In his speech to a joint session of Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country is the largest recipient of U.S. aid, repeatedly misled Congress. The Jewish newspaper The Forward (July 25, 2024) points out that Netanyahu “misrepresented comments by the president of MIT, implied that Jewish demonstrators protesting his speech could be funded by Iran, and said that college students didn’t know the ‘River’ and the ‘sea’ in their anti-Israel chants (a May poll found two thirds did).”
CNN commentator Jeremy Diamond said that Netanyahu did not in any way provide any evidence that the International Criminal Court was not correct in charging that Israel was starving the people of Gaza. Diamond pointed out that members of Netanyahu’s own cabinet had publicly called for starving the people of Gaza. There is, declared Diamond, “clear evidence” that Israel has sharply limited aid to Gaza—-causing the death of more than 40,000 Palestinians. Netanyahu also clearly misstated the facts when he said that there were “almost no civilian casualties” in Rafah, according to Diamond.
U.S. policy under both Republicans and Democrats has always called for a two-state solution and the creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu opposes the creation of a Palestinian state and members of his cabinet speak of annexing the West Bank and expelling its indigenous Palestinian residents. Still, members of Congress repeatedly applauded Netanyahu’s misstatement of facts.
In the future, Netanyahu is likely to be tried for war crimes. Those in the U.S. Congress who have provided him with the means for illegally occupying the West Bank for more than 50 years—-and imposing a system that Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, call “apartheid,” should also be held accountable.
Beyond all of this, Netanyahu has turned his back on Jewish moral and ethical values. For a different Jewish point of view, see the website of the American Council for Judaism, whose publications I edit. The website is:
ALLAN C.BROWNFELD