The Implications and Audiences of Netanyahu’s Address to Congress

July 23, 2024

by: Alex Traiman ~ JNS

Tuesday, 23 July 2024 | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to address, for the fourth time, a joint session of the US Congress. There is a strong possibility this will be the last such address for Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.

The address, set for Wednesday, comes amid one of the most challenging periods in the 76-year existence of the modern State of Israel, and for Netanyahu himself.

Netanyahu has been struggling to maintain his nation’s confidence as he guides Israel through a multifront war launched by Hamas in what was without question one of the worst security failings in Israel’s history. The October 7 attack saw over 1,200 people brutally murdered, many in their homes, with thousands more injured and over 260 taken hostage.

The Hamas attack was not merely a terror incident, it was a declaration of war.

Following the surprise Hamas success and with roughly 250 kidnapped Israelis, there was no choice but to respond with overwhelming force. The Iron Swords military campaign was launched.

While the majority of Israel’s efforts have been focused on Hamas in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] has been extremely active in attacking Hezbollah [Iranian proxy in Lebanon] by air. And for the first time, this weekend Israel attacked fuel storage depots and an oil refinery in Yemen in response to the deadly Tel Aviv drone attack.

The Diplomatic Battlefield

Since the war began, demonstrations against Israel have popped up in cities across the West, along with pro-Palestinian encampments on university campuses across North America. Anti-Semitic incidents have soared in the United States and Europe, while Jew-hatred has saturated social media.

While according to most polls, most Americans continue to support Israel, anti-Israel sentiment is clearly on the rise, particularly among the younger demographic. Bipartisan support for Israel continues to wane as progressive elements of the Democratic Party throw their support behind illiberal Palestinians as a liberal cause.

International bodies including the UN Security Council, the International Court of Justice [ICJ] and the International Criminal Court [ICC] continue to project that Israel is the primary source of evil in the Middle East, and possibly the world.

As all this has been happening, and as Netanyahu leads a military and diplomatic effort to defeat Israel’s attacking enemies and maintain international support, he is maligned the world over.

Gifted Statesman

Netanyahu has often taken advantage of international addresses, at Congress and at the UN, where he previously served as ambassador, to make Israel’s case to the world. A gifted statesman and orator, Netanyahu has a reputation for brilliantly making his country’s case.

This time, Netanyahu’s trip to Washington comes amid significant chaos, not only in Israel and the greater Middle East but also in the United States, where President Joe Biden has just announced that he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, while former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump just survived an assassination attempt and is soaring in recent polls.

A Just War

Netanyahu will use his speech to Congress, and his tentative meetings with Biden, Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, to emphasize that Israel is fighting a just war, one it did not start and that is not just the latest round of an intractable Israeli–Palestinian conflict, but rather a larger conflict funded and launched by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its terror proxies.

Netanyahu will both insist and demonstrate that Israel has been conducting the war as carefully as possible, even sometimes to its own detriment. Whether Israel’s critics want to believe it or not, the IDF has been setting a new military standard for reducing civilian casualties in an urban warzone.

Netanyahu understands that the entire world will be paying attention to this high-stakes address, even amid other global crises. Multiple audiences will be watching closely. Netanyahu is likely writing his speech with several audiences specifically in mind.

The Media

Over the years, Netanyahu has been a master of getting the media to work for him to broadcast the highlights of his speeches far and wide.

To get the world to pay attention, and particularly those who do not watch the speech live, Netanyahu will likely craft parts of his speech so as to create headlines and photo opportunities, using one-liners and visual devices.

Over the years, Netanyahu has used props including maps of the Middle East and a picture of a bomb on which he drew a bright red line to signal Iran’s progress toward a nuclear weapon. When he presented to the public details of an Iranian nuclear archive lifted by the Mossad [Israeli intelligence agency] from deep inside Iran, Netanyahu delivered a press conference in front of a replica of an archive.

Netanyahu also knows that Israel’s enemies, some within Congress itself, will attempt to steal the spotlight, with protests, walkouts and signage. Netanyahu believes that his version of the story will beat that of his detractors.

The American People

A major reason Netanyahu accepted an invitation to address a joint session of the US Congress is to make Israel’s case to the American public. Reading the New York Times and other leading US publications would lead one to believe that Israel is on the receiving end of billions in aid while offering nothing but trouble in return.

Netanyahu will reinforce the message that Israel is among America’s best and strongest allies. The overwhelming majority of the Israeli public holds America in high regard.

Israelis share these positive viewpoints even as American foreign policy in the region over the last two decades in particular has emboldened bad actors in the region. Israelis wholeheartedly believe they share common values with America. Israelis value the free market and a free press.

If wars were not forced upon them, Israelis would gladly choose peace. And if Israel had two large oceans for borders, and peaceful nations like Canada and Mexico to its north and south, Israel, like America, would not be engaged in military campaigns.

But more important than sentiment is that Israel offers tangible assets to America as part of a strategic alliance. Israel provides key intelligence to the United States, as well as real-time feedback on military systems including aircraft and missile defense. And Israelis develop solutions to key problems, solutions that are often bought up by major American multinationals.

They Not Only Hate Israel; They Also Hate America

Netanyahu will be sure to express how grateful Israelis are for America’s longstanding bipartisan friendship and support. The last thing Israelis want is for the Jewish state to be used as a political football. Israelis have enough politics back home.

Netanyahu will simultaneously attempt to further anchor the support of Christian conservatives who have remained steadfast in their backing for Israel, as well as of moderate liberals who have long been strong allies of the Jewish state. Netanyahu will try to convince isolationist Republicans that Israel is an important strategic asset that keeps American boots off the ground in the Middle East.

And Netanyahu will likely try to isolate extreme progressives who see Israel primarily through the lens of intersectionality and critical race theory, in an attempt to keep moderate liberals from drifting further to the left.

He will try to convince liberals that Israel is the most liberal state in the Middle East and one of the most liberal in the world and that the enemies of Israel, which many progressives have thrown their support behind, are illiberal and oppressive fanatics. They not only hate Israel; they also hate America.

Netanyahu will try to anchor congressional support for Israel’s defense, in a bid to ensure that weapons systems that have been held up by the Biden administration will quickly make their way to Israel, and that replenishments for missile defense systems and artillery will be ordered and fast-tracked.

President Joe Biden

The day before the congressional address, the prime minister is tentatively scheduled to meet with Biden.

Netanyahu has a 40-year relationship with Biden, who as recently as last week called himself a Zionist. If this is the last meeting between the two as sitting heads of state, Netanyahu will thank Biden for his years of support, including an important visit to Israel following October 7.

If Biden attempts to pressure Netanyahu in a one-on-one Oval Office meeting, Netanyahu will have the benefit of his address to Congress to respond or correct any misunderstandings.

“President Donald Trump”

Arguably, no other pair of American president and Israeli prime minister did more to strengthen Israel and transform the Middle East than Donald Trump and Netanyahu. Trump, working together with former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman, boldly recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state (to the exclusion of any other state), moved the US Embassy to the city and recognized Israeli sovereignty over the strategic Golan Heights, which is currently being pummeled by Hezbollah rockets.

And perhaps most impressive of all, the Trump administration authored a complete paradigm shift in the trajectory of the Middle East and created the pathway to the end of a greater Arab–Israeli conflict by brokering the Abraham Accords agreements between Israel, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan. The accords likely would have grown to include other nations including Oman and Saudi Arabia had Trump remained in office.

And yet for all of the pair’s accomplishments, Trump and Netanyahu had a falling out.

Recently, Netanyahu’s advisers have shown selections of immense praise for Trump in Netanyahu’s autobiography. A meeting between Israel’s prime minister and America’s Republican presidential nominee could go a long way to repairing the relationship.

Iran and Its Proxies

The formula for transforming the Middle East for good is simple to define but difficult to implement: Defeat the terrorists and their sponsors, and normalize relations with moderate actors. Israel is currently engaged in both.

Moderates and extremists alike will be watching Netanyahu’s trip to Washington and his speech to Congress closely. They will be looking for signals of strength or weakness from Netanyahu, and to see how resolutely Biden, Harris and Trump stand with or against Netanyahu.

The Saudis

The Biden administration threw a wrench in the momentum of the Abraham Accords. The normalization agreements flew in the face of longstanding State Department assessments that the Arab–Israeli conflict could not be solved from the outside-in, but only if the Israeli–Palestinian conflict were first to end with a two-state solution.

Even as Israel pressed the Biden administration to attempt to recover momentum, it became clear that the Saudis would not give Biden and company a major diplomatic accomplishment without extracting an extraordinary price.

The Saudis will be waiting to see who wins the upcoming presidential election before deciding how to proceed.

Israel’s Public

Perhaps Netanyahu has been maligned more at home than anywhere else. The opposition wants Netanyahu out of office.

Yet, while Netanyahu’s popularity dropped to historic lows following the October 7 failures, he and his Likud Party have been steadily climbing in recent polls, as chief opponent Benny Gantz’s popularity has slid.

The embattled prime minister certainly aims to show that he is still the most capable Israeli leader. He hopes to gain the opportunity to see the successful conclusion to the current war, and potentially the signing of further normalization agreements to cement his legacy as one of Israel’s greatest prime ministers.

While Netanyahu has steered relatively clear of public press appearances over the past several months as the war has progressed, the speech to Congress is another opportunity to try to convince Israelis, who will be closely monitoring the developments of his trip, that Bibi, for better or worse, remains Israel’s indispensable man.

Alex Traiman is CEO and Jerusalem Bureau Chief of Jewish News Syndicate.

Posted on July 23, 2024

Source: (Excerpt of article originally published by the Jewish News Syndicate on July 21, 2024. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today. See original article at this link.)

Photo Credit: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/jns.org