Netanyahu trolls Gaza war critics in reality-bending speech to Congress

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the joint meeting of Congress. AFP

If you've ever worried about what is happening to Palestinians in Gaza, fear not. Israel does everything it can to avoid civilian casualties, plenty of food is getting into the enclave and almost no innocents have been killed in Rafah.

So said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in yesterday's address to the US Congress, where he accused the world of telling “lies” about Israel even as he made a series of reality-bending claims and delivered a humiliating blow to President Joe Biden by dismissing his months-long push for a ceasefire.

It frankly is hard to know where to begin unpacking what Mr Netanyahu said in a topsy-turvy speech that also accused anti-war protesters, thousands of whom were thronging the streets outside the US Capitol, as being puppets of Iran who had chosen to “stand with evil”.

Let's start with his assertion that Israel isn't using starvation as a weapon of warfare in Gaza, an accusation levelled by the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

Aid agencies and the UN have warned that Gaza is on the brink of famine and have repeatedly called on Israel to allow more aid in. But any claims Israel is choking off food supplies were “complete and utter nonsense”, Mr Netanyahu said, pointing to Israel enabling more than 40,000 aid lorries to enter Gaza.

“That’s half a million tonnes of food, and that’s more than 3,000 calories for every man, woman and child in Gaza,” Mr Netanyahu said.

Oxfam in April said that people in northern Gaza are forced to survive on 245 calories a day, which is less than a can of beans and nothing like the 3,000 calories claimed by Mr Netanyahu.

The US, apparently powerless to influence its ally, even built a temporary military pier at a cost of $230 million to circumvent Israel's roadblocks. The structure has now been packed up for good after it failed to deliver sustained food supplies.

Turning to civilian casualties in the southern city of Rafah, Mr Netanyahu said he visited Israeli troops who had been fighting Hamas there. An Israeli commander said the following when asked how many civilians had been killed: “Prime Minister, practically none. With the exception of a single incident, where shrapnel from a bomb hit a Hamas weapons depot and unintentionally killed two dozen people, the answer is practically none,” Mr Netanyahu recounted the commander as saying.

He was referring to a strike in May that killed displaced Palestinians, but many more died in the weeks before and since that incident amid air strikes and heavy shelling of the city.

As an editor who must look through a seemingly endless stream of images on photo wires of dead and dying adults and children in Gaza, it felt particularly confronting to hear Mr Netanyahu claim that Israel does everything it can to avoid civilian deaths.

“The ICC prosecutor accuses Israel of deliberately targeting civilians. What in God’s green Earth is he talking about?” Mr Netanyahu said.

The Israeli military “has dropped millions of flyers, sent millions of text messages, made hundreds of thousands of phone calls to get Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way. But at the same time, Hamas does everything in its power to put Palestinian civilians in harm's way”.

The Gazan health ministry says nearly 40,000 people have been killed since the war started after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, and Israel strikes homes and apartment buildings on a near-daily basis.

Widely shared footage on social media has shown Israeli troops killing Palestinians as they waved white flags. Israel also has been accused of using an artificial intelligence system to identify targets for air strikes in Gaza that permitted the mass killing of civilians.

Mr Netanyahu was given a hero's welcome as he entered the US House of Representatives, mainly by Republicans who have lashed out at Mr Biden for his very limited efforts to rein in the Israeli military's destruction of Gaza, primarily by withholding one shipment of heavy bombs.

US lawmakers greet Mr Netanyahu after his speech. Getty / AFP

In his speech, Mr Netanyahu framed the war in Gaza as a “clash between barbarism and civilisation”.

“It’s a clash between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life,” he said.

Hamas's horrors of October 7 must never be downplayed or forgotten, but in a conflict that has seen the total destruction of so much of Gaza and such a staggering death toll, it is hard to see the Israeli military as sanctifying life.

Mr Netanyahu also seemed to dismiss international attempts to broker a ceasefire, despite US officials insisting a deal is close. “Israel will fight until we destroy Hamas’s military capabilities and its rule in Gaza and bring all our hostages home,” he said.

“That’s what total victory means. And we will settle for nothing less.”

Nearly 130 Democratic members of Congress refused to attend the speech, along with 27 senators, while one Republican also boycotted it.

The former speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was among those who stayed away. She called the speech “by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary invited and honoured with the privilege of addressing the Congress of the United States”.

Deeply unpopular at home over his handling of the war and his failure to secure the release of the hostages still held by Hamas, the Israeli Prime Minister chose to once again insert himself into US politics, addressing Congress in a self-serving move that achieved nothing except further propagate falsehoods about the extent of suffering in Gaza and deepen divisions in America's already fractured discourse.

A group of people hold signs and Palestinian flags on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress in Washington, on July 24, 2024. Reuters

Mr Netanyahu's speech to Congress will test whether Democrats can sustain their newfound unity over Vice President Kamala Harris despite searing divisions over Middle East policy. Bloomberg

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather on the National Mall grounds with the US Capitol in view. Reuters

Thousands gathered in Washington to protest against Mr Netanyahu's visit to the Capitol. AFP

People held signs calling for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza, and for the end of US aid to Israel. AFP

Ultra-orthodox Jewish people also participated in the pro-Palestinian protest near the US Capitol. AFP

Washington Metropolitan Police clear demonstrators from blocking traffic. AP

Jewish protesters pray to end the war in Gaza. EPA

Mr Netanyahu's address to a joint meeting of the US Congress comes amid a close US presidential election and as anger grows over Israel's actions in Gaza. EPA