by the Editorial Board
On Wednesday, imperialist politicians gave repeated standing ovations—roughly every 30 seconds—to the lies and empty demagoguery of the genocidal Benjamin Netanyahu, who broke a record for speaking more times before congress than any other foreign leader. The exaggerated reception for his hour-long speech—which lacked not only skill but also truth, to the extent that numerous monopoly media outlets were forced to run fact-checking articles about it—belies a desperate old man drowning in the ocean of blood he is responsible for, on the verge of collapse, begging his masters to keep him afloat.
He painted a picture of an idyllic Israel that was one day randomly attacked by “monsters”, a day of “infamy” that brought Israel into a “clash between barbarism and civilization”. He delivered Hollywood-esque war stories in what sounded more like a bad American action movie than a political speech. He described how one soldier ran 8 miles to fight Hamas because “he didn’t have a car”, a second soldier who is allegedly returning to the front to command tanks after being maimed, and a third soldier who allegedly lost a leg but continued to fight. These stories culminated in a sales pitch for more military equipment, as the IDF has recently admitted a shortage of tanks, crews, and ammunition.
In his bloodthirsty delusions, Netanyahu cast the blame for everything anti-Israel on Iran, whom he mentioned in his speech about as much as he mentioned Hamas. He portrayed Iran and the US as mortal enemies between whom only Israel stands, stopping short of requesting a full-scale invasion. He began his speech by stating: “In the Middle East, Iran’s axis of terror confronts America, Israel, and our Arab friends. This is not a clash of civilizations. It’s a clash between barbarism and civilization. It’s a clash between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life.” He went on to claim that the “Tyrants of Tehran” are funding the anti-Israel protests in the US, and that, “[i]n the Middle East, Iran is virtually behind all the terrorism, all the turmoil, all the chaos, all the killing.”
Netanyahu’s speech beats war drums against Iran, something US politicians and media have also been intensifying over the last several months. For US imperialists, it means arms and oil profits; for Netanyahu, it means the hope to retain power through direct US military intervention and securing Israel’s existence for a little while longer. But Netanyahu is gripped in the mad frenzy of the gallows—while his writhing desperation is applauded by his puppeteers for putting on a good show, the cold realities of American capital have not yet reached an existential threat. The US is hesitant to deploy a full-scale ground invasion, not only because it is strategically pivoting to contain China in East Asia, but also because they would certainly be drowned along with their military outpost of Israel in a torrent of the Iranian and Arab masses in their hundreds of millions. That the US has claimed months ago that they cannot militarily defeat Ansarallah in Yemen, and the top IDF spokesman recently said Hamas cannot be destroyed are enough to prove this point.
The failing prime minister also devoted a great deal of time attacking the young people protesting against imperialism in the US, showing his frustration by casting insults and aspersions at them. He claimed the protesters “choose to stand with evil”, and unironically accused them of “refus[ing] to see the difference between those who target terrorists and those who target civilians”. Turning his ire from the students to the administrators of the universities, he referred to them as “befuddled academics” and used the tried and untrue Zionist tactic of conflating any criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
But the butcher’s confident delivery of inciting lies is necessary to conceal the weak old man that he is, hated by the masses of the world and the people of his own country, who, on the verge of being ousted, comes to the US to beg his masters for “[f]ast tracking US military aid”. His desperate speech is in part the accomplishment of the Palestine Solidarity Movement and proves that their protests are working and that they must keep at it. It is like Chairman Mao Zedong said, to be attacked by the enemy is a good thing.
Likewise, the fact that over 100 congress members refused to attend the speech also proves the protests are working. The politicians utilized it as a petty campaign stunt while continuing to fund and arm Israel, and it remains the task of the Palestine Solidarity Movement to continue to expose their opportunism and push for an election boycott. The farcical nature of the invitation is all the more apparent by the fact that, not only is Netanyahu in the middle of carrying out an internationally-recognized genocide, but also that the majority of Americans have little or no confidence in him. Meanwhile, elected officials rushed to applaud at every pause in his speech.
Vice President and 2024 presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris stated that she could not preside over the joint session because of a scheduling conflict. Despite the fact that she had a private meeting scheduled with Netanyahu the following day and confirmed her support for Israel, both Republicans and Democrats have used it to argue that she is anti-Israel to appeal to their respective voting base.
On Thursday, Netanyahu met with Biden, whom he thanked for his support during his speech, as well as Harris. On Friday, Netanyahu is meeting with Trump at his Florida resort in Mar-a-Lago. Netanyahu also thanked Trump for his support during his administration, and denounced the recent attack on him, saying “[t]here is no room for political violence in democracies.” Try as he might to please the US imperialists by repeating their hypocritical slogan, it is defiled all the more when uttered by the man they pay to do their dirty work.
For their part, the protesters have given Netanyahu no rest. His arrival to DC on Tuesday was met with loud demonstrations that continued through his stay. Light projections and posters were put up across the city, including on the Capitol Building, with a “Wanted” sign with Netanyahu’s face on it. At the Watergate Hotel where Netanyahu was staying, activists left mealworms and maggots on banquet tables, and released crickets and activated fire alarms on several floors. Several fountains around Capitol Hill were dyed red to signify that Netanyahu and Congress have blood on their hands.
On the day of his speech, thousands of protesters blocked major intersections around Capitol Hill in an effort to prevent Netanyahu from delivering his speech. At Union Station, protesters took down an American flag and raised a Palestinian flag in its place, burning the American flag along with Israeli flags and an effigy of Netanyahu. The burning of the American flag in particular has caused the ire of numerous US politicians despite it being a constitutionally-protected right. Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called their actions “vile” while Harris said they were “despicable acts”. The protesters have vowed to continue, and the Democrats will be left to face the repercussions of their hypocrisy and two-faced opportunism at the upcoming Democratic National Convention in August.
