[ad_1]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the U.S. Congress on Wednesday he was confident efforts to secure the release of Gaza hostages would succeed as pro-Palestinian demonstrators took to nearby streets.
“We are actively working to obtain the (hostages’) release. I am confident that these efforts will be successful,” he said after receiving a standing ovation.
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers did not attend his speech to Congress, expressing dismay over Israel’s military campaign in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory of Gaza, which has killed thousands of civilians and sparked a humanitarian crisis.
Hamas-led militants launched the war on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 captive, according to Israeli statistics. About 120 hostages remain, but Israel believes a third of them are dead.
“America and Israel must stand together,” Netanyahu said at the start of his speech to loud applause and cheers from Republicans and more muted responses from Democrats.
It was the fourth time a foreign leader had addressed a joint session of the House and Senate, a record that surpassed the three speeches by Britain’s wartime leader Winston Churchill.
Thousands of demonstrators took to nearby streets, and security was tight, the heaviest since the attack on January 6, 2021. There was a high fence around the Capitol, and police were stationed at the scene.
Just before Netanyahu spoke, U.S. Capitol Police reported that some protests had turned violent, prompting them to use pepper spray.
For months, pro-Palestinian groups and university students have been protesting in the United States against Israel’s offensive on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, which health authorities say has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly all of the 2.3 million Palestinians.
Netanyahu praised the Israeli army and condemned the Hamas attacks. His speech drew standing ovations and cheers from Republicans, while many Democrats remained silent as they criticized the heavy casualties and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The trip was carefully orchestrated by congressional Republican leaders but was less confrontational than Netanyahu’s last trip in 2015, when Republicans shunned then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat whose Iran policy Netanyahu criticized in a speech.
The trip comes as Netanyahu seeks to strengthen traditional ties with the Republican Party while also seeking to ease tensions with President Joe Biden, a Democrat on whom he will depend for support during the president’s remaining six months in office.
Netanyahu dismissed anti-war protesters in Washington as “anti-Israel,” saying they were funded by Israel’s traditional enemy Iran and accusing them of being “useful idiots” from Tehran. He blamed reports of a famine in Gaza on Hamas.
Absent legislators
Some lawmakers have said they are uncomfortable supporting Netanyahu and his far-right coalition government as his approval ratings in Israel continue to fall.
Others said they wanted Netanyahu to focus on reaching a ceasefire and bringing home all the hostages taken by Hamas in the deadly Oct. 7 attack that triggered Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip.
“For him, this is all about bolstering his support at home, and that’s one of the reasons why I didn’t want to participate,” Senator Chris Van Hollen told reporters. “I don’t want to be the political prop for this deception. He’s not a great guardian of the U.S.-Israel relationship.”
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie also said he would not attend. “The purpose of having Netanyahu address Congress is to bolster his political position in Israel and to calm international opposition to his war,” Massie wrote on the social media platform X, better known as Twitter. “I don’t want to be a prop, so I will not be attending.”
Some of the most prominent Democrats were absent from the speech. They included Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Senators Tim Kaine, Jeff Merkley and Brian Schatz, who sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray.
In the House, absentees included progressive Reps. Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as ranking members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ami Bera and Joaquin Castro, the top Democrat on the military, Adam Smith, and his counterpart on the Appropriations Committee, Rosa DeLauro.
Smith said he never attends the joint session, but he also said Tuesday that he is “very, very opposed to what Prime Minister Netanyahu is doing in Israel.”
The longtime Israeli leader addressed a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives in a city focused on domestic politics.
Biden announced on Sunday that he was ending his re-election campaign and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination to challenge Republican Donald Trump.
Harris, who normally hosts the speech in her capacity as vice president, will not be in attendance. Neither will Trump’s running mate, Republican Senator JD Vance.
In Harris’ absence, Murray will preside as the Senate’s senior Democrat. Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat who leads the Foreign Relations Committee, will take over for her.
Biden and Harris, who at times has been more vocal than her boss in criticizing Israel for the high number of Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza, are due to meet with Netanyahu on Thursday and are expected to press him to make progress toward a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.
Netanyahu was due to travel to Florida on Friday to meet with Trump, the first time the two have met since the end of Trump’s presidency, during which they developed a close relationship.
[ad_2]
Source link
