Netanyahu Calls Protesters ‘Iran’s useful idiots’ in Address to US Congress
“We’re not only protecting ourselves. We’re protecting you… Our enemies are your enemy, our fight is your fight, and our victory will be your victory,” Netanyahu bellowed at the House Chamber in a blazing speech, full with combative remarks, to Congress
Boycotts and protests in Washington DC greeted the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the Capitol to denounce his address to Congress on Wednesday, July 24.
Mr. Netanyahu spoke for an hour or so using his speech to the US lawmakers to pitch for an increase and to “fast-tracking US military aid” in a bid to “expedite an end to the war in Gaza”.
Whilst he offered gratitude to the US for their decades long “generous military assistance” he also highlighted how Israel had contributed to saving “many lives” by sharing crucial intelligence with the US.
In his efforts to bolster unrelenting US support for Israel he argued how the war in Gaza was a battle of survival and quoted British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who urged the US in World War Two: “Give us the tools and we’ll finish the job.”
Ten months into the war in Gaza, there have been over 39,000 fatalities with countless also thought to be buried beneath the rubble, triggered by the October 7 Hamas attacks launched on southern Israel.
In his response to the accusations of Israel starving Gazans he stated that:
“The prosecutor of the international criminal court has shamefully accused Israel of deliberately starving the people of Gaza. This is utter, complete nonsense. It’s a complete fabrication. Israel has enabled more than 40,000 aid trucks to enter Gaza. That’s half a million tonnes of food!”
However, data from the UN counters this claim as only 28,018 aid trucks have gained entry to Gaza since the beginning of the war.
In response to the ICC prosecutor’s accusation of Israel “deliberately targeting civilians” Netanyahu decried:
“What in God’s green earth is he talking about? The IDF just dropped millions of flyers, sent millions of text messages, made hundreds of thousands of phone calls to get Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way.”
However, the Palestinians have repeatedly been forced to flee areas and been countlessly displaced to the point where they and aid organizations say there is no safe place to go to in Gaza.
According to estimations by the UN agency, Unrwa, over 80 per cent of the Gaza strip is “under evacuation orders or designated as a no-go zone.”
Often safe places have been bombarded regardless, such as the deadly Israeli strike in southern Gaza in May which struck western Rafah in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood and killed almost 45 displaced Palestinians, wounding many more, of whom were mostly women and children housed in a tent camp.
In his speech Netanyahu did not allude to a ceasefire but said there could be an end to the war in Gaza “tomorrow” should:
“Hamas surrenders, disarms and returns all the hostages, but if they don’t, Israel will fight until we destroy Hamas’s military capabilities, end its rule in Gaza and bring all our hostages home.”
He also praised last month's Israeli military operation that killed 284 Palestinians that led to freeing four Israeli hostages of the estimated 114 remaining in Gaza.
Mr. Netanyahu also denounced the “misguided” demonstrations and anti-war protests on US campuses saying: “Many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers,” adding that: “These protesters stand with them. They should be ashamed of themselves.”
He also directly addressed the protesters:
“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”.
Chasing “total victory” Netanyahu envisions “The day after we defeat Hamas, a new Gaza could emerge,” adding “My vision for that day is of a demilitarised and deradicalised Gaza. Israel does not seek to resettle Gaza.”
Although, “for the foreseeable future” Israel “must retain overriding security control” and in doing so to prevent a “resurgence of terror” and to make sure that “Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel.”
In November 2023, Netanyahu justified the killing of innocent women and children in Gaza by citing the Hebrew Bible and invoking the ruin of Amlak:
“You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. 1 Samuel 15:3 ‘Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass’”.
