- by William Briggs
- The Guardian
- Issue #2110
Photo: Nicolas Raymond – flickr.com (3.0 Unported)
Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington and his address to the Congress is just one more shameful indictment of America. While there were those in the Congress that refused to attend and listen to this tirade, the overwhelming number of those in attendance did so willingly and enthusiastically. Just 80 of the 535 members of the Senate and House of Representatives stayed away. The speech, laced with lies and invective, saw the Representatives and Senators rise to their feet to give standing ovations on at least 40 occasions!
Netanyahu declared that “for the forces of civilisation to triumph, America and Israel must stand together.” The “triumph” has seen tens of thousands die in Palestine. It has seen hundreds of thousands die in the cause of pursuing American foreign policy objectives. Netanyahu assured his audience that when these so-called forces of civilisation stand together, “something very simple happens: We win, they lose.” The assembled politicians rose to their feet and roared with applause to show their approval of an indicted war criminal.
Former presidential candidate and independent senator, Bernie Sanders, who refused to attend, declared that the day would be “unique … the first time in American history that a war criminal has been given that honour.”
The Israeli Prime Minister’s speech should have been seen as an insult to the intelligence of his audience. His claim that Israel has taken more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history, should have seen him howled down. It was applauded. He went on to say that there were practically no civilian casualties in southern Gaza or Rafah. Again and again, regardless of the size of the lie, the audience rose to their feet, apparently happy to stand side by side with the war criminal.
There was a small minority among the assembled politicians who expressed their disapproval. The only Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib briefly held up a placard that read, ‘war criminal’ on one side and ‘guilty of genocide’ on the other. Outside there were many thousands of protesters, many Jewish, who denounced the genocide and Netanyahu’s presence. He dismissed protesters as Iran’s “useful idiots.”
The speech attacked anyone or any organisation that dared to speak against Israel. In the face of near-universal global condemnation of Israel’s behaviour he condemned “the outrageous slanders that paint Israel as racist and genocidal [that] are meant to delegitimise Israel, to demonise the Jewish state, and to demonise Jews everywhere.” He attacked the International Criminal Court’s claim that Israel is using starvation as a weapon as “complete nonsense and a complete fabrication.”
While much of Netanyahu’s speech read like the work of a fantasist, there were moments when he spoke the unadorned truth. The USA defends and protects Israel and permits it to continue with impunity its acts of unabashed aggression. US leaders, like Australia’s, often say that Israel has the right to protect itself against aggression, as if the ongoing genocidal attacks are anything to do with self-defence. Netanyahu said truly that the USA “has our back”.
Before the event, Bernie Sanders remarked that “this invitation to Netanyahu is a disgrace and something that we will look back on with regret … With this invitation, it will be impossible, with a straight face, for the United States to lecture any country on Earth about human rights and human dignity.” Unfortunately for the world, the USA long lost any such right.
