Yves here. Lambert will have ample coverage of the horrible Netanyahu speech in Links and probably Water Cooler today. Nevertheless I am also running this post to provide further witness to US complicity in the genocide in Gaza, plus the fact that things have become so patently horrific that even normally AIPAC-captured-or-cowed Congresscritters are engaging in visible disapproval. Far less action than needed to stop these war crimes, but nevertheless an important sign in the US that public sentiment is moving more and more away from Israel.
Unfortunately, this process took nearly two decades to produce regime change in South Africa. And the Israelis know, on current trajectories, they can exterminate or ethinically cleanse all Palestinians in Israel by then.
By Brett Wilkins, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams
Following her call for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest during his visit to Washington, D.C., U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib protested the right-wing leader’s Wednesday address before a joint meeting of Congress by holding up a sign reading “war criminal” and “guilty of genocide.”
“They will not erase us. Palestinians exist and we deserve to live. Our presence today will be a reminder that we aren’t going anywhere,” Tlaib (D-Mich.) said on social media. “I will never back down in speaking truth to power. The apartheid government of Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.”
Tlaib—the only Palestinian American member of Congress—brought a guest: Hani Almadhoun, “who has lost over 150 members of his extended family in Netanyahu’s genocide” in Gaza.
“After witnessing his sister forced to eat animal feed, he and his family were determined to start a soup kitchen to feed their starving neighbors,” the congresswoman said. “The Israeli apartheid regime is using starvation as a weapon of war, a war crime.”
Joining me in the chamber today is Hani Almadhoun, who has lost over 150 members of his extended family in Netanyahu’s genocide. After witnessing his sister forced to eat animal feed, he and his family were determined to start a soup kitchen to feed their starving neighbors. pic.twitter.com/H5Wtj2N1Ql
— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) July 24, 2024
More than 135 congressional Democrats, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) boycotted Netanyahu’s speech.
“Netanyahu is not only a war criminal. He is a liar,” Sanders said on social media. “All humanitarian organizations agree: Tens of thousands of children face starvation because his extremist government continues to block aid. Israelis want him out of office. So he came to Congress to campaign.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said, “Just so we’re clear, Netanyahu has lost so many people that he is addressing just a fraction of Congress.”
“When this happens, they fill the seats with nonmembers, like what they do at award ceremonies, in order to project the appearance of full attendance and support.”
Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) said on social media: “I won’t attend Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech today. His military has reportedly killed over 39,000 Palestinians. He hasn’t brought the hostages home. He hasn’t made Israel any safer. We need tangible actions to end this war and all the suffering—not performative gestures.”
“It’s *because* of my Jewish upbringing and values that I cannot attend Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address today,” she explained.
I will not be attending @Netanyahu‘s speech to Congress.
I only regret that an arrest warrant for his war crimes has not yet been issued by the ICC, as I would have gladly served it to him on the House floor.
Unfortunately, Netanyahu doesn’t stand for peace in the Middle East. pic.twitter.com/6mNEfSsrif
— Rep. Mark Pocan (@RepMarkPocan) July 24, 2024
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said in statement: “I am boycotting Netanyahu’s address. Today, families of Israeli hostages called the prime minister’s speech a ‘PR stunt’ intended to cover up his own failures.”
“Not only has Netanyahu failed to safely return the hostages—he has killed, harmed, or displaced nearly every Palestinian in Gaza, has failed to keep Israelis safe, and is risking the United States’ own security by trying to drag us into another endless war in the Middle East,” he continued.
“The United States must end unconditional military aid to the Israeli government, and instead secure an immediate cease-fire, a return of the hostages, and long-term peace,” Casar added.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) wished Tlaib a happy birthday in a social media post saying, “To my sister Rashida: You were born for a time like this.”
“The only Palestinan in Congress during a genocide of your people,” he added. “Sitting through a speech of that war criminal as colleagues applaud. You stand strong. We love and honor you.”
Last month, a Palestinian girl survived a missile strike in Gaza. Her brothers died, and she couldn’t get medical care for a month.
Netanyahu is a war criminal. It’s a shame he is addressing our Congress. Our tax dollars should not be spent on killing children. pic.twitter.com/aqkYjCZAnh
— Congressman Jamaal Bowman (@RepBowman) July 24, 2024
Stephen Miles, president of the peace group Win Without War, said in a statement that “we are grateful to the many, many members of Congress who chose to not attend Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress today.”
“This was a political stunt dreamed up by a House speaker trying to score political points and embraced by the prime minister as a desperate ploy to try and blunt the massive global condemnation and domestic political opposition he faces,” Miles added. “It’s a speech that never should have happened.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also the Senate president, did not preside over Wednesday’s meeting. Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in the wake of President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race earlier this week, is scheduled to meet privately with Netanyahu on Thursday.
Netanyahu’s speech—which was met with frequent uproarious applause from lawmakers and other attendees—took aim not only at Hamas “monsters,” but also against “Iran’s axis of terror,” which he said “confronts America, Israel, and our Arab friends.”
I was there. It was disgusting. https://t.co/CwnS7q1XKo
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) July 24, 2024
I only regret that an arrest warrant for his war crimes has not yet been issued by the ICC, as I would have gladly served it to him on the House floor.
Unfortunately, Netanyahu doesn’t stand for peace in the Middle East. pic.twitter.com/6mNEfSsrif
— Rep. Mark Pocan (@RepMarkPocan) July 24, 2024
“This is not a clash of civilizations, it’s a clash between barbarism and civilization, between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life,” said the leader of a nation whose armed forces have killed or wounded more than 130,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
Netanyahu condemned what he called the “slanders that paint Israel as racist and genocidal” that are “meant to demonize the Jewish state and demonize Jews everywhere.”
Taking aim at pro-Palestinian protests across the United States— many of them Jewish-led—Netanyahu lamented that “many anti-Israel protesters choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers.”
“For all we know, Iran is funding the protests that are taking place outside right now,” Netanyahu said, citing unsubstantiated Biden administration claims. “When the tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting, and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.”
“Some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming, ‘Gays for Gaza,'” he mocked. “They might as well hold up signs that say, ‘Chickens for KFC!'”
“These protesters chant, ‘From the river to the sea,’ but many don’t have a clue what river and what sea they’re talking about,” the prime minister added.
Hundreds of Jewish-led demonstrators were arrested inside a congressional building on Tuesday while protesting the U.S. government’s continued support for Israel’s assault on Gaza and Netanyahu’s then-forthcoming address. Thousands more protesters took to the streets of Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, where peace groups planned to surround the Capitol.
“There is a war criminal in town,” Council on American Islamic Relations national executive director Nihad Awad saidin a speech to protesters. “This war criminal Netanyahu has a long history of crimes against humanity.”
Thousands of protesters are currently starting marching in DC towards the Capitol to protest Netanyahu’s visit to Congress today while police are seeming to try to stop the march 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/LattoOSpG6
— Gerard (@GerardDalbon) July 24, 2024
During his speech, Netanyahu also thanked Biden “for his heartfelt support for Israel after the savage attack on October 7,” which the prime minister said was “like 20 9/11s in one day.”
Biden has expressed his “unwavering” support for the key Middle Eastern ally and has approved billions of dollars in new military aid and more than 100 arms sales to the country since October. The Biden administration has also vetoedseveral United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Netanyahu implored the U.S. to give even more, saying, “Give us the tools faster, and we will finish the job faster.”
“The war in Gaza could end tomorrow if Hamas surrenders, disarms, and returns all the hostages,” added the prime minister, who for years facilitated massive financial support for the militant resistance group—whose political arm rules Gaza—in order to weaken the Palestinian National Authority.
On Monday, Tlaib said that Netanyahu should be arrested while in the United States.
“Netanyahu is a war criminal committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” she argued. “It is utterly disgraceful that leaders from both parties have invited him to address Congress. He should be arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court.”
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan has applied for arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity including extermination committed on and after October 7.
During his speech, Netanyahu accused the ICC of “blood libels” against Israel, saying the tribunal “shamefully accused Israel of deliberately starving the people of Gaza”—allegations echoed by the South Africa-led genocide case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), United Nations experts, and human rights groups.
During his speech to Congress, Netanyahu says Israel has allowed in aid equal to 3,000 calories for every man, woman, and child in Gaza.
It's been 291 days. That's 10 calories a day. https://t.co/S9EcVOQiRb
— Miranda Cleland (@MirandaCleland) July 24, 2024
U.N. World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain said in May that there is “full-blown famine” in Gaza, where dozens of Palestinians—mostly children—have died due to malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of medical care, and hundreds of thousands of others are on the brink of starvation.
Netanyahu also accused the ICC of lying about Israeli forces “deliberately targeting civilians,” over 39,000 of whom including 16,000 children have been killed since October.
The prime minister claimed that Israel “has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history, and beyond what international law requires.”
“The ICC is trying to shackle Israel’s hands and prevent Israel from defending itself,” Netanyahu said. “And if Israel’s hands are tied, America’s are next.”
“The hands of the Jewish state will never be shackled,” he added. “Israel will always defend itself.”
Netanyahu further claimed that civilian casualties during Israel’s recent Rafah offensive were “practically none,” ignoring hundreds of Palestinians including many women and children who died in Israeli attacks on the city and its environs, including multiple massacres of refugees in tent encampments.
Netanyahu’s congress speech was lie after lie after lie: he says no civilians killed in Rafah: but worse still, applauding his speech is a stain on America pic.twitter.com/Xnwg93vuPs
— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) July 24, 2024
Israeli forces “should not be condemned for how they’re conducting the war in Gaza, they should be commended for it,” Netanyahu asserted.
Israel Defense Forces troops have been accused of torturing, raping, and summarily executing Palestinian civilians, including children. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres last month added Israel to his so-called “List of Shame” of countries that kill and injure children during wars and other armed conflicts.
In addition to its ICC woes and the ICJ genocide case, the latter tribunal ruled last week in a separate case that the 57-year Israeli occupation of Palestine is an illegal form of apartheid that must end “as rapidly as possible.”
This may be a bit off topic, but it has come to my attention in the last 48 hours.
A friend who is a conservative rabii in New York was in Israel for a conference (he describes it as basically a form of continuing education, and goes each summer). This year, the attendees at the conference were taken to the site of the Nova Music Festival, and met with someone who was taken hostage and subsequently released by Hamas.
Not coincidently I am sure, the 23-year-old son of a close friend went on a “birthright” trip a few weeks ago and his group was also taken to the site of the Nova Music Festival and met with someone who was taken hostage and subsequently released by Hamas (I don’t know if it was the same person).
Disgustingly, but not surprisingly, Isreal has seemlessly integrated this event into its Hasbara aimed at foreign Jews.
And the beat goes on.
The current Auschwitz “exhibit tour”, advertised on radio from Boston, is irrelevant given the Israelis are now the perps.
Replace with Nova Music Festival tours.
C’mon, I couldn’t help but laugh. Is that how famed Mileikowski deftly manipulates American public opinion? The man has lost his touch (especially considering a non-negligible amount of the population thinks the government did it).
On another note,
This is true in a general sense, sadly, but I am heartened that both the guerrillas in Gaza and Hezbollah together with Ansarallah are still putting on a hell of a fight and making those monsters pay. As it turns out, the only language the settlers speak is violence, and the Resistance has become quite fluent in it.
“This is not a clash of civilizations, it’s a clash between barbarism and civilization, between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life,” said the leader of a nation whose armed forces have killed or wounded more than 130,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
At least he spoke the truth in the above quote. He, and Israel, just happen to be wrong on which side of the line that divides “barbarism and civilization” they belong sit and where history will record far into the distant future, if there is one.
Not sure this is in the main links, but Michael Tracey did a great job on filling in for Glen Greenwald in covering Speech and 2025 which I’ve not really been up to speed on. I appreciate MT”s sarcasm. I don’t think I could have stomached watching the speech itself.
Netanyahu’s Speech To Congress; Project 2025: Untangling Fact From Fiction with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts; PLUS: Max Blumenthal on Israel | SYSTEM UPDATE #303
https://rumble.com/v58awdv-system-update-show-303.html
Pocan’s tweet shows up twice.
Fixing, I had a huge amount of trouble with the tweets. The correct tweet was in the second slot but I had a versioning problem, so an older revision went live.
Everyone of those sycophantic congressmen and senators who did attend and basically said its ok for grown men to kill women and children, should be arrested by the ICC for complicity…for thats exactly what it was…
Netanyahu condemned what he called the “slanders that paint Israel as racist and genocidal” that are “meant to demonize the Jewish state and demonize Jews everywhere.” Is there anyone out there that actually believes this? Come on. Netanyahu’s speech—which was met with frequent uproarious applause from lawmakers and other attendees Honestly, what has become of us?
I suppose that I should consider this current mess to be progress, but I know that it isn’t. Much praise to Rep. Rashida Tlaib for going into the lion’s den of liars and sycophants and meretricious politicians.
Yet these are these same people, the congresscritters, who recently were twirling and swirling with yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flags, as they stoked the proxy war in Ukraine that none of them, repeat, none of them, have taken any responsibility for.
These are the same people who “suspect” that Netanyahu is somehow right about Iran, Axis of Evil.
These are the same people who have fallen for Israeli pink-washing. (And note the pink-washing.)
And there’s this in the article from the fallen-so-low Bernie Sanders: “Tens of thousands of children face starvation because his extremist government continues to block aid.”
Oh, Bernie, you idiot. The reason the children starve and the reason snipers blow kids’ brains out is because the U.S. is allowing a war to go on there. ’Tis a mystery to me why no one in Congress has moved to cut off funding to Israel. Pretending that it is some logistical problem has a strong whiff of Eichmann.
Meanwhile, in case you were wondering what CIA sweetheart and Vindman Bros confidante Heather Cox Richardson has to say:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-23-2024
Note that she lists the “endorsement” from the so-called intelligence community first.
The long and the short of it is: If you think that a vote for Kamala Harris is a vote for a change in foreign policy and an end to the proxy wars in Ukraine and Palestine, and détente with China, I have a magical rainbow pony to sell you.
I find it rather disgusting that all these brave democrats boycotted the meeting but will turn right around and tell us what a great humanitarian GenocideJoe is and how they are throwing their support behind him, until he dropped out and they throw their support behind Kamala Harris who has been in the thrall of AIPAC for years.
Who do they think they’re fooling?
Meanwhile, voters have no choice in who the nominee will be apparently. But appointing a pro-genocide candidate for us isn’t authoritarianism, oh no – they’re saving “our democracy”.
A pox on all their houses.
I am as disappointed in Bernie as the next gal, but he did at least name the complicity you cite and (too little too late ) call for it to end:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-israel-funding
my head is spinning from all the evil shamelessly on full display
It’s just acting Kamala Harris met with Netanyahu in secret, just like always Democrats hide their true face
Everyone who applauded Netanyahu is on board with creation of a Jewish ethno-state. They cannot therefore logically and without contradiction oppose Trump who wants the same for the US.
That is, assuming he still does, which would depend on whether he really has found God since the shooting, cuz Christ was more of a DEI sort, turn the other cheek and love your neighbour as yourself, etc. I’m still waiting for any signs of a change.
Christianity and the New Testament was supposed to be the new covenant, rendering the Old Testament obsolete, but those welcoming Netanyahu are still going by the old. I doubt many of them even realize Christ was supposed to be a New Deal (and new kingdom, which THEY are to bring to earth as it is in heaven, not Israel).
“I doubt many of them even realize Christ was supposed to be a New Deal…”
Well, we know what neocons & neolibs think of New Deals.
It’s encouraging that 135 did not attend.
However the bottom line is the US continues to send what seems to be unlimited tools of genocide to the Israeli armed forces who are carrying out the destruction of all of Gaza. Meanwhile settlers in the west bank are encouraged to destroy Palestinian homes and farms there.
Still, the US killed (directly or supplied the killers) 1million in Indonesia, 5 million in Vietnam, millions more among Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Iran under the Shah, and all the many coups and dictatorships in Latin America, and many in Africa as well. I guess Netanyahu feels he’s just continuing tradition. After all most of the 2 million Palestinians will die from disease and starvation as things stand now.
The Zionist project of Israel itself has never been in more danger. It is being destroyed by the actions of a extremely far right government that are turning the world – and what should matter to Israelis, the vast majority of younger Jews in the US (which is one of the largest populations of possible new recruits to the Israeli cause), turning everyone away in horror and disgust.
Of course militarily Israel is also in danger, as US supplies become unreliable (and ineffective).
If Israel manages to provoke Iran or just starts attacking, and the US joins in, that will bring in Russia and eventually China: ww3 will be started in earnest. Perhaps with the use of nuclear weapons (as the US and Israel get more desperate). Hopefully humanity will pull back from the brink of total insanity.
Sounds like Netanyahu thinks the substantial portion of the US that disagrees with him are terrorists. Souldn’t he send some planes over here to bomb them? Biden, who also likes to accuse his opponents of being insurrectionists, might give him the bombs.
Kamala will be consulting with her “team” on what to think.
Of course many of those giving the head of Israel’s regime a standing O were undoubtedly MAGA with their own dual loyalty problem. At any rate good to see that at least some in Congress fear that Netanyahu is going to take them down with him.
Imagine a similar Pol Pot plot 50 years ago, fresh off a jet from Cambodia he hectors Congress and gets 58 standing ovations for the effort…
…we jumped the shark so long ago
Genocide is okay with AIPAC! As well as the MIC section of K Street.
What a shame that they receive the genocide in the US Congress. With this they show that they continue to support and agree with everything done by the genocidaire and will continue to arm him so that he continues murdering children in PALESTINE.
How is it possible that Congress and the government of the USA receive even genocide?
As it happens a new Patrick Lawrence is on this very topic.
https://scheerpost.com/2024/07/25/patrick-lawrence-gaza-we-cannot-remain-silent-any-longer/
I don’t think I would go as far as he does since the premise is that the Gaza outrages are contrary to our human nature. History is a bloody pageant that seems to say otherwise. But one can certainly condemn the hypocrisy of those who pretend to be “nice” while turning a blind eye to behavior that is villainous and evil. It’s this dishonesty with the public and with themselves that will come back to bite them.
Bibi yesterday:
He was entirely correct, he just reversed the players.
And the chamber rose and exploded in applause, while one brave attendee, Rashida Tlaib sat holding a small placard which read on side: Guilty of Genocide and War Criminal, on the other.
Who has a moral conscience here?
They’re all about pro life, but only until the baby exits the womb.
The Zionist leader, Netanyahu, was welcomed into Congress yesterday, and presumably felt himself right at home with all the American killers, who, working arm in arm with the Zionist entity, have murdered innocent and defenseless people in Gaza. Correction: murdered terrorist babies, and terrorist newborns, terrorist and helpless old men and women, and the other animals and vermin as the nazis, or the Zionist cult, identifies Palestinians. If Hell will have them, let them go there, the Jews and the American murderers.
But I would like to call attention to the comments of Sara Jacobs,, a congresswoman from California who did not attend the speech. She criticized Netanyahu for an agenda that has killed 39,000 Palestinians, has failed to return Jewish hostages to their families, and which has made Israel less safe. And she attributes her absence yesterday because of her Jewish ‘upbringing and values.’ I will leave aside just what those ‘values’ are now, on July 25, 2024, and question instead why she, or anyone, could bring up faith as the reason to sit out a murderer’s visit. Does it matter that someone be a Jew, a Christian, a Moslem, Hindu, or any type of person of faith to see how wrong this genocide is? When I was a lot younger, and saw photos and videos of the liberation of German nazi concentration camps, I was horrified by what I saw, and the evil that man can do to man. I was young, but not so muddled by faith (my parents raised me as a catholic) that I first had to think long and hard about what I was seeing. It was wrong at a human level. Seeing the tremendous destruction in Gaza, and in all of Palestine, the ghastly slaughter, it doesn’t take a Jew or a catholic to immediately be repulsed and to condemn it all. All it takes is to be a human being and see the weak slaughtered, and to feel compassion for these poor people, and anger towards those who would do this. Please leave your faith out of it, Congresswoman Jacobs. I hardly need to be lectured on what your values are. I can see the suffering of the Palestinians without the help of your blinders.