Netanyahu's powerful speech to Congress emphasizes unyielding US-Israel alliance

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as is his practice as an artful orator, checkered his 4,370-word, 55-minute speech to the US Congress on Wednesday with some powerful lines that capture the essence of a particular idea.

“This is not a clash of civilizations,” he said to applause at the opening, describing a world in upheaval. “It’s a clash between barbarism and civilization.”

Of the pro-Hamas protests on American campuses and streets, he said: “When the tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting, and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.”

On civilian casualties in Gaza: “For Israel, every civilian death is a tragedy. For Hamas, it’s a strategy.”

Yet perhaps the words that best summed up what he was trying to do with this speech, his fourth and likely last speech to a joint session of the US Congress, were the seemingly unremarkable three lines at the end.

“May God bless Israel,” he said. “May God bless America. And may God bless the great alliance between Israel and America forever.”

Netanyahu has, in previous speeches to Congress, ended his address by invoking God’s blessing on Israel (1996). He has also twice ended his speeches to Congress by calling on God to “forever bless the United States of America” (2011 and 2015).

But this was the first time he ended with a plea to God to bless both countries and – more significantly – “the great alliance between Israel and America forever.”

“God bless America” is standard fare, as is “God bless Israel.” But “God bless the great alliance between Israel and America forever” – that is something new.

That slight innocuous twist, that small turn of phrase, shed light on the overall purpose of the speech: to fortify that alliance – to present the case for the fortification of that alliance – at a time when it is increasingly being questioned and under fire within the very halls where he spoke.

As the prime minister spoke, dozens of seats inside the hall – where Democratic legislators were to sit – were empty. As he spoke, pro-Hamas demonstrators were protesting outside, calling for an end to Israel and burning both Israeli and American flags.

The exact number of Democrats who boycotted or absented themselves demonstratively from the speech varied wildly. NBC put the number at 40, AP at 60, and Axios at nearly 100, or roughly half of the Democrats in Congress.

Regardless of the exact number, that a significant number of Democrats weren’t there – including leading Democrats such as Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, and former House majority whip and influential member of the Congressional Black Caucus James Clyburn – is not insignificant and is a signal that the strength of this alliance should not be taken for granted.

Netanyahu invoked God’s blessing on this alliance, but Israel can’t rely on divine assistance here; it needs to be proactive. Netanyahu’s speech was an effort to shore it up and reinforce the underpinnings.

THE PRIME minister did this by aiming this speech at an American audience – not an Israeli one – and designing it to remind those listening what this war in Gaza is about. While the optics of Netanyahu speaking before Congress and receiving nearly 80 ovations benefit him politically back home with his supporters, their ears were not the target of his message.

Nearly 10 months into the Gaza war, as horrible images from Gaza flood the airwaves in the US and around the world daily, many people – even well-meaning ones – are losing the thread, forgetting what the war is about and why Israel is waging it.

Most Israelis have not lost that thread. For most Israelis, the traumas of October 7 are seared into their minds, and they are daily reminded of the consequences of that horrific day. They remember the hostages; they cry for the fallen soldiers; and they stand in awe of the wounded fighters day after day.

They understand what this war is about and why it needs to be fought, even as they disagree – often passionately – about what should be done to get Hamas to free the hostages.

But that isn’t the situation abroad. In the United States, a case needs to be made for this war and for Israel amid all the allegations of Israeli war crimes, genocide, and apartheid. The case must be made to the American public that this country’s fight is not only a just and right fight, but also America’s fight.

That’s what Netanyahu did with this speech.

PREDICTABLY AND understandably, this left many people disappointed.

Some people apparently expected that Netanyahu would use this speech to announce a hostage deal and focus only on the hostages. Others thought he should have presented a detailed plan for a “day after” Gaza or lay out a grand Mideast vision or even a more modest vision for peace with the Palestinians.

Some thought he should have used this platform to admit culpability and take responsibility for his own role in the colossal failure of October 7.

Since Netanyahu did none of the above, he came under withering attacks by some critics and political opponents for wasting his time on “empty words.”

But these critics, such as Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, would have slammed Netanyahu for the speech had he stood up and delivered the Sermon on the Mount. The reaction in Israel to the speech fell along predictable lines: those who hate Netanyahu panned it, and those who love him praised it.

Prior to this speech, as is the case before every significant speech the prime minister delivers abroad, there was speculation about the intended audience. This speech was clearly intended for proverbial Middle America, on which the US-Israel alliance rests and relies.

“He didn’t say anything new,” some critics said of the speech. “We’ve all heard it before. He just repeated slogans we’ve heard over and over.”

Yes, we’ve heard it; Israelis have heard it, but that doesn’t mean everyone else has.

We know of the brutality that Hamas committed; the Americans need to be reminded – in vivid, descriptive language – about it.

We know that Israel is a diverse land of people of different colors and various religions; the Americans need to see it. This is why Netanyahu showcased an IDF soldier, Avichail Reuven, of Ethiopian descent, and a Bedouin soldier, Ashraf al Bahiri, during his speech. They represent Israel’s diversity, something many Americans simply don’t realize.

We know that Israel does not indiscriminately target civilians; the Americans don’t – and need to be reminded, as Netanyahu did, that the IDF has dropped millions of flyers and made hundreds of thousands of phone calls to get Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way.

We may all be familiar with US urban warfare specialist John Spencer, who says that the ratio of civilian-to-combatant casualties in Gaza is among the lowest in modern warfare, but the American public is not.

We know that Israel is not intentionally starving Gazans; the Americans need to hear about the aid trucks going in, often hijacked by Hamas.

This is all obvious to Israelis; it is nothing new. But it is not obvious or even known to the vast majority of Americans, or to many of the lawmakers sitting in that hall.

IT IS important to listen to the speech not through Israeli ears, but rather American ones, because this time that was the intended audience.

Some criticize the prime minister for presenting an overidealized, heroic image of Israel, an Israel whose soldiers are all “unbowed, undaunted, unafraid,” who have “risen like lions, the lions of Judah, the lions of Israel,” and who are “all imbued with the indomitable spirit of the Maccabees, the legendary Jewish warriors of antiquity.”

They criticize him for saying “never again” must never be an empty promise, when under his watch it turned into just that.

But the intent of the speech was to shore up the alliance, and you do that by showcasing your strengths, not underlining your weaknesses. He also chose to shore up the alliance by talking in language that still resonates with large swaths of the American public.

Bibi responds to the protesters

“They call Israel a colonialist state,” he said of the anti-Israel protesters. “Don’t they know that the Land of Israel is where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob prayed, where Isaiah and Jeremiah preached, and where David and Solomon ruled? For nearly 4,000 years, the Land of Israel has been the homeland of the Jewish people. It’s always been our home; it will always be our home.”

This was an appeal for the alliance based on a common Judeo-Christian heritage and shared values. But that is not enough; there are also interests, and here Netanyahu stressed that Israel is fighting America and the West’s fight against Iran and radical fundamentalist Islam; that Israel is the little boy with his finger in the proverbial dyke.

“For Iran, Israel is first, America is next,” he said. “If you remember one thing, one thing from this speech, remember this: Our enemies are your enemies, our fight is your fight, and our victory will be your victory.”

That is something worth reminding Americans in a powerful way, especially after October 7, when many Israelis woke up to the humbling realization that the country is more dependent on the US than previously believed.

This is an alliance important to America and essential to Israel. That’s why Netanyahu invoked divine blessing on it and dedicated his speech to reinforcing this bond. His aim was clear: present to the American people a compelling argument why this alliance is important for them, as well as essential for us.