Were Americans Listening to Netanyahu’s Message? 

July 26, 2024

by: Jonathan S. Tobin ~ JNS

Friday, 26 July 2024 | What Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his address to a joint meeting of Congress was important. Both Americans and Israelis need to understand that the war in the Gaza Strip is just one front in a conflict with Iran that is, as he rightly said, a battle “between civilization and barbarism.”

Netanyahu gave the best possible argument for Americans to understand that Iran’s fomenting of terrorist wars across the Middle East was a threat to their security. The speech was also a brilliant defense not only of the justness of Israel’s war policy and tactics, but of the Jewish people’s right to live in peace, security and sovereignty in their ancient homeland.

Far more vital than what he said is whether enough people who matter are prepared to listen to that message and draw the appropriate conclusions. And, much like the outcome of the November election that will have a major impact on the future of US–Israel relations, the answer to that question is yet to be decided.

That’s not just because there were many prominent members of the House and Senate who chose to boycott the speech or the presence of angry mobs of pro-Hamas anti-Semitic protesters as he spoke. Rather, it is because those who have hurled libelous charges at Israel since it was attacked on October 7 as well as those—in the Biden administration, the media, pop culture and college administrators—who have feared to confront or offend them, don’t understand that they are illustrating America’s most crucial problem as much as their incomprehension of events in the Middle East.

The Real Argument

In this war “between civilization and barbarism,” those who spread the toxic woke ideologies of critical race theory and intersectionality essentially give aid and comfort to the latter. It’s important to realize that the debate among Americans about Israel isn’t really about its military tactics or the advisability of a cease-fire agreement or even if they comprehend the threat from Iran, key as those topics may be.

The argument is really about whether the lies about the one Jewish state on the planet being an “apartheid” state composed of “white” oppressors of people of color will be accepted by the American people. It is those fashionable ideas that have conquered the US education system, as well as much else throughout its culture, media and government that are behind the mobs in the streets tearing down American flags, and waving those of the Palestinians and Hamas. And it is the influence of those who embrace these radical sentiments and their enablers that have created the resistance within the Biden administration to Netanyahu’s war goals.

Timely Reminders

Netanyahu had some clear political objectives in coming to America.

He was eager to take advantage of the opportunity afforded him by the decision of House Republicans to invite him and then pressure a reluctant Democratic majority in the Senate to go along. At no point since the October 7 terrorist attacks has he had the chance to directly address the American people to explain to them the situation Israel is facing and what it hopes to accomplish without the filter of a biased corporate mainstream media.

In doing so, he reminded Americans of the horrors of October 7 that have largely been forgotten in the discourse about the subsequent war that followed and the stakes for Israel in a conflict with an organization like Hamas, whose goals are Israel’s destruction and the genocide of the Jews. He also directly addressed and refuted the false charges about Israel inflicting disproportionate casualties on Palestinian civilians or causing a famine there. Both claims are nothing more than Hamas propaganda talking points that have been endlessly repeated by the liberal press and accepted by the political left as truth.

The main point of the speech, however, was to reinforce support for Israel’s efforts by pointing out that Hamas’s assault was just one of a multi-front war being waged against the Jewish state and the West by Iran. He wanted it understood that the demonstrators chanting for Israel’s extinction (“from the river to the sea”) and for terrorism against Jews are doing the bidding of Tehran, therefore serving as “Iran’s useful idiots.”

The address earned him numerous standing ovations from both Republicans and Democrats who were present and doubtless played well to the national audience that tuned in to C-SPAN and the cable news networks that ran it live.

The Future of the Alliance

The ability of Netanyahu to rally those at the Capitol to the cause of Israel in such a rousing fashion is partially a tribute to his personal abilities. It is also due to the fact that most Americans remain strong supporters of the Jewish state, albeit the numbers reflect a deep partisan divide with the minority opposing it being overwhelming Democrats. That this is so even after nearly 10 months of nonstop incitement and biased reporting by the liberal media that have often acted as Hamas’s stenographers is a reflection of the way support for Zionism is baked deep into the political DNA of the United States rather than due to opinion about individuals or events.

Still, the cheers from those who were there should not be seen erasing the problems Israel currently faces in the United States.

In evaluating the impact of this visit, both the American pro-Israel community and Israelis need to understand that the anger expressed at the prime minister in the streets, the boycotts and the cool reception he’ll get from the administration is not so much about him. Nor is it really linked to the desire of some Israelis for a ceasefire deal that would free at least some of the estimated 120 hostages (some already confirmed dead) still being held by Hamas, despite the desperate claims of the families of those who were kidnapped by the terrorists rather than Israel continuing the fight until Hamas no longer has the capacity to continue fighting.

Nor is the issue of whether Americans will embrace Netanyahu’s vision of a postwar Gaza that is run by Palestinians who don’t want to destroy Israel, a demographic slice of the population that is currently so small that it must render the idea more of a fantasy than a pragmatic plan. His idea for a “NATO-style” regional “Abraham alliance” also isn’t likely to interest either major party, since Democrats don’t like Israel’s Arab allies and many GOP supporters of Israel would prefer the Jewish state and its regional friends take on Iran without further involving American forces.

The reason why Israel has become a partisan issue with the overwhelming majority of Republicans backing it and the Democrats split on it isn’t about Netanyahu, Trump or specific accusations about the conduct of the war. Rather, it is that more and more of those Americans who identify with the Democrats have bought into the false assumptions about the Middle East conflict being an extension of racial strife in the United States.

The future of the US–Israel alliance won’t be decided by speeches, even ones as good as the one Netanyahu delivered. If Israel is to retain the support of the United States in the years to come, it will only happen if the woke tide driving the libels about the war and Zionism is rolled back by Americans who are fed up with their institutions being captured by radicals.

Posted on July 26, 2024

Source: (Excerpt of an article originally published by the Jewish News Syndicate on July 24, 2024. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today. See original article at this link.)

Photo Credit: Allison Bailey/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images/jns.org