Michael F. Brown
The Electronic Intifada / July 25, 2024
Members of the US Congress greeted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, with rapturous applause Wednesday when he spoke to a joint session of Congress for a record fourth time.
Unsurprisingly, many applauded when he smeared thousands of protesters in Washington, DC as “Iran’s useful idiots.” First Amendment rights to protest the Gaza genocide are not well regarded by many Washington politicians.
“For all we know, Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests that are going on right now outside this building – not that many, but they’re there – and throughout the city.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both Democrats, bear responsibility for joining Republicans in inviting Netanyahu into the chamber to disparage key Democratic constituencies.
Vice President Kamala Harris, now the expected Democratic presidential candidate, has yet to push back. She has loyally stood beside President Joe Biden – cited as “a proud Irish American Zionist” by Netanyahu – for nearly 10 months as his genocide deputy.
Rather than criticize the war crimes and genocide of Netanyahu and the prime minister’s remarks condemning protesters as “Iran’s useful idiots,” Harris released a statement condemning a small group of demonstrators.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib attended the speech wielding truth in a small sign that stated on one side “war criminal” and on the other side “guilty of genocide.”
Congresswoman Nancy Mace, a Charleston chauvinist who thinks she knows better about Israel’s oppression of Palestinians than Tlaib, and misses it altogether, referred in a tweet to Tlaib as being “Iran’s useful idiot.”
She was not alone in her hubris and anti-Palestinian racism as even former Congressman Madison Cawthorn piled on for the war criminal visiting Washington.
If you can’t deny Tlaib’s points, pound the Twitter keys and resort to ad hominem attacks.
A group of 84 anonymous congressional interns issued a press release denouncing Netanyahu’s address, insisting that he “must be held accountable for his crimes against humanity.”
In an email to The Electronic Intifada, the interns criticized the attacks on Tlaib, writing: “These attacks not only undermine the necessary decorum expected in political discourse but also distract from meaningful debates on policies impacting human rights and justice. We vehemently condemn these personal attacks, which have no place in our democratic discourse, and stand in full solidarity with Representative Tlaib.”
Republican Congressman Thomas Massie announced Wednesday morning he would not attend and was quickly criticized by Israel lobby group AIPAC.
CNN contributor Barak Ravid reported on the network Wednesday afternoon that 80-100 Democrats were expected to skip the address (Jewish Voice for Peace political director Beth Miller asserted it was over 130), surpassing the number who did not attend Netanyahu’s 2015 speech trying to scuttle President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, though Obama later nonetheless pushed through $38 billion in military aid for Israel.
Joe Biden, who at that time in 2015 was vice president and therefore president of the Senate, also did not attend the attempt to undermine the foreign policy of his boss.
Likewise, Harris did not attend Wednesday’s speech, but is expected to meet separately with Netanyahu on Thursday afternoon.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont did not attend the speech and called Netanyahu a “war criminal.” The term fits as Netanyahu has overseen genocide in the Gaza Strip and illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.
Sanders added, “Netanyahu should not be welcomed into the United States Congress … In my view, his right-wing, extremist government should not receive another nickel of US taxpayer support to continue the inhumane destruction of Gaza.”
Sanders, however, leaves the door wide open to fund a different government violating Palestinian rights as Israel has done since the 1948 dispossession of 800,000 Palestinians.
In possibly the most absurd comment of the year – in a year full of them – Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon, anti-Semite, gun fanatic who loves Israel, tweeted of Jewish Voice for Peace and allied protesters: “Pro-Hamas insurrectionists have infiltrated the Cannon House Office Building once again … Why are these people not being prosecuted the same way J6 protesters have been?”
At home among the mendacious maestros of the Beltway, Netanyahu felt free to lie about how well fed Gaza is, supposedly unparalleled measures taken to protect Palestinian civilians, and two babies he claimed were murdered in an attic.
The murder of these babies appears to be a new claim.
Nor has any credible source established that Hamas “burnt babies alive” as Netanyahu also put forward.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz noted in December that “Ten-month-old Milla Cohen was murdered in the massacre, along with the baby still in the womb of her mother who died after her mother was shot on the way to hospital. The police have no evidence showing that other babies were killed.”
The facts on infants as they are known today contradict the claims of the Israeli prime minister.
Netanyahu with his atrocity propaganda is stoking rage among the most powerful politicians in Washington and generating further congressional anger at the American protesters challenging the American and Israeli campaign of genocide in Gaza.
Amidst it all, he asked for “fast-tracking US military aid,” claiming “give us the tools faster, and we’ll finish the job faster.”
Faster genocide elicited audience applause.
And it’s the same talking point put forward today by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“I want him to finish up and get it done quickly. You gotta get it done quickly,” Trump lightly quipped of the genocidal reality.
Trump is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu on Friday in Mar-A-Lago, Florida, the same location where he met right-wing racist and anti-Semite Nick Fuentes in November 2022.
Michael F. Brown is an independent journalist
