the final moment, but it is no less magnificent. A man does what he must.”
After reading the book, I came to look at the US Congress as a bastion of truth and moral and political courage and as an institution that adopts rational and principled positions in domestic politics as well as in foreign policy. The political theatre that I witnessed on 24 July made me realise that I was naive. My only solace is that I believed that the moral and political courage of those nine US Congressmen would be replicated in later Congressmen.
I do not see how we can be strategic partners of the US after the moral bankruptcy that was on display in the US Congress on 24 July this year.
The writer is former assistant foreign minister.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 1 August, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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