Mitchell Plitnick
Mondoweiss / July 20, 2024
Benjamin Netanyahu will use his upcoming speech to a joint session of Congress to consolidate political support for the genocide in Gaza from both Republicans and Democrats. The leadership of both parties appear happy to oblige.
There is not much that is certain about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to a joint session of Congress on July 24. The shameful display of a leader credibly accused of corruption and fraud in his own country; and a war criminal, who, despite the delaying tactics employed by the British and German governments, is likely to face an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court in the very near future, won’t soon be forgotten.
But it is difficult to say what Netanyahu plans to do with this opportunity. Reports in late June suggested that Netanyahu intended to use the speech to hold open the narrowing pathway to a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia. This now seems unlikely in the wake of the statement from the Knesset this week clarifying, in undeniable terms and with the support of the opposition leader, Benny Gantz, the parliamentary body’s opposition to a Palestinian state. Saudi Arabia, with the support of Joe Biden’s administration, has made it clear that a path and commitment to a two-state solution is a basic requirement of any normalization deal with Israel.
While the Knesset statement was largely political grandstanding, it certainly was heard loud and clear in Ramallah and in Riyadh. The statement is non-binding, which means Netanyahu could, if he chose to, present himself as a more statesmanlike figure, willing to keep the diplomatic door open even when the Knesset wants him to slam it shut.
That would be similar to what Netanyahu did fifteen years ago in his speech at Bar Ilan University, when he implied acceptance of a two-state solution, even though his party was opposed to it. But the 2024 Netanyahu is not the 2009 Netanyahu.
More likely, Netanyahu will say that, in the wake of the October 7 attack, Israel cannot be expected to tolerate a Palestinian state, but that after Hamas is “eliminated” some sort of arrangement could be made for governance of both the West Bank and Gaza with Israeli security control. It will either be something like that or he will abandon the attempt to build even a narrow, rickety bridge to the Saudis altogether.
Presidential politics
If Netanyahu does choose the latter, that will mean he is abandoning a goal that President Joe Biden has pursued passionately since he took office in 2021. And it will tell us something about how Netanyahu is looking at his own strategy regarding the U.S.
Netanyahu is going to have to walk a fine line with this talk. He cannot do what he did in 2015 and attack Joe Biden’s policy the way he did Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. Netanyahu knows well that Biden has been remarkably supportive of his genocidal campaign in Gaza and has effectively ignored Israel’s escalation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. He wants that to continue through the end of the year and beyond, if Biden or another Democrat wins the White House in November.
Netanyahu also needs to worry about Congress. At least one seat in the Senate, in West Virginia, is certain to flip to the Republicans, but if a Democrat wins the presidential race, that means Democrats would still control the Senate if (and it is a big “if”) Republicans don’t capture another seat. Democrats are not likely to flip Republican seats in the Senate, but it is possible they could win control of the House. In any of those cases.
Netanyahu will still need some support from Democrats, beyond the most shameless pro-Israel figures like John Fetterman, Ritchie Torres, Josh Gottheimer, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and the rest of the usual AIPAC suspects.
There is also Donald Trump to think about. Trump’s relationship with Netanyahu soured after his loss to Biden, and his tendency to hold grudges throws the relationship with Israel into some question. No doubt, Trump will follow through on his commitment to Miriam Adelson to push for annexation of the West Bank, but he might not necessarily be as personally supportive of Netanyahu himself as he was in his first term.
Netanyahu will need to balance all of these concerns in his speech. Unfortunately, Biden, with his usual lack of foresight, sacrificed some significant leverage over Netanyahu by granting him a meeting at the White House before the speech. Had he scheduled it after, Netanyahu would have had one more concern, as his own domestic difficulties in Israel have heightened the need for him to get the boost that comes from being feted at the White House. He would not have wanted to jeopardize that photo op, something Biden has been depriving him of since he entered office. But Biden gave that up with the short-sighted decision to schedule the meeting before Netanyahu’s address to Congress.
We can expect Netanyahu to bring up the assassination attempt against Trump, and he is also likely to discuss what a “great friend of Israel” Trump has been. And he certainly won’t be quite so insulting as to not acknowledge the support Biden has given him, but how much he praises each man will give us more insight into how he is strategizing about the United States for the rest of the year and into 2025.
Bogus antisemitism accusations
One thing we can safely anticipate is that Netanyahu will focus on stoking the flames of false accusations of antisemitism. The demonstrations that are certain to greet him when he comes to town and goes to Capitol Hill are certain to be targets of his ranting on this score.
More than that, Netanyahu will seize this opportunity to press Congress for more witch hunts based on the false notion that anti-Zionism, indeed any criticism of Israel, is antisemitism. If the protests are noteworthy enough, he will certainly mention them in his speech as examples of antisemitism.
This aspect of his speech can be expected to be an attempt to add fuel to the already raging fire in Congress, led mostly by Republicans but with the pathetic acquiescence of most Democrats, that seeks to attack free speech and academic freedom under the guise of fighting antisemitism. Real antisemitism, of course, does not worry Netanyahu. The atmosphere of fear that any bigotry engenders is what he thrives on.
Gaza
Ultimately, the genocide in Gaza is likely to overshadow everything else. Netanyahu will surely play up the angle he and other Israelis have frequently used: that the war is against Hamas and, by extension, Iran, and is being fought on behalf of not just Israel but the entire Western world. This theme, which resonates with the deep Islamophobia, anti-Arab, and especially anti-Palestinian racism in the U.S. and Europe, echoes the language of both the war on terror and the defense of Ukraine against Russia. It thus speaks to both militaristic hawks and those liberals who see the campaign in Gaza as defense against reactionary and violent forces. Both camps, though very different, draw from the same racist well.
Netanyahu is also likely to want to reinforce Iran’s role as the great evil in the world, an effort that is more necessary now with a relatively moderate Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in power. He will want to make sure that both parties in Congress are dead set against any ideas of opening dialogue with Pezeshkian’s administration.
This will also likely tie into the rumblings of war against Lebanon in the coming months, a battle Israel will find far more challenging than their onslaught against Gaza. They will need a lot more help from the United States to wage that war, and even then are facing an uphill battle in many ways. Even if Netanyahu doesn’t eventually launch a full-scale war against Hezbollah, he will want the United States to arm Israel sufficiently for the event. Congress will be the key, and among both Democrats and Republicans there are those, for wildly different reasons, who will be reluctant.
Drawing attention back to Israel and Palestine
Ironically, both Netanyahu and many advocates for the Palestinians share one goal: putting Israel back in the headlines, albeit in very different ways. With the Republican National Convention this week on the heels of the drama over Joe Biden’s declining facilities, Gaza and Israel have fallen out of the headlines.
For Palestine supporters, this is especially traumatic, as it highlights the fact that Biden’s full partnership in Israel’s genocide was not disqualifying. For supporters of Israel, who worked hard to make their presence known at the RNC, they are concerned that the Biden administration will use the shifting spotlight to press harder for a ceasefire they do not wish to see. This may seem unlikely outside of the pro-Israel camp, but it is their concern.
Who will show up ?
What American voters who want to see a better future for all the people living between the river and the sea should pay close attention to is who is in the audience and how they respond. While there have been some rumblings about Democrats skipping the speech, many of them have said that they object to it but are going anyway.
But a letter from 230 congressional staffers, from both parties, called for members and staffers to boycott the speech, a remarkable development. And there have been some prominent Senators, like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and House members, including Pramila Jayapal, Jim Clyburn, and Don Beyer who have publicly stated they will stay away. But, while it is likely that more members will quietly avoid the speech, the list of those who have committed to doing so is depressingly short.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has threatened to arrest members who disrupt Netanyahu’s talk. It speaks volumes that a leader of the party that cheered its own members when they heckled Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden during their State of the Union addresses would issue such a threat to shield a foreign leader and war criminal.
Mitchell Plitnick is the president of ReThinking Foreign Policy; he is the co-author, with Marc Lamont Hill, of Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics
