Musk and megachurch, rapture and reprise: Netanyahu’s dark speech to Congress

Esther Solomon
Editor-in-chief, Haaretz English,

The 52 standing ovations punctuating Netanyahu’s speech to Congress covered an essential nakedness: Omissions just as glaring as the absence of the more than 80 members who chose to skip it.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress was a strange animal: A pseudo-State of the Union merged with evangelical megachurch preaching and a military pep talk, with enough chest-thumping Americana to trigger a round of ‘U.S.A.!’ chants from the Republican benches and guest appearance from friend-of-the-far-right Elon Musk – while protesters outside burnt him in effigy.

The appearance was an attempted reprise of all Netanyahu’s once-reliable crowd pleasers. The description of the U.S.-Israel alliance as an immutable, if not divine, force (“May God bless the great alliance between Israel and America forever”), the characterization of Israel as both victor and victim, the demonization of critics of his own government and Israel’s actions in Gaza as “Iran’s useful idiots” who “stand with Hamas,” denialism about Israel’s part in the tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza, the invocation of clash-of-civilization tropes, the pilfering of Bible verses (calling IDF soldiers “the lions of Judah, the lions of Israel”), the use of props (this time, using actual human props – freed hostage Noa Argamani and injured soldiers), the boasting about Israel’s “powerful and vibrant democracy,” despite his own concerted and unfinished efforts to weaken and subvert it.

But the 52 standing ovations covered an essential nakedness: The omissions in the speech were just as glaring as the absence of more than 80 Democratic members of Congress who chose to skip it.

Search the text in vain for the words “hostage deal,” “cease-fire,” or “two-state solution.” The nod to bipartisanship support for Israel felt more fragile than ever (“America has our back – on both sides of the aisle”). The extrapolated contention that every battle in Khan Yunis was existential to U.S. national security and thus required unconditional support (“We are not only protecting ourselves, we are protecting you…Our fight is your fight, our victory is your victory”) rang hollow, as did the less-than-definitive formulation that “Israel does not seek to resettle Gaza.”

Netanyahu offered a dark, Spartan, zero sum vision of the world made-to-measure for his hyper-conservative Congressional fan base. But no matter the GOP adulation inside the chamber, Netanyahu can’t sell expired goods to the world outside, not least to the audience back home that has heard his failed shtick one too many times – and has lived and died its consequences.

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/

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