Speeches by Israeli prime ministers in front of the US Congress tend to be celebrations, both of the deep bond between the two nations and of the bipartisan support Israel has generally enjoyed in the United States.
The speech this week by Benjamin Netanyahu was nothing like that. It did not help that he had not been invited, at least, not by the ruling Democrats. He was here at the invitation of the Republicans, as he has been on three previous occasions.
Netanyahu, known as ‘Bibi’ to Israelis, has sought an invitation throughout US President Joe Biden’s three and a half years in office, but none has arrived. This felt a little like him climbing in an open window, not walking in the front door.
Vision vs slogans
Israel is at war, perhaps one of the most critical wars it ever waged since confronting its Arab neighbours throughout the latter half of the 20th century, in the decades after it declared its existence in 1948.
That war is still raging. Since October, when it began, Israel has needed a vision of where it is going, especially after so much violence. A way out of war and into a more sustainable future needed to be presented to Israel’s closest ally.
It wasn’t. Any vision, if it exists, was almost entirely lacking from Netanyahu’s speech. Instead, this was meant to be a feel-good crowd-pleaser for Israel’s supporters, full of slogans, catchphrases, villains, and heroes.
Netanyahu brought Israel’s own heroes with him, soldiers who fought on 7 October, plus the families of hostages. He then sought to frame Israel’s fight against both Hamas and Iran as the West’s fight, a “clash between barbarism and civilisation”.
A question of timing
The Israeli leader looked to be channelling Churchill (who, ironically, addressed a joint Congressional session three times), but this was a speech that may have felt right nine months ago, but which largely fell flat this long into the war.
Netanyahu may even have been reading Churchill’s ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ speech, given that his was scattered with a liberal sprinkling of points that were pressed into action as opportunities for applause.
