Fariba Amini
Informed Comment / July 28, 2024
Newark, Del. – Netanyahu’s speech before a half full of the House of Representatives was a disgrace. It was not just a disgrace because he spewed his lies but because, in the middle of a genocide, those representatives of the American people rose and jubilantly accepted his lies.
Before America went to war in Iraq in 2003, the argument was that Saddam had chemical weapons. The lies were spread by the Neoconservatives, including Netanyahu. At that time, the then secretary of state Colin Powell — who later apologized — went before the UN and showed (non-existent) evidence that the Iraqi government had compiled weapons of mass destruction. It was all a hoax. After the invasion, the U.S. military found no stockpiles.
In 2002, Israel also claimed that every suicide bomber was paid $25,000 by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein regime. None of it was true.
The Israeli government under Netanyahu has made many false statements throughout the years about Iran. Iran is an obsession for him. Not that the Islamic Republic is not guilty of many wrong doings however the truth is that more Iranian officials were assassinated by Israel than Iran ever dared to do so vis a vis Israel. Nuclear data was stolen from Iran. No doubt it was the work of Mossad.
On January 3rd, 2020, General Soleimani was assassinated by the U.S. on Iraqi soil on the orders of Trump. But Trump didn’t act alone. The decision was made in Tel Aviv.
All the while, the Trump administration, upon the advice of Netanyahu, got out of the nuclear deal. It was a setback for peace in the region.
Now Netanyahu comes before the U.S. congress while thousands protested his presence. Many hostage families left the chambers in defiance of his lies.
In the last nine months, forty thousand Gazans have been murdered and the people of the world including many Israelis and many Jewish Americans have demanded a cease fire to no avail.
The lying PM whose premiership is held by a threat lied again.
He insulted American protestors as “useful idiots” paid by Iran. The absurdity of this claim is so far-fetched that even a few American media outlets mocked him.
He has zero credibility.
The Islamic Republic may have engaged in many dubious acts against its own citizens, but who is Netanyahu to cry wolf when he and his “humanitarian” IDF has been engaged in a genocide against unarmed civilians, killing babies and children, women, and innocents.
The Palestinians of Gaza are left with nothing. Nowhere to go, no home, no schools, no hospitals, no universities, no mosques, no churches. Only rubble after rubble which according to various estimates, it will take a decade to remove the rubble.
All the while, his right-wing fascist government glorifies this attack and shows no willingness to make a deal for the release of their hostages.
The world is outraged while this clown shows his face in U.S. soil and spews lies about an Iranian hand in the recent protests just like when he did about the danger of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons or when he claimed that in Iran nobody wears jeans! Thousands in Iran posted their photos with their jeans.
This last performance by Netanyahu is most probably the very last even if many in the U.S. congress who are paid by AIPAC loudly clapped and gave him standing ovation.
A shift in the U.S. policy towards Israel is necessary as we see it happening before our eyes. The farcical notion that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East has crumpled with this assault on Gaza.
Maoz Inon, an Israeli who lost his parents in the kibbutzim on October 7 was involved in the DC protests alongside his Palestinian friend who had also lost his brother at the hands of Israeli interrogators (Inon’s family did not seek revenge). He said Bibi’s brother died in courage, but Bibi will go down in history as the one who could not even defend his own people on October 7. They were busy grabbing land for the settlers.
It is time for him to go away and for the American lawmakers to show real spine and not invite war criminals to address them.
Bonus video added by Informed Comment:
Middle East Eye Video: “Unpacking Netanyahu’s Lies Before Congress”
Fariba Amini is a freelance writer and journalist
