Netanyahu’s speech a stumbling block for Democrats

After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit U.S. lawmakers with a forceful call to action on Wednesday, Democrats in attendance took evasive maneuvers. As they walked out of the joint session of Congress, many of them offered no comment, avoided questions, or gave vague answers.

Famously pro-Israel Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., declined to comment on the speech. So did Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., who recently criticized his colleague Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., for taking such an aggressively anti-Israel stance in recent months. (Bowman lost a primary recently in which support for Israel played a defining role in the campaign.)

Those noncommittal responses leave questions unanswered about the trajectory of the Democratic Party’s position on Israel. An increasing faction of the party decries Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the terror attack on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023. Meanwhile, the party’s new presumptive presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, has yet to define her stance on the war.

In his Wednesday afternoon address, Netanyahu described Israel as the shield of the United States.

“The U.S. and Israel must stand together,” Netanyahu said. “When we stand together something very simple happens: We win, they lose. We’re not only protecting ourselves. We’re protecting you.”

The prime minister unapologetically confronted lawmakers who called on Israel to stand down from the conflict, labeling them as Hamas’ “useful idiots.”

Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., said the speech struck exactly the right note. Mills sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“To be honest, I don’t know what else you would say. ‘Useful ignorance?’ I think that Netanyahu called it as he sees it. And this is a man that is continuing to fight against radicalism in his own nation and the right to defend his own citizens. And so I think that’s toned down from what he would like to say,” Mills said.

Along with about 40 of the anti-Israel members of the Democratic Party, Harris did not attend Wednesday’s address. Instead, she gave remarks on the campaign trail in Indianapolis. Normally, a vice president would preside over a joint session of Congress.

Earlier in the day, some anti-Israel members of Congress joined pro-Palestinian activists in a virtual meeting, calling for increased accountability for Netanyahu and his administration.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill.; Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas; and Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., spoke at the event.

Another speaker, Tariq Habash, formerly worked for the Department of Education. He told reporters on the call he saw no choice but to resign over Biden’s continued support of Israel. He blasted U.S. monetary support for Israel and the provision for weapons, which he said resulted in civilian casualties.

“We must instead replace it with accountability,” Habash said.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, the United States has provided Israel at least $12.5 billion in military aid through a $3.8 billion bill in March and $8.7 billion from a supplemental appropriations act in April.

While Netanyahu spoke, protests broke out across Washington. Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators took control of the Union Station courtyard a few blocks from the Capitol, pulling down and burning U.S. flags and replacing them with Palestinian flags.

One of the protesters, who identified himself as Yassin, told WORLD the war in Hamas could play a role in voters’ decisions in the upcoming November elections. He is a Muslim originally from Egypt.

“The presidential candidates’ stances—if they’re a genocide supporter or a revolution and peace supporter—that tells a lot about who they are and what they’re planning to do with their presidential election,” Yassin said.

While Yassin hopes voters will make a decision based on that consideration, he himself won’t vote, citing the lack of a pro-Palestinian candidate.

Back at the Capitol, I asked Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., what he made of Netanhahu’s speech and what he expects to hear from Harris. Moskowitz is Jewish and has voted for all major pro-Israel pieces of legislation since the war in Gaza began.

“Look, she’s part of the Biden-Harris administration, she has a record in the Senate on Israel, and now she’s going to lay out her vision for how she sees the U.S. and Israel—the strongest ally in the region, and how to continue that going forward,” Moskowitz said.

But Moskowitz’s willingness to speak to the issue was an outlier from the responses of many of the Democrats walking away from the address.

I asked Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, if he thought Netanyahu had struck the right tone with Congress.

“You know, I don’t know,” Lieu said.