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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. lawmakers that “our enemies are your enemies” in a landmark speech to Congress aimed at rallying support for the war in Gaza but instead sparked protests inside and outside the Capitol.
“When we fight Iran, we fight America’s most radical and brutal enemy,” Netanyahu said.
He added: “Our fight is your fight, and our victory will be your victory.”
The Israeli leader addressed a joint session of Congress, his fourth, and was warmly received by most Republican politicians.
However, the deliberate absence of dozens of Democratic members of Congress and the thousands of protesters in the streets outside highlighted the growing political divisions over the Gaza war.
The crowd gathered at a Capitol Hill stage draped with banners, including one declaring the Israeli leader a “wanted war criminal,” a reference to an arrest warrant sought by International Criminal Court prosecutors.
Five people were arrested inside the Capitol for trying to disrupt Netanyahu’s speech, according to police.
Netanyahu addressed the protesters, saying: “You have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.”
The Israeli prime minister has mentioned Iran several times, including by claiming that an “axis of terror” threatens the United States, Israel and the Arab world, describing it as a “clash of barbarism and civilization.”
The term derives from what Iran calls its “axis of resistance,” an alliance across the Middle East that includes the Palestinian group Hamas, the Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels who rule parts of Yemen.
He told Congress that Iranian proxy forces had attacked U.S. targets, adding that Iran believed “to truly challenge the United States it must first conquer the Middle East.”
“But standing in Iran’s way, in the heart of the Middle East, is a proud, pro-American democracy: my country, the State of Israel.”
In a speech lasting more than an hour, Netanyahu deflected criticism of Israel by describing the Gaza war as a battle for Israel’s survival in an effort to gain further military aid from the United States.
He thanked the United States for providing Israel with “generous military assistance” over the decades, adding that in return Israel provided the United States with critical intelligence that “saved many lives.”
But he called for an “accelerated” process of U.S. military aid, claiming it could hasten an end to the Gaza war and help prevent a wider regional war.
He quoted British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s appeal to the American people during World War II: “Give us the tools and we will do the job.”
Netanyahu did not discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza in detail, insisting only that Israel was providing enough food aid to provide 3,000 calories per person. If Gaza residents were not getting food, he said, it was because “Hamas stole it.”
He outlined a post-war vision for the Gaza Strip, calling for a “demilitarized, de-radicalized” zone under Israeli military control.
“Gaza should have a democratically elected government run by Palestinians who do not seek to destroy Israel. That is not too much to ask,” he said.
He did not mention the prospect of an eventual two-state solution, which is what President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his likely successor as the Democratic nominee, want.
Dozens of MPs absent
Despite multiple standing ovations, it could not conceal the fact that at least 39 MPs were absent from the speech.
Nearly all were Democrats, including influential former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said Mr Netanyahu’s visit was “inappropriate”.
Ms Harris was unable to attend, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts.
Throughout the speech, Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American member of Congress, held up a sign that read “guilty of genocide” and “war criminal.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, aware that Donald Trump could return to the White House, also thanked the former president for moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a territory Israel captured from Syria in 1967.
The two will meet in Florida later this week.
In Israel, families of hostages still held in Gaza gathered to condemn Khamenei’s speech, which was broadcast silently from Hostage Square in central Tel Aviv.
After the national anthem, the crowd dispersed and Netanyahu continued his speech on the screen.
The audio was muted, but his speech in English was subtitled with a Hebrew translation.
Shortly after the speech, the Israeli army announced it had brought back the bodies of two hostages, Maya Goren and Oren Golding, from Gaza, underscoring the fading hopes many of the hostages’ families have for their loved ones to live again after months of hostage negotiations have yielded no results.
The prime minister’s speech to parliament comes nine months into Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 39,000 people, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.
In retaliation for an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 that left about 1,200 people dead and 251 hostages, the Israeli military launched an operation to eliminate Hamas.
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