On July 24, 2024, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu briefed a joint session of both houses of Congress. This was the fourth time he has spoken at such a session. While Netanyahu was invited by leaders of both parties, about half of the House and Senate Democrats were not in attendance. While some of the missing members, like the Vice President, had other engagements, others explicitly boycotted the event, citing Israel’s deplorable actions in Gaza that had resulted in the countless deaths of innocent civilians.
The speech was memorable. Netanyahu was stopped at least 53 times for standing ovations. He had planned on speaking for 35 minutes, but because of the continuous applause, he stood at the podium for nearly an hour. He spoke well, very well. According to Amit Segal, a popular Israeli political pundit, it was the Prime Minister’s best speech in English ever. Not only was Congress enthralled, a large number of Americans were, as well. They called the speech “fiery,” “bold,” and “courageous.”
Israelis, on the other hand, were generally unimpressed. Other than a murky description of a post-war Gaza and a call for an “Abraham Alliance” against Iran, there was nothing notable and no new ground was broken. Reactions were tepid, at best, and disappointed, at worst. There were things we wanted to hear: How long will the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spend in Gaza, when and how will the hostages be freed, what part will Israel play in a post-war Gaza militarily and administratively, and what are his plans for the northern front – for how much longer will 60,000 Israelis who live within three miles of the Lebanese border remain refugees in their own country? There was hope that the Prime Minister would use the opportunity to make bold proposals and that the Americans would back them. But when the speech was over, many Israelis felt like they had heard an hour of sound and fury, sadly signifying nothing. Yaakov Katz wrote in the Jerusalem Post, “The speech had everything in it except for one key section that was missing: A vision for Israel… The speech was nice, but Israelis want action and change. That does not come in a speech.” Within 24 hours, the Israeli media had moved on. The Prime Minister’s speech quickly became old news. As we say here in Israel, today they are wrapping fish in it.
This, for me, caused a certain dissonance. Americans that I spoke with, in all shapes and sizes, from New York to Los Angeles, could not stop praising the Prime Minister. I was speaking to a Congressman with whom I maintain a close personal friendship. I asserted that it took maybe 40 standing ovations before Netanyahu said anything new. My friend disagreed, enumerating what he considered a number of highlights:
Objective truth about IDF operations and civilian deaths. Netanyahu stated, correctly, that in the history of warfare, never has there been such a low ratio of noncombatant casualties relative to combatants. Moreover, this feat was accomplished even while Hamas purposely embedded themselves in the civilian population – in schools, in mosques, and in hospitals – for the express purpose of maximizing civilian deaths. There is no army in the world that is more ethical than the IDF.
Iran is funding the protests in the U.S., especially on university campuses.
Americans that are demonstrating for support of Hamas are Iran’s “useful idiots.”
Calling for the U.S. to defend Western Civilization and Judeo-Christian values.
In my humble opinion, the first three points are already well documented, especially the pains the IDF has been taking to prevent civilian casualties, even at the cost of aborting a critical mission. And as for the last point, it is a no-brainer. The U.S. is a society that extolls the values of freedom, liberty, and democracy, and is simultaneously a global superpower with the means to protect these values. So where’s the beef?
I finally began to understand my friend after a lengthy discussion with my wife. Her point was that Netanyahu never intended on speaking to an Israeli audience. He had only one target audience and that was the people of the United States of America. This epiphany gave me much more clarity. I returned to my friend and continued our conversation. I told him that Netanyahu’s message, as I understood it, was that the U.S. needs to remember what they are fighting against. No, he replied. He believes that the message was that the U.S. needs to remember what they are fighting for.
Those words rattled me to the core. How right he was.
Netanyahu stated at the beginning of his speech that the fight against Hamas was not a clash of civilizations. Rather, it was a clash between civilization and barbarians. The barbaric acts that Hamas committed on October 7, the murder and rape, the mutilation of human bodies, of men, women and children, the kidnapping of hundreds of hostages, and the indiscriminate fire of three thousand rockets on our cities targeting literally millions of Israelis, are not the acts of a civilized society. And yet, many Americans, including lawmakers, have not only justified the actions of Hamas, but they have vilified Israel for her response. America is suffering from a lack of moral clarity. There is no action that cannot be justified. Who are we to say what is right and what is wrong? No matter what, the murder of innocent civilians cannot be sanctioned, ever. Hamas killed only 1,200 Israelis. So far, Israel has murdered (yes, murdered) nearly 40,000 Gazans. Of course we must push for an immediate unconditional ceasefire lest more Gazan children die needlessly. And if Hamas eventually returns to power in Gaza, where it will plan and execute more and more October 7’s until the Israelis flee the Middle East where they are polluting holy Moslem land by their mere existence and move back to Poland, where they came from, well, more power to them. Netanyahu forcefully decried this kind of thinking. In this war, he said, there is a clear delineation between right and wrong, between good and evil. We, he reminded them, are the good guys. No amount of moral equivalence acrobatics can skew that.
To paraphrase the “Lion King,” Netanyahu told Congress, “You have forgotten who you are… Look inside yourself. You are more than what you have become. I have come 6000 miles to tell you one thing: Remember who you are. You are the United States of America. You are the leader of the free world. You must remember what you are fighting for. Because the world needs you now more than ever before…”
Good Things,
Ari Sacher
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