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Alameen Templeton
Israeli Fuhrer Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday tossed a hand grenade into domestic US politics, with a blazing speech before Congress full of Hitlerian promises of “total victory” in the Gaza genocide while police battled protesters outside.
“Our fight is your fight; our victory is your victory”, he roared before a raucous, joint sitting that about half of all Democrat lawmakers boycotted while protesters on the streets around Washington’s Capitol building chanted: “Netanyahu, you can’t hide; you’re committing genocide.”
“He’s given the presidency to Donald Trump on a plate,” one Republican pollster gleefully predicted. Many in the GOP are hoping Netanyahu’s address will be just the potion needed to split the Democrat vote down the middle.
A solid chunk of “true-blue” supporters has stood by president Joe Biden’s broad-spectrum, no-questions-asked support for the genocide while many younger voters and those to the left have fallen in with pro-Palestinian protesters.
If Netanyahu intended to cause a divisive split to keep US support going forward, he probably succeeded, but it may be just the medicine the country doesn’t need as divisive politics threaten to tear it apart.
He didn’t hold back, posturing, screaming, pounding the lectern and threatening as he drove his point home – the US is entangled to the hilt in the Gaza killing field and there can be no retreat now.
He slammed the door on any Democrat hopes of an rapprochement between its left and right wings, issuing a slap in the face for its “woke” supporters: “When the Tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.
It’s amazing, absolutely amazing. Some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming “Gays for Gaza.” They might as well hold up signs saying “Chickens for KFC.”
These protesters chant “From the river to the sea.” But many don’t have a clue what river and what sea they’re talking about. They not only get an F in geography, they get an F in history. They call Israel a colonialist state.”
His address before a joint sitting of Congress was “by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary,” former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said afterwards, The Hill reports. She had led the Democrat walkout and spent the afternoon speaking to families of Israeli hostages instead, The Guardian reports.
““Families are asking for a ceasefire deal that will bring the hostages home – and we hoped the Prime Minister would spend his time achieving that goal,” she said.
Many Democrats were hoping Netanyahu would call for a ceasefire instead of delivering what they got, a boots-and-all call for more war that has shattered any eggs their presidential nominee Kamala Harris was tiptoeing on ahead of his arrival.
She avoided the spectacle; some say she ran from it.
Harris said she had a “prior engagement”, Politico reports. She later issued a statement denying she had boycotted the event, but her absence will have been noted in Tel Aviv and in the Israeli media that are keeping a close eye out for any “genocide hesitancy” on her part.
Independent presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, was outraged at Netanyahu’s performance. Ahead of the address, he observed it “will be the first time in American history that a war criminal has been given that honour (of addressing a joint sitting)”, overlooking the fact that many US presidents have also addressed both houses.
Ever the bull in the China shop, Netanyahu charged straight for the elephant in the room and demanded: “Give us the tool and we’ll get the job done faster.”
“The job” is killing a child every 10 minutes and has taken the death toll to more than 39 000, with more than 89 000 civilians injured in nearly 300 days of relentless slaughter.
Netanyahu was due to meet Biden in the White House today where administration officials said they’d discuss the ceasefire deal and a “framework” agreement with Hamas. Clearly, the Biden administration is feeling the protest heat as the election nears.
While officials were at pains to emphasise they were working hard on the deal, as they have done now for nearly 300 days, it seemed the usual Israeli intransigence would be in the mix. Hamas has already agreed to a ceasefire.
“I don’t expect the meeting to be a yes or a no,” one official ventured hopefully.
The New York Times reports Netanyahu had no time for niceties and liberally poured petrol onto the protest flames: Anti-war activists were “Iran’s useful idiots”, he said, insisting: “Many anti-Israel protesters choose to stand with evil. Many stand with Hamas.”
All Israel News claims his address was a “masterclass in global diplomacy”, describing it was Netanyahu’s “most powerful speech of his career”.
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