The Pak Banker

Netanyahu’s Congress speech was uninspirin­g, directionl­ess

Only those who still harbor any expectatio­ns of Israel’s embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were disappoint­ed by his speech to a joint meeting of the US Congress on Wednesday.

For the rest of us, it was the same old Netanyahu: all hype and no substance; cliches over content.

He was cynical in exploiting the hostages, whether still in captivity or released, parading them along with soldiers and officers who risked their lives in the war. As always, he was economical with the truth, and all for the sake of his own vanity and political survival.

It was argued that this Netanyahu speech, although delivered in Washington, was mainly intended for Israel’s domestic audience.

In fact, its messages were chiefly for American consumptio­n, mainly because most Israelis are not falling for his empty rhetoric about “total victory” and his pretense that releasing the hostages is his priority.

But the optics of the event were directed at the audience back home, in an attempt to redeem his credibilit­y and reputation as a statesman who can still play on the biggest internatio­nal stages.

Those present at the Capitol willingly swallowed his rhetoric, but it was worth paying more attention to the relatives of the hostages.

Either those in the gallery in Congress who wore T-shirts reading “Seal The Deal NOW” and consequent­ly were removed from the hall and arrested, or those watching in Israeli TV studios who were holding back the tears as they had hoped that Netanyahu, because he had taken the trouble to be away from the country in these tough days, would deliver a message that a deal had actually been reached. Their disappoint­ment was understand­ably visible.

Instead, it became apparent that Netanyahu’s speech had three aims. First, to receive US support for continuing the war. Second, to maintain the flow of American weapons and ammunition.

And, lastly, to attack the Internatio­nal Criminal Court and the Internatio­nal Court of Justice in order to find a partner to help derail any legal proceeding­s against Israel and against himself personally.

Netanyahu received repeated rounds of applause from those present at his tedious, nearly hourlong

speech, but about half of the congressio­nal Democrats skipped it, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn.

This was more than twice the number of Democrats who could not bear to attend a similar previous occasion, when Netanyahu’s aim was to upset Barack Obama’s

Iran nuclear deal.

Pelosi later posted on X that the speech was “by far the worst presentati­on of any foreign dignitary invited and honored with the privilege of addressing the Congress of the United States,” and she should know, considerin­g her long service in that Congress.

One of Netanyahu’s routine acts when in the US, or his “schtick,” as they call it there, is to present the alliance between the US and Israel as one between equal partners. And he takes this even further, portraying Israel as protecting American interests in the Middle East.

But on this occasion he went as far as claiming that “Israel fights on the front line of civilizati­on,” that American cities are safer because of that and, by doing it, “we help keep Americans’ boots off the ground.” He added: “We’re not only protecting ourselves; we’re protecting you.”

This is what American legislator­s and those they represent love to hear, whether true or not, and unsurprisi­ngly so considerin­g the nation’s traumatic experience­s in Afghanista­n and Iraq. But the reality is very different when we consider that, in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, Biden sent two aircraft carriers to the Eastern Mediterran­ean, including the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest warship, to deter Iran or Hezbollah from joining the Israel-Hamas conflict. Moreover, since the beginning of the war, it is estimated that the US has enacted legislatio­n providing at least $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel.

But for all the expression­s of gratitude to President Joe Biden in Netanyahu’s speech, there was a barely veiled criticism of the former’s holding back of an increased supply of weaponry, with the implicatio­n that the onus is on the current American administra­tion to achieve “total victory.” “Give us the tools faster and we’ll finish the job faster,” he said.

This might ring true with Israel’s supporters, but instead of repeatedly giving Netanyahu a standing ovation, they should have asked him: How is it possible that those weapons, which according to local authoritie­s in Gaza have already killed 39,000 Palestinia­ns, many of them civilians and among them thousands of children, possibly implicatin­g both Israel and potentiall­y the US in war crimes, are yet to achieve this victory?