Since Oct. 7, Mr. Netanyahu has not taken any responsibility for what happened and has continued to deflect any blame and promote discord, division and hatred in Israel. Even as he speaks to the international media, he has largely confined his interviews with Israeli outlets to Channel 14, which provides him with a comfortable echo chamber. He has surrounded himself with yea-sayers and nonentities. He only goes to places where he will be fawned over. Mr. Netanyahu has continued to support those in his government who wish to undermine our democracy even while we are at war. He has not presented the citizens of Israel with any strategy for the day after beyond empty slogans.
Mr. Netanyahu sketched for Congress a portrait of Israel that most Israelis would not recognize or agree with. He talked about the necessity of bringing the hostages home, while the reality is that he has done little to achieve this goal. He has torpedoed every agreement that has been on the table, knowing that if he signs off on one, his government will fall. Tens of thousands of Israelis are still internally displaced because of his lack of leadership and ability to make hard decisions.
This can also be seen in his unwillingness to stand up to the ultra-Orthodox and ensure that they also contribute to the future of this country and serve in the military. Mr. Netanyahu has pandered to Aryeh Deri, the corrupt leader of the Shas political party who has been barred by the Supreme Court of Israel from serving in ministerial positions because of his convictions for fraud, bribery, breach of trust and violation of tax laws. And he has whitewashed the record of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has been convicted on charges of inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organization. These positions are a testament to Mr. Netanyahu’s political and moral weakness.
Though many of us go out on the streets and protest, we have no legal means of removing Mr. Netanyahu from power, unless some of the members of his own party rediscover their moral compass. Mr. Netanyahu is trying to save himself and his legacy at our expense.
Harvey Hames, Beersheba, Israel
There are roughly 2 billion members of the worldwide Muslim ummah, or community. For decades, many of them have watched in dismay as the United States carries out a lopsided foreign policy in the Middle East.
It was the wrong message to invite Benjamin Netanyahu, who the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor wants to arrest on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, to speak to a joint meeting of Congress. We are light-years away from the peacemaking efforts advanced by Presidents Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.
The White House and State Department should have dissuaded Congress from issuing an invitation to Israel’s prime minister until after Israel holds elections. The residents of Israel are in the streets trying to preserve their own democracy. They deserve to have legitimate representation on this side of the ocean. Netanyahu belongs on trial before the ICC, not on a congressional dais.
Howard Dotson, Minneapolis
With his decision not to seek a second term, President Biden has thrown off the long-term political burden of navigating between those who decry any criticism of Israeli policy as antisemitic and those who say any support of Israel is genocidal. Now he should listen to State Department analysts calling on the United States to pause offensive military aid to Israel.
We can provide for Israel’s defense without enabling the Netanyahu government’s unconscionable military actions in Gaza and its support of Jewish settlers who attack Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. For decades, Mr. Biden has been outspoken in his criticism of Israeli settlement policy as a deterrent to peace and to a two-state solution.
His current diplomatic efforts are being undermined by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including in Mr. Netanyahu’s recent address to Congress. Mr. Netanyahu enjoyed a better reception from Congress than he would have from the Knesset. Rather than soberly addressing what the United States’ policies toward Israel have accomplished, lawmakers abased themselves before the demagoguery of a leader responsible for his nation’s greatest intelligence failure and its bloodiest war. The Netanyahu government’s incursions into Gaza have not retrieved the hostages. Instead, the campaign has eroded Israel’s national security.
Why would American lawmakers fall all over themselves applauding that? It’s time for Mr. Biden to say, “Enough.”
Annlinn Kruger, Bar Harbor, Maine
Friends of Israel?
You can tell who is a true friend of Israel by who attended or did not attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint meeting of Congress. It has always been customary for the vice president, as president of the Senate, to preside when a foreign dignitary addresses a joint session. Vice President Harris — the likely Democratic presidential nominee — chose instead to hold a private meeting with Mr. Netanyahu. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Senate president pro tempore, also boycotted the event. Both were joined by more than 100 congressional Democrats who also passed on their opportunity and obligation to attend Mr. Netanyahu’s address.
We know former president Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, are strong longtime supporters of Israel. But by deciding to attend a campaign event rather than Mr. Netanyahu’s speech, Mr. Vance did both himself and Mr. Trump a disservice by not being at the Capitol.
Larry Penner, Great Neck, N.Y.
What the protesters want
Since Hamas’s ghastly Oct. 7 assault on Israel, many Americans from all ethnic and religious communities have defended Israel’s right to protect itself while objecting to the slaughter of Gazan civilians. There has been a concerted attempt to discredit the demonstrators. Student protesters have been derided as either ignorant, misguided or naive. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) smeared them as antisemetic, although a significant number were Jewish. In a blatant effort to shut them up, he ordered that many University of Texas at Austin students be arrested and issued an executive order aimed at restricting protesters’ speech.
Now we have disgraced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming protesters are “Iran’s useful idiots.” That is a hypocritical put-down from an Israeli leader whose government long supported Qatar’s efforts to provide financial support to the Hamas government in Gaza even as the group prepared for the Oct. 7 attack.
And he has little standing to talk about reckless political behavior: Mr. Netanyahu is reviled among many Israelis who believe he contributed to the toxic environment that led to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s 1995 assassination. “If you ever heard their speeches, you would understand what I mean. They were very, very violent in their expressions: ‘We are selling the country down the drain.’ ‘There will be no Israel after this peace agreement.’ I mean, this was wild,” Rabin’s widow, Leah, said of Mr. Netanyahu and his Likud party colleagues shortly after her husband’s murder. To her death, she blamed Mr. Netanyahu for the collapse of the peace process.
The protesters are not stooges. Rather, they are Americans with an informed conscience, who want to see a permanent cease-fire and an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
George W. Aldridge, San Marcos, Tex.
Making Netanyahu’s point
You wouldn’t think Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the angry mob that came to protest him would make the same point at the same time. But that’s what happened Wednesday as Mr. Netanyahu warned members of Congress that Israel’s enemies around the globe hate America just as much as they hate Israel.
“Our enemies are your enemies,” he declared. “Our fight is your fight.”
As if to prove Mr. Netanyahu’s argument, some protesters were, at that moment, burning American flags near the Capitol, holding high the flag of a terrorist group and threatening that “Hamas is coming.”
Portraying America as the enemy and Hamas as a source of righteous retribution against it is a perfect example of how to play “useful idiots” to the Iranian regime that has long called Israel the “Little Satan” and the United States the “Great Satan.”
Americans may vigorously disagree over how the Israel-Gaza war is playing out, but there should be no disagreement when it comes to rejecting this mob.
Aviva Klompas, Waltham, Mass.
The writer is co-founder of the nonprofit Boundless Israel and a former director of speechwriting for the Israeli delegation to the United Nations.
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