The Israeli leader who is carrying out a genocidal assault on the people of Gaza and who seems to care not one bit for the tens of thousands of people, most of whom are women and children, who have been killed and made homeless and live in the utmost squalor and starvation, and are constantly forced to move from place to place with whatever meager belongings they can carry in order to avoid the bombings and ground assaults. While attention is focused on the horrors of Gaza, the Israeli government and armed forces seem to be giving the settlers in the West Bank, who are illegally occupying Palestinian land, free rein to harass and even kill Palestinians there in order to drive them out.
And yet, despite all this carnage and his horrendous record, Republicans thought it fit to invite Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress, and Democratic leaders like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries agreed. But it has sparked loud protests from activists who are outraged that someone who should be a pariah is being honored in this way.
Thousands of protesters demonstrated around Capitol Hill voicing opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who addressed a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday.
With tensions over Israel’s nine-and-half-month war on Gaza running high, police mounted a huge security operation to seal off the US Capitol from protesters.
Streets in Washington’s downtown area were closed to traffic, while officers experienced in dealing with mass protests were drafted in from the New York police department. The Capitol building itself was ring-fenced off.
“Shut it down,” a large group of protesters chanted as they marched toward the Capitol after blocking a nearby intersection, adding “Bibi, Bibi, we’re not done!” Capitol police deployed pepper spray at protesters they claimed had crossed the police line.
…Netanyahu’s presence was protested by demonstrators coming from a broad range of mostly leftwing groups, some of them Jewish, and many of them having travelled from as far as Indiana, Georgia and Illinois, according to protest organisers.
…Among those organising the main rally were Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, Jewish Voice for Peace, Code Pink, the US Palestinian Community Network, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), the People’s Forum and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
…Speakers lined up to address the crowd included Jill Stein, the Green party presidential candidate, and the actor Susan Sarandon.
Protesters demanded Netanyahu’s arrest, as requested by the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor in May. The request was later denounced by Biden.
Before Netanyahu’s speech senator Bernie Sanders issued a blistering attack on the senate floor, calling Netanyahu a war criminal.
“Tomorrow will be unique in bringing Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress,” said Sanders on Tuesday. “It will be the first time in American history that a war criminal has been given that honor.”
…Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is among the lawmakers who plan to boycott Netanyahu’s speech on Wednesday afternoon, reminding senators of the ongoing hunger, destruction to housing and damage done to Gaza’s health and educational system.
Israel’s war on Gaza has “trampled on international law, on American law and on basic human values”, Sanders said.
The UN has reported a death toll of more than 36,000 Palestinians as of 31 May.
“His [Netanyahu’s] policies in Gaza and the West Bank and his refusal to support a two-state solution should be roundly condemned,” Sanders said in a statement on Monday. “In my view, his rightwing, extremist government should not receive another nickel of US taxpayer support to continue the inhumane destruction of Gaza.”
“Every university has been bombed, and 88% of all school buildings have been damaged,” said Sanders. “And now, because of the ongoing restrictions on humanitarian aid, some 495,000 people face catastrophic levels of food insecurity – in other words, they are starving.”
Sanders said of Netanyahu: “He should not be welcome in the United States Congress.”
…In January, Sanders sponsored an unsuccessful Senate bill to make US aid to Israel conditional on its observance of human rights and international law.
“This invitation to Netanyahu is a disgrace and something that we will look back on with regret,” Sanders said. “With this invitation, it will be impossible, with a straight face, for the United States to lecture any country on Earth about human rights and human dignity.”
Meanwhile Ryan Grim reports that a secret UN report that has been released says that Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed at least 172 dependents of United Nations staff by the end of June, in addition to 195 staff members. Imagine if any other country had killed that many UN workers and family members. There would have been calls for an international inquiry and the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
The international criminal court’s chief prosecutor in May requested an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. That is still being considered by the court.
While Democrats are praising Joe Biden’s record as president now that he has bowed out, his unwillingness to use the clout that the the US, as the biggest aid and arms supplier, undoubtedly possesses over Israel, to take any meaningful measures to stop the massacre makes him an accomplice to the unfolding horror and should tarnish his legacy. He should forever be remembered as the president who did almost nothing while Israel literally gets away with murder. Kamal Harris’s decision to not attend Netanyahu’s speech may be her way of trying to show some distance from Biden on an issue that especially the young people that she is trying to reach, care strongly about. Jeremy Scahill writes that this is an issue that she has to address.
Among Harris’s challenges if she secures the Democratic nomination will be to win back support from voters outraged at the Biden administration’s facilitation of Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinians of Gaza. In the critical state of Michigan alone—where a devastating poll from the Detroit Free Press on Sunday morning showed Biden down 7 percentage points to Trump across the state—there were over 100,000 “uncommitted” primary voters.
…Harris is in an unusual historical position. The White House press team has promoted an image of Harris as more sympathetic to the humanitarian plight of Palestinians even while she backs Biden’s agenda in the region. As a candidate for president, she could explain to voters ways in which she may have internally dissented in the discussions surrounding the Gaza war. As the sitting vice president, however, such moves would cause problems for Biden.
The truth is that, like most Democrats, Harris has supported Biden’s policies, even if she has raised tactical objections or expressed moral unease with the horrifying death toll. While Harris is not Biden—and does not have a half century of overwhelming support for Israel’s brutality and militarism fueling her positions—she does have her own record of hardline support for Israel, both as a senator and as vice president.
US politicians, even progressive ones, have long been reluctant to make even the mildest criticisms of Israel, with some of them receiving the scornful label of being PEPs (Progressive Except for Palestine). But some are slowly beginning to edge away as Israel pursues these unquestionably murderous policies, with roughly half of the Democratic members of Congress boycotting his speech. Seven major unions have called for the end to US military aid to Israel, another sign of the distancing.
A coalition of unions representing nearly half of all union members in the United States sent a letter this week urging President Joe Biden to halt all US military aid to Israel. The letter, sent ahead of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US today, urges Biden to stop arming Israel “as part of the work to secure an immediate and permanent cease-fire in the war in Gaza.”
Seven unions signed onto the missive: the Association of Flight Attendants–Communications Workers of America (AFA-CWA), the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), the National Education Association (NEA), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the United Auto Workers (UAW), and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE). Taken together, the signatories comprise some six million workers.
“Our unions are hearing the cries of humanity as this vicious war continues,” said APWU president Mark Dimondstein in a press release. “Working people and our unions are horrified that our tax dollars are financing this ongoing tragedy. We need a ceasefire now, and the best way to secure that is to shut off US military aid to Israel.”
At one time, calling Israel an apartheid state was considered controversial. Now that is one of the mildest criticisms one can make. We are beyond apartheid and well into genocide territory.
Almost all the reporting of Netanyahu’s speech pointed out that he said nothing new.
But I don’t recall anyone pointing out that he repeatedly makes a strawman argument. I don’t know anyone who thinks that Hamas are the good guys. One can condemn Hamas while at the same time condemn the state of Israel for cranking it up to eleven, which they’ve been doing for decades, not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank.
Well, it’s not impossible that chickens will come home to roost.
cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Slobodan_Milo%C5%A1evi%C4%87
@billseymour #1,
Presumably the person who spray-painted “HAMAS IS COMIN” on a monument thinks they are, as well as the folks who were flying the Hamas flag outside Union Station.
Couldn’t say how many of the protestors agreed. I assume it’s a minority. Didn’t see any pro-Hamas signs myself when I walked by at around 5:30 today, so I assume they all went home early.
Statements like “I don’t think anyone X” might be best avoided or qualified. It’s still a strawman argument, because support for Hamas isn’t a mainstream opinion among opposers of Israel’s genocidal campaign. But among those who protest Israel now, you will find some antisemites, you will find some defenders of terrorism. It doesn’t make the protestors, globally speaking, wrong. I also think the sensible protestors aren’t really obligated to wring hands and cry and throw themselves on swords to prove they aren’t like the naughty ones. That’s what genocidal types have used against the Palestinian freedom movement for ages. We’re done with that bullshit.
invivoMark and Karl Random are both correct in pointing out that I exagerated by suggesting that nobody thinks that Hamas are good guys. Yes, there were some pro-Hamas protesters at various rallies; but I defend myself by claiming that it’s factually correct to say that I don’t any of them. 😎
I also worry a bit that I might have made a Dear Muslima argument; but I think that one can make a lesser-of-two-evils comparison if it’s recognized that both are evil and ought to be fought against.
Israel has been able to skate by for decades on “Everything Israel does is right and perfect and if you disagree with any particular thing we do, you hate Jews, now fork over some more money and weapons to us.” That’s the card Bibi is playing to keep himself from going to jail. But too many Americans seem to have been brainwashed into believing this, too. “Oh, you demanded war refugee women and children go to THIS location, then you bombed it to smithereens? How wonderful! You are so right to do this!”
Just as an aside, I often marvel at how much Katydid and I are in agreement despite my knee-jerk desire to put it less forcefully (and probably less effectively as well).
This early boomer (I’ll be 88 about a week from now) is hopeful that the kids will be able to fix at least some of what we’ve screwed up. 😎
Well, you’re pretty sharp for an elderly gent.
And your main point (younger people are getting to shape policy) is valid.
Still.
There is no “we”, this business of collective responsibility is bullshit.
I’m pretty sure neither you nor I screwed things up; that was other people.
(Sorry, but this business of apologising for what other people did is not my thing)
@7, billseymour: there’s a lot of value in diplomacy and you’re very good at it.
As for me, I was in high school and at the development stage where I was thoroughly outraged by hypocrisy when I learned simultaneously about the Holocaust in English class (The Diary of Anne Frank followed by heartbreaking black-and-white films of the camps) and the Nakba in History class. Already an atheist, I didn’t buy into “Gott mit uns” nor “God GAVE US this land” (that has been inhabited for tens of thousands of years by a vast tapestry of people, who we’re exterminating and taking ever more of their land while imprisoning them in an open-air ghetto).
Additionally, as a military brat, I was thoroughly aware of the Israel bombing of the USS Liberty and the countless enticements of American soldiers and sailors to spy on us for Israel--a country we give support to above all others. Again, the hypocrisy of taking our money while assaulting and killing our troops did not sit well with teenaged-me.
This was during the Cold War, and the contrast of our national hatred of the Soviet Union for doing the exact same thing Israel was doing to us also set off my hypocrisy meter.
Thus, I never developed the blind, unthinking worship of Israel as the paragon of humanity, and I noticed the religious and conservative Israel-uber-alles mindset. It just hasn’t been allowed to say out loud until now because any clear-eyed examination of facts is shouted down with screams of “Anti-Semitism!”
InvivoMark: I strongly suspect that Republicans, or maybe some law-enforcement agency, are planting provocateurs in protest rallies to try to induce the protesters to do or say things that disgrace or discredit their own cause. It’s a long-known COINTELPRO tactic. I heard a report of some clown at an anti-Likud rally trying to get everyone to chant “death to the Jews” or some such, and not succeeding.
I know that sounds paranoid, but remember that HAMAS THEMSELVES were acting in this very same capacity when they attacked Israel last October, with Israeli support and encouragement. Given what a dishonest, fascist and manipulative bunch the AIPAC coalition are, there’s no way we can rule out similar COINTELPRO actions by them here.
I’ve got the news up on another tab, and they’re saying 20 protesters were arrested at the (peaceful) protest--unlike January 6th, when some people were killed but none were arrested. And the BLM protests, where people sitting on the ground were pepper sprayed by the police.
Also remember the USian Christian religious nutter faction who are rooting for Israel because they believe the moment all Jewish people move to Israel, then Jesus will come and destroy all the people who aren’t Christian religious nutters. Thanks to Reagan who first courted this bloc, and Bush who hired their kids out of Christian madrasas into gov’t jobs, these people have quite a voice in politics.
Then there arethe faction of American-born Jews who have committed atrocities to steal the land in the West Bank for the illegal settlements--they still have family in the USA, and for all we know, they may be voting in US elections.
If you are the President of the United States, you are a war criminal. It’s a requirement of the job.
John Morales @8: #NotAllCisHetWhiteMaleBoomers 😎
I completely agree with the protesters, but some of them (Code Pink, Jill Stein, possibly others I don’t know about) would be a lot more convincing if they opposed the Russian invasion of and atrocities in Ukraine with the same conviction and vehemence.