Portside

Unless the GOP in Congress has a last-minute rethinking, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel will enjoy his record-setting fourth address to a Joint Session of Congress on July 24, 2024. Scores of Democrats are boycotting the event. Meanwhile, in Gaza, Netanyahu is committing mass murders and war crimes and killing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians, most of them children and women, blowing up their crucial life-saving facilities, and wounding the survivors rendered homeless and defenseless against Biden-provided deadly weapons.

Netanyahu’s first address to Congress was on July 10, 1996, when a younger Netanyahu promised to end U.S. aid to a prosperous Israel and received a standing ovation. He obviously has broken this promise, as his U.S. lobbies have demanded tens of billions of more U.S. taxpayer dollars.

Netanyahu’s third address to Congress on March 3, 2015 bypassed then-President Barack Obama in an arrogant breach of protocol. The supine Congress gave him many standing ovations.

The push for Netanyahu’s forthcoming address was spearheaded by the fanatic GOP House Speaker Michael Johnson (R-La.) who easily politically intimidated House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) into going along.

Johnson’s invitation has outraged many Israelis—majorities of whom despise Netanyahu, who is under indictment by Israeli prosecutors for corruption and because of his attacks on the judiciary and destruction of their protest rights.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told CNN regarding the invitation to Netanyahu, “I think this is wrong.” Hundreds of House and Senate staffers are signing petitions urging Democratic lawmakers to protest or boycott it. The staffers pointed to “bombings of schools, hospitals, and mosques” and a “campaign of mass starvation against Palestinian children” in addition to censoring media coverage of the devastation.

Noting that world opinion is overwhelmingly against Netanyahu’s genocidal war on Gaza, the staffers’ letter emphasized that “Israelis have been protesting in the streets for months, decrying his failure to negotiate a cease-fire and release of hostages.”

An outstanding affirmation of these sentiments by congressional staff came on June 26, 2024 in an op-ed in The New York Times by six very prominent Israelis, including a former prime minister, titled “We Are Israelis Calling on Congress to Disinvite Netanyahu.” It is pertinent to present an excerpt from this urgent dispatch, as follows:

WE ARE ISRAELIS CALLING ON CONGRESS TO DISINVITE NETANYAHU

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By David Harel, Tamir Pardo, Talia Sasson, Ehud Barak, Aaron Ciechanover, and David Grossman

The leaders of the U.S. Congress have invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to address a joint meeting of the Senate and the House of Representatives on July 24. Normally, we Israelis would consider the invitation recognition of our two nations’ shared values and a welcome gesture from our closest friend and ally, to whom we are deeply and morally indebted.

But Congress has made a terrible mistake. Mr. Netanyahu’s appearance in Washington will not represent the State of Israel and its citizens, and it will reward his scandalous and destructive conduct toward our country.

We come from a variety of areas of Israeli society: science, technology, politics, defense, law, and culture. We are thus in a good position to assess the overall effect of Mr. Netanyahu’s government, and like many, we believe that he is driving Israel downhill at an alarming speed, to the extent that we may eventually lose the country we love.

To date, Mr. Netanyahu has failed to come up with a plan to end the war in Gaza and has been unable to gain the freedom of scores of hostages. At the very least, an invitation to address Congress should have been contingent upon resolving these two issues and, in addition, calling for new elections in Israel.

Inviting Mr. Netanyahu will reward his contempt for U.S. efforts to establish a peace plan, allow more aid to the beleaguered people of Gaza, and do a better job of sparing civilians. Time and again, he has rejected President Joe Biden’s plan to remove Hamas from power in Gaza through the establishment of a peacekeeping force. Such a move would very likely bring in its wake a far broader regional alliance, including a vision to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is not only in Israel’s interest but also in the interest of both political parties in the United States. Mr. Netanyahu constitutes the main obstacle to these outcomes.

The man who will address Congress next month has failed to assume responsibility for the blunders that allowed the Hamas assault, initially blaming security chiefs (then quickly backtracking), and has yet to announce the establishment of a direly needed state commission of inquiry headed by a Supreme Court judge to look into the fiasco.
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Above all, many Israelis are convinced that Mr. Netanyahu has obstructed proposed deals with Hamas that would have led to the release of the hostages in order to keep the war going and thus avoid the inevitable political reckoning he will face when it ends.
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For months now, many of us have participated in nationwide demonstrations demanding an immediate release of the hostages, an end to the war, and immediate elections. Polls of Israelis show that a majority want immediate elections, or elections right at the end of the war.

A large portion of Israelis have lost faith in Mr. Netanyahu’s government.
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That’s where Mr. Netanyahu’s speech to Congress fits in with his political needs. No doubt it will be carefully stage-managed to prop up his shaky hold on power and allow him to boast to his constituents about America’s so-called support for his failed policies.

His supporters in Israel will be emboldened by his appearance in Congress to insist that the war continue, which will further distance any deal to secure the release of the hostages, including several U.S. citizens.

Giving Mr. Netanyahu the stage in Washington will all but dismiss the rage and pain of his people, as expressed in the demonstrations throughout the country. American lawmakers should not let that happen. They should ask Mr. Netanyahu to stay home.

This full communication to the American people can be seen either inThe New York Times or the Congressional Record of July 11, 2024.

There will be mass protests outside Congress on July 24 by Jewish Voice for Peace, CodePink, Veterans for Peace, and other civic groups. But there would be a great benefit for boycotters like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Progressive House Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) to secure a House Committee Room and invite, via Zoom, these six leading Israelis to testify before the media on the same day. These messages could reach the grisly, complicit architects of this disgraceful defamation of the Peoples’ Legislature more than the bullhorns of the upstanding peaceful protesters kept far away by the security police.

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Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate and the author of "The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future" (2012). His new book is, "Wrecking America: How Trump's Lies and Lawbreaking Betray All" (2020, co-authored with Mark Green).