In Netanyahu’s triumphal moment, the heartbreak and disdain of the outside world creeps in

The joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, at times, felt like Benjamin Netanyahu’s happy place: The Israeli prime minister got more than 40 standing ovations for an hourlong speech extolling the necessity of the US-Israel alliance.

But the world outside the US Capitol on Wednesday was unforgiving, and it padded silently into his speech. It infringed on his moment when family members of the hostages held in Gaza were arrested in the chamber’s gallery for protesting him. It showed in the absence of close to 70 lawmakers, out of 535, from the chamber. Inside the chamber, he got a cold shoulder and lacerating criticism from members of Congress who once would have fawned over him.

Netanyahu delivered his fourth speech to a joint meeting of Congress, a history-making record for any world leader. He reveled in the applause; he is under pressure at home, where vast majorities favor a deal that would release hostages in exchange for a ceasefire. 

The Biden administration, which wholeheartedly backed Israel following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, has soured on Netanyahu, saying he shifts the goalposts on the proposed ceasefire deal, and that his government has obstructed the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

It was only on Tuesday, after he got to Washington, that Netanyahu was able to secure meetings with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, who will face each other in the presidential election in November. 

Even Trump, whom Netanyahu lavishly praised in the speech, seemed ready to troll him. The former president posted on social media a friendly exchange with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president whom Netanyahu has worked to marginalize.

The speech itself broke little ground: It was long on crowd-pleasing rhetoric but offered few new plans or positions. The Biden administration has long been seeking a “day after” scenario following the war, and Netanyahu spoke only in the vaguest of terms about a grand NATO-like alliance between Israel and Arab countries with American backing. Families of the hostages, dozens of whom were in Washington for the speech, had said they would consider the visit a failure if he did not announce a deal to free the captives. He did not even mention a deal directly.

Netanyahu’s vow to “destroy Hamas’ military capabilities” got one of 44 standing ovations. But the parents of two young hostages, Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Omer Neutra, sat and stared at Netanyahu, hands still, faces frozen.

At other points in the speech at least two hostage family members who had been invited to attend stood up wearing yellow T-shirts saying “Seal the Deal Now.” They were handcuffed and escorted out of the gallery.

Netanyahu occasionally looked up at the gallery at his wife, Sara, and a hostage Israeli soldiers recently rescued, Noa Argamani, about whom he spoke at length. Behind Argamani was Netanyahu’s special guest, billionaire Elon Musk, who purchased Twitter in 2022 and has long courted accusations of antisemitism.

Who's missing?

J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East lobby, counted 68 Democrats and one Republican who boycotted the speech, more than the 58 Democrats who were absent when Netanyahu last appeared at a joint meeting in 2015. At that time, he was directly rebuking President Barack Obama, whereas on Wednesday every mention of Biden was made in praise. 

(He did chide Biden, without naming him, for slow-walking the delivery of weapons to Israel, a claim he’s made before and that the administration has disputed.)

Among the boycotters were party leaders and Jewish lawmakers who would, 10 years ago, never have dared to skip a speech by an Israeli leader.

Among them were former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has a longstanding close relationship with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee; Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the powerful Appropriations Committee; and Jewish lawmakers Reps. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Sara Jacobs of California, Steve Cohen of Tennessee, Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon and Becca Balint of Vermont, as well as Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Brian Schatz of Hawaii. 

Pelosi later called the speech “by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary invited and honored with the privilege of addressing the Congress of the United States.”

There was a coldness even among those present. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New York Jewish Democrat and Senate majority leader, barely acknowledged Netanyahu when they passed each other. Earlier this year, he said the Israeli prime minister had “lost his way” and called for early Israeli elections. He stood when Johnson introduced Netanyahu but stared ahead and did not applaud.

New York Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, the longest-serving Jewish congressman in this Congress, called Netanyahu the worst Jewish leader in more than two millennia this week. Before the speech on Wednesday, he sat in the chamber reading a biography of the prime minister, “The Netanyahu Years,” written by one of Netanyahu’s most excoriating Israeli critics, Ben Caspit. 

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the Palestinian-American Michigan Democrat, sat silently throughout the speech. When she wasn’t examining her phone, she held up a small sign: One side said “war criminal,” the other side said “guilty of genocide.” Clerks asked her to stop; she did, for a while, and then resumed.

Jewish Democrats who have been among the strongest and most consistent supporters of Israel were turned off by the speech. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida said she was left wanting to know more about Netanyahu’s plans to end the war, return the hostages and prepare for the day after. She suggested that she was unsettled by the speech’s attacks on American university protests, as well as Netanyahu’s lavish praise for Trump.

“Unfortunately, I left his speech still seeking more details on what his plan is to deliver on those goals, and thought it was unnecessary for him to inject comment on US domestic politics,” she said.

Many of the lawmakers who were absent attended a meeting earlier in the day convened by Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, one of the most influential Democrats in Congress,  where they heard from families of hostages who were unhappy with Netanyahu and his perceived reluctance to take a deal.

Biden invited hostage families to join part of his meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday. The families came away from a meeting on Monday where they felt he barely acknowledged their demands. 

“I would say number one, Prime Minister Netanyahu has been talking about complete victory for most of the last 291 days,” Jon Polin, Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s father, said Tuesday evening at a meeting with reporters. “I still don’t know what the definition is of complete victory. I know the definition of total failure and that is not bringing home hostages.”

The streets between the Watergate hotel, where Netanyahu was staying, and the Capitol were packed with protesters chanting “genocide,” managing at times to breach barriers as Netanyahu’s motorcade sped under the cloud-streaked sky.

Netanyahu’s day started at the stately Washington Hebrew Congregation, at a memorial for Joe Lieberman, the Jewish American statesman who died in March. The memorial had been planned before Republican Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana invited Netanyahu to speak but was then shifted to a more secure venue and a more accommodating time of day.

Lieberman was known as a man who straddled ideologies — for years a Democrat and then an independent who campaigned in 2008 for his friend, the Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain. 

The memorial was a bipartisan reunion of sorts of people who once shared a vision of a robust American foreign policy, and of working when possible across the aisle. 

Jack Lew, the current ambassador to Israel, was present, as were Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine. Lew sat next to John Bolton, a hawkish foreign policy official who served in the Trump and George W. Bush administrations.

“He was an American patriot and a proud Jew who steadfastly stood with Israel and the Jewish people, especially during trying times,” Netanyahu said. “And it’s precisely during these trying times that I miss him even more.”

Al Gore, the sitting vice president in 2000 who chose Lieberman as his running mate, described Lieberman’s commitment to tikkun olam, the Jewish precept to repair the world.

“Here in America, we continue to grapple with the vitriol and fear that have threatened to drive us apart,” Gore said. “Around the world, democracy is under threat. Humanity itself faces an existential crisis of our own making. People continue to use the sky as an open source. These parallel crises begs the question, can the world be repaired? Can we muster the courage to reject the rancor that threatens to divide us?”

Netanyahu then delivered his brief remarks and exited. His motorcade sped past the protesters. Later, in his speech, as they railed at him outside, he quipped that they had “officially become Iran’s useful idiots.”

Inside the Capitol, the line was met with roaring applause.