Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered an unapologetic defence of Israel’s war against Hamas in a fiery speech to Congress, inserting himself into a supercharged moment of American politics and brooking no criticism about the mounting death toll in the Gaza Strip.
Urging the US to stand with Israel in its fight, he said protesters demonstrating against his speech were choosing to “stand with evil”. He called for the US to fast-track more weapons to his armed forces and said the war would end if Hamas surrenders and returns all its hostages.
“The hands of the Jewish state will never be shackled,” Netanyahu told the joint meeting. “Israel will always defend itself.”
While Netanyahu praised the current US administration, the speech – his fourth before Congress – amounted to a defiant response to US President Joe Biden’s repeated demand that Israel agree to a ceasefire with Hamas.
It bore echoes of the last time he appeared at the rostrum in 2015, when he lambasted then US President Barack Obama’s bid to seal a deal limiting Iran’s nuclear programme.
The speech, which had been planned for weeks, also came at a moment of enormous ferment in US politics, just days after Biden announced he would not seek re-election and endorsed US Vice-President Kamala Harris to replace him.
A week before that, a would-be assassin wounded former US president Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Netanyahu got loud applause from Republicans when he thanked Trump for the “Abraham Accords” that established diplomatic ties between Israel and some Gulf states. He also thanked Trump for moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
Among the attendees on Wednesday was billionaire Elon Musk, who has thrown his support behind Trump and his vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance, and was there at Netanyahu’s invitation.
Netanyahu thanked Biden in his speech as a “proud Zionist” but has made no secret of his preference for Trump, and was scheduled to travel to Mar-a-Lago in Florida on Friday to meet him.
Netanyahu got several standing ovations as he spoke, reflecting the broad bipartisan support he retains in the US even as criticism has mounted over the war.
But about two dozen US lawmakers announced they would not attend to protest the mounting death toll – some 39,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza – and Netanyahu’s handling of the war in the Gaza Strip.
Harris would normally preside over such events but was absent to attend a previously scheduled campaign rally in Indianapolis. Harris is scheduled to meet Netanyahu on Thursday, as is Biden.
Capitol Police said they used pepper spray to control protesters outside the Capitol Building.
Inside, officers removed from the chamber a small number of demonstrators advocating for a ceasefire, and congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, held up a sign that said “war criminal” on one side and “guilty of genocide” on the other as Netanyahu spoke.
Netanyahu rejected such criticism, saying Israeli forces “should not be condemned for how they’re conducting the war in Gaza, they should be commended for it”.
