Netanyahu defends Gaza war as protesters rally outside US Congress

Netanyahu defends Gaza war as protesters rally outside US Congress: In a historic speech to Congress, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “our enemies are your enemies.” The speech was meant to encourage support for the war against Hamas in Gaza, but it was marred by pro-Palestinian demonstrations inside and outside the Capitol.

“At the point when we battle Iran, we’re battling the most extremist and lethal foe of the US of America,” Mr Netanyahu said.

He continued, “Our victory will be your victory, and our fight will be your fight.”
When the Israeli leader gave his fourth speech to a joint session of Congress, he was met with a boisterous reception from mostly Republican politicians.

Conversely, Nancy Pelosi, a leftist and the previous Speaker of the US Place of Delegates, condemned the location in a post on X.

Palestinians ‘feel trapped’ as Israeli forces carry out strikes across Gaza: “Benjamin Netanyahu’s show in the House Chamber today was by a wide margin the most terrible show of any unfamiliar dignitary welcomed and respected with the honor of tending to the Congress of the US,” she said.

According to a statement from her office, Ms. Pelosi met with Israelis affected by the Hamas attack on October 7 instead of attending the address.

She expressed the expectation that the prime minister would devote some time to pursuing a “ceasefire deal that will bring the hostages home.”

The thousands of protesters outside and the dozens of Democratic members of Congress who deliberately did not attend highlighted the escalating political divide regarding the war in Gaza.

Swarms assembled by a phase on Legislative center Slope decked with standards, including one proclaiming the Israeli chief a “needed war criminal,” a reference to a capture warrant looked for by the investigator of the Worldwide Lawbreaker Court.

According to police, five individuals were detained inside the Capitol building for attempting to disrupt Mr. Netanyahu’s address.

Mr. Netanyahu addressed the protesters and stated: You have officially emerged as the useful idiots of Iran.

The Israeli prime minister made one of many references to Iran, describing a “clash of barbarism against civilisations” as an “axis of terror” that threatened the US, Israel, and the Arab world.

The term was a play on the Iranian term “axis of resistance,” which refers to an alliance that spans the Middle East and includes the armed Palestinian group Hamas, the Lebanese organization Hezbollah, and the Houthis, who control parts of Yemen.

He told Congress that American targets had been attacked by Iranian proxy forces, and Iran believes that “to truly challenge America it must first conquer the Middle East,” he added.

Key takeaways from Netanyahu’s speech and the protests outside US: “Be that as it may, in the core of the Center East, holding Iran up, is one glad favorable to American majority rules government: my nation, Israel as a state.”

In a pitch for additional US military assistance, Mr. Netanyahu spoke for more than an hour deflecting criticism of Israel and framing the war in Gaza as his country’s struggle for survival.

He added that Israel had provided the United States with crucial intelligence that had “saved many lives” in return for the United States’ decades-long “generous military assistance.”

However, he advocated for “fast-tracking” US military aid, asserting that this would expedite the end of the Gaza conflict and help stop a wider regional conflict.

He said, referring to the appeal that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made to the people of the United States during World War II, ” We’ll finish the job if you give us the tools.”

Mr. Netanyahu did not go into great detail about the humanitarian situation in Gaza other than to say that Israel provides enough food aid to supply each person with 3,000 calories. He stated that “Hamas steals it” was the reason Gazans did not receive food.

Framing his vision for the Gaza Strip after the conflict, he required “a neutralized and deradicalised” territory under Israeli military control.

“Palestinians who do not intend to destroy Israel should run a civilian administration in Gaza. “That’s not an unreasonable request,” he stated.

He did not mention the possibility of a two-state solution, which is something that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is likely to take his place as the Democratic Party nominee, want.

Several standing ovations were insufficient to conceal the fact that at least 39 lawmakers were unable to attend the speech.

Most of them were Democrats, including influential former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said Mr. Netanyahu’s visit was “inappropriate.”
According to reports, a scheduling conflict prevented Ms. Harris from attending.

The first Palestinian-American member of Congress, Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib, was seen waving a placard that read “guilty of genocide” and “war criminal” throughout the speech.

Benjamin Netanyahu also thanked the former president for moving the American embassy to Jerusalem and for acknowledging Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, a territory Israel captured from Syria in 1967. Benjamin Netanyahu was aware that Donald Trump could return to the White House.

Later this week, the two men will meet in Florida.

Family members of hostages still held in Gaza gathered in Israel to condemn the speech as it was silently broadcast onto Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square.

The audience dispersed after hearing the national anthem, and Mr. Netanyahu continued his address on screen.

His English speech was shown with subtitles in Hebrew translation despite the muted audio.

Netanyahu defends Gaza war as protesters rally outside US Congress: The Israeli army announced shortly after the speech’s conclusion that it had recovered the bodies of two hostages, Maya Goren and Oren Goldin, from Gaza.
As months-long negotiations with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal have yet to yield results, the news highlighted the growing despair of many hostage families regarding the prospect of seeing their loved ones alive again.

Nine months into Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 39,000 people, the prime minister gave an address to Congress. The health ministry is run by Hamas.

In response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 that resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages, the Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas.