Israel’s leader traveled some 5,000 miles and did not give an inch.
Addressing a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back forcefully on condemnations of Israel’s prosecution of the war in the Gaza Strip. He lavished praise and thanks on the United States for its support. And he gave scarcely a hint that a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and brought protesters out to the streets around the world — including those outside the doors of Congress on the same day as his speech — would be drawing to a close any time soon.
Here are some of the highlights.
He name-checked both Biden and Trump.
Mr. Netanyahu was careful to walk a middle path, thanking both Democrats and Republicans, including President Biden and the Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, for their support.
“I know that America has our back,” he said. “And I thank you for it. All sides of the aisle. Thank you, my friends.”
Mr. Netanyahu said he had known Mr. Biden for 40 years and expressed particular appreciation for his “heartfelt support for Israel after the savage attack” on his country that was led by Hamas on Oct. 7. But he also made a point of praising Mr. Trump, who as president was more receptive to some of his expansionist policies.
Mr. Netanyahu also made clear how well he knew his audience, both in the chamber in the country at large. An American university graduate, he delivered a speech fluent in English and ornamented with colloquialisms like “what in God’s green earth.”
He denied that Israeli was starving Gazans.
Mr. Netanyahu rejected accusations by the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court that Israel was deliberately cutting off food to the people of Gaza. “Utter, complete nonsense, a complete fabrication,” he declared.
Israel, he said, has enabled more than 40,000 aid trucks to enter Gaza during the war, amounting to “half a million tons of food and more than 3,000 calories for every man, woman and child in Gaza.”
United Nations aid officials say it is Israel that is responsible for most of the obstacles to getting aid to desperate Palestinians. But Mr. Netanyahu said that Hamas was to blame, accusing the militants of depriving their own people — a common refrain from Israeli officials.
“If there are Palestinians in Gaza who aren’t getting enough food,” he said, “it’s not because Israel is blocking it; it’s because Hamas is stealing it.”
He rejected blame for the heavy civilian loss.
More than 39,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the Gazan health authorities, who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians in their death tolls. Mr. Netanyahu forcefully rejected Israeli responsibility. He denied deliberately targeting noncombatants, and said the Israel Defense Forces had worked hard to protect them.
“The I.D.F. has dropped millions of fliers, sent millions of text messages and hundreds of thousands of phone calls to get Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
But on the ground, the Israeli directives to evacuate often cause confusion among civilians, many of whom see no safe place to go, in any case.
He once again put the blame on Hamas. The group, he said, “does everything in its power to put Palestinian civilians in harm’s way” by using schools, hospitals and mosques for military operations.
International law requires combatants to avoid using such “civilian objects” for military objectives. But Israel’s critics say that Hamas’s use of civilian sites and disguises does not absolve Israel of its obligations under international law to protect civilians or explain the scale of death and destruction caused by the Israeli campaign.
Mr. Netanyahu argued that Israel “has implemented more precautions to prevent civil harm than any military in history and beyond what international law requires.”
He played up diversity in Israeli society.
During the speech, Mr. Netanyahu called on a few Israeli soldiers in the audience to stand up, including one of Ethiopian descent and another who is Bedouin, citing their heroism and their important role in the Israeli military. It appeared to be an effort to convey that Israel, and its military, is not homogenous.
“The Muslim soldiers of the I.D.F. fought alongside their Jewish, Christian and other comrades in arms with tremendous bravery,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
Ethiopian Jews and Bedouins in Israel are often marginalized, but the prime minister offered a different portrayal.
“Every ethnicity, every color, every creed,” he said. “Left and right, religious and secular. All are imbued with the indomitable spirit of the Maccabees, the legendary Jewish warriors of antiquity.”
He sketched out a vague vision of peace.
Mr. Netanyahu said that “a new Gaza could emerge” if Hamas is defeated and Gaza is “demilitarized and de-radicalized,” and that Israel “does not seek to resettle Gaza.”
He turned to past world conflicts to make his case, noting that the approach of demilitarization and de-radicalization was used in Germany and Japan after World War II. “That led to decades of peace, prosperity and security.” Mr. Netanyahu said.
There is broad concern, however, that in Gaza the trauma of the war will yield a new generation of radicalization.
Mr. Netanyahu said his vision for the Middle East more broadly was also partly shaped by the aftermath of World War II, when the United States and Europe forged a security alliance to counter the growing Soviet threat. Now, he said, the United States and Israel can do something similar in the Middle East.
The common enemy? Iran, he said.
“If you remember one thing, one thing from this speech, remember this: Our enemies are your enemies,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Our fight is your fight. And our victory will be your victory.”
Iran, he said, wants to impose “radical Islam” on the world and sees the United States as its greatest enemy because it is “the guardian of Western civilization and the world’s greatest power.”
Mr. Netanyahu argued that Iranian-backed militias like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, whatever their aggression against Israel, are actually fighting a different war.
“Israel is merely a tool,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “The main war, the real war, is with America.”
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