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THE NETANYAHU SHOW - On July 24, Netanyahu will address a joint session of Congress thoroughly prepared to spew a litany of lies and distortion regarding the truth of what precipitated Hamas’ attack, why he is so vehemently against the establishment of a Palestinian state, and why Iran and its ‘axis of resistance’ pose an existential danger to Israel. Known for his strong affinity to the Republican Party, coming to Congress amid presidential elections, he will speak to mostly receptive Republican members of Congress who would like nothing more than to show greater support to Israel than the Democrats. And, of course, leave it for Netanyahu to stoop to any depth only to see Trump be re-elected against any Democrat, believing that Trump will give him free rein to do whatever he wants to the Palestinians.
Hamas’ Attack
For obvious reasons, Netanyahu will start by describing Hamas’ attack where 1,200 Israelis were butchered, and 250 others abducted. He will explain that the scope of the horrific attack and its tragic results justify Israel’s declaration of war against Hamas, which rained unprecedented death and destruction on the population of Gaza, killing nearly 39,000 Palestinians (more than half women and children) and laid much of Gaza in ruins. He will further assert that the campaign against Hamas must continue until the terrorist group is totally destroyed and prevent it from ever reconstituting itself to govern Gaza again.
True, Israel has every right to defend itself; however, Netanyahu will not explain who made it possible for Hamas to undertake such a daring attack. The answer is Netanyahu and no one else.
Netanyahu knew all too well that Hamas was shaped into what it is today by Israel, going back more than a decade before he became prime minister in 1996. Former Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who was the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s, told a New York Times reporter that he had helped finance Hamas as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Fatah party, stating “The Israeli Government gave me a budget and the military government gives to the mosques.” Netanyahu continued pursuing this policy from the day he came to power in 2008.
He will not tell Congress that under his watch for the nearly uninterrupted 17 years as prime minister, Hamas constructed more than 350 miles of tunnels; under his watch, Hamas procured and manufactured 20,000 rockets; under his watch, Hamas enlisted and trained and armed somewhere between 35,000 and 40,000 fighters, and he will not admit that under his watch Hamas was regularly smuggling weapons and construction machinery to Gaza through tunnels under the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
And worse, Netanyahu will not tell Congress that he was the conduit that happily funneled billions of dollars from Qatar to Hamas, of which Hamas dedicated 55 percent to its military preparedness. In March 2019, Netanyahu proudly stated that “Whoever opposes a Palestinian state must support the delivery of funds to Gaza because maintaining separation between the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.” All along, Netanyahu has been lying to the public, suggesting that under his watch, Hamas is controlled and poses no imminent danger.
Netanyahu will not tell Congress that his repeated assertion that Hamas is a threat to Israel’s security was calculated to serve his political interest. In response to Hamas’ provocations, which he welcomed, he was happy to dispatch his troops to Gaza several times to “mow the lawn” to keep Hamas at bay and bolster his badly sought reputation as “Mr. Security.” And, of course, he will not admit to Congress that he is responsible for the Hamas attack, which took place under his watch, blaming everybody else for his colossal failure.
Vehement Opposition to a Palestinian StateTo be sure, Netanyahu will lie to Congress and rail against the establishment of a Palestinian state on the grounds that such a state will pose an existential danger to Israel when, in fact, the precise opposite is the truth. From the day he rose to power in 1996, he was resolute and made no secret of his desire to scuttle the 1993 Oslo Accords, which laid the foundation for a two-state solution. In December 2023, he stated at a press conference, “I will not let the State of Israel go back to the fateful mistake of Oslo.”
Netanyahu will lie when he tells Congress that his opposition to the creation of Israel is based on national security grounds, as he stated in January 2024: “My insistence is what has prevented — over the years — the establishment of a Palestinian state that would have constituted an existential danger to Israel. As long as I am prime minister, I will continue to strongly insist on this.” The truth is that his opposition to a Palestinian state is rooted in his biblical conviction that all the land from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River belongs to the Jews, which he reaffirmed in 1997, stating, “This is the land of our forefathers, and we claim it to the same degree that the other side claims it.”
Since the occupation and expansion of settlements are central to the fulfillment of his messianic claim to the land, he will lie to the face of Congress when he tries to justify the occupation of the West Bank as being indispensable to Israel’s national security. To lend credibility to his false argument, he will point to the Palestinians’ frequent acts of violence, which he deliberately provokes. Since he returned to power in 2008, he has spared no effort to make the Palestinians’ lives unbearable. He has systematically been oppressing the Palestinians, subjecting them to forced evacuations, administrative detention, and night raids, demolishing their homes, and confiscating their land.
At the same time, several hundred Palestinians are being killed every single year; since last October, 550 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank. All the while, he let settlers harass and intimidate the Palestinians, poison their wells, uproot their trees, and block them from grazing on their land, forcing many to leave their villages in desperation.
Finally, he will again lie to Congress when he falsely claims that Israel is the only true democracy in the region when, in fact, Israel has long since lost its democracy with the start of the occupation. Whereas Israeli citizens are granted full civil and judicial rights and all other trappings of democracy, the Palestinians are governed by harsh and often inhumane martial laws, making a mockery of what constitutes a true democracy.
Iran’s ‘Existential Threat’Leave it to Netanyahu to wave the flag of Iran’s nuclear program and lie again about the existential threat that it poses against Israel. There is no doubt that Iran is a threat to Israel, but it is far from being existential, with or without nuclear weapons. Yes, Iran has been supporting financially and militarily its ‘axis of resistance,’ especially Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, while rapidly advancing its nuclear weapon program. Netanyahu's policy toward the Palestinians and Iran only deepened Tehran’s hostility toward and opposition to Israel. A solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which Netanyahu consistently sought to prevent, would have pulled the rug from underneath the mullahs, but that would not have served Netanyahu’s interest.
He opposed the Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). In March 2015, he gave a highly controversial speech in US Congress against the agreement, which the Republican Speaker of the House Boehner arranged without prior consultation with the Obama administration; it led to significant political tensions and was boycotted by nearly 60 Democratic lawmakers. Netanyahu acted so foolishly and in defiance of a Democratic president, reminiscent of what he is about to do again. Had he subsequently not persuaded Trump to withdraw from the deal, Iran would not have reached the nuclear threshold, which, ironically, Netanyahu was deeply afraid of, but then, it was he who made it possible.
Every Congressmember present during Netanyahu’s address ought to remember that cheering for Netanyahu is cheering for the prolongation of the Gaza war, the prevention of the establishment of a Palestinian state, more wars, violence, and destruction, and regional instability, making Israel less secure and potentially dragging the US into a regional war.
Netanyahu’s piles of lies will disgrace Congress and, in particular, those Republicans who invited him only to score a political point or two and pay for it with Israeli and Palestinian blood.
(Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.). [email protected] Web: www.alonben-meir.com
