In Defense of Netanyahu’s Speech

As a pro-Israel, anti-Netanyahu, Democratic-voting, moderate American Jew who once said to his father-in-law, long before the massacre of October 7^th, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “the worst thing to ever happen to the modern state of Israel,” I’d like to say a few words in defense of Netanyahu’s speech, delivered yesterday, July 24, 2024, to the US Congress.

However controversial and unpopular Netanyahu may be at home and abroad, however narcissistic, untrustworthy and corrupt you believe him to be, it must be acknowledged that the Prime Minister articulated many vital truths regarding Israel, its current conflict, and America’s relationship to that conflict, to an American audience badly in need of such truth.

For example, when Netanyahu says: “Defeating our brutal enemies requires both courage and clarity. Clarity begins by knowing the difference between good and evil. Yet…many anti-Israel protesters choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas.  They stand with rapists and murderers…they should be ashamed of themselves,” he’s not wrong.

Yes, Americans have the right to protest whatever they’d like, and people are free to stand with whomever they choose. But supporting or contextualizing in any way the horrific violence of October 7^th is not only shameful, it’s lunacy. It’s immensely helpful, therefore, as an American Jew, to hear these words expressed so forcefully on one of the world’s largest stages.

And when Netanyahu says that the US’s own security establishment has confirmed that, “Iran is funding and promoting anti-Israel protests in America. They want to disrupt America,” he’s highlighting a significant dynamic that the White House should also be calling attention to on a regular basis—not only for the sake of America’s Jews, and American popular opinion of Israel, but for the sake of American security.

All of these variables, as Netanyahu correctly asserts, are bound up with one another. These are not separate issues. Israel clearly understands this because they are, right now, fighting for their lives, face-to-face with an enemy who’s oft-stated goal is to destroy it. Unlike America, Israel cannot afford to harbor any illusions about its current reality.

One of Netanyahu’s key points is that Israel’s fight is also America’s fight. Though polls suggest most Americans support Israel’s war in Gaza, there does not seem to be widespread understanding that Israel and the US are fighting the same conflict.

Netanyahu makes the point clearly: “When Israel fights Hamas, we’re fighting Iran.  When we’re fighting Hezbollah, we’re fighting Iran. When we fight the Houthis, we’re fighting Iran. And when we’re fighting Iran, we’re fighting the most radical and murderous enemy of the United States of America.”

The sooner Americans understands this the better.

But perhaps Netanyahu’s most critical point is in regards to the global antisemitic response not only to Israel’s war in Gaza, but in its very right to defend itself. This antisemitism, as Netanyahu reminds, is several thousand years old.

“Just as malicious lies were leveled for centuries at the Jewish people malicious lies are now being leveled at the Jewish state.” He goes on: ““The outrageous slanders that paint Israel as racist and genocidal are meant to delegitimize Israel, to demonize the Jewish state and to demonize Jews everywhere. And no wonder why we’ve witnessed an appalling rise in antisemitism in America and around the world.”

The fact that antisemitism has mutated throughout history—from religious to ethnic to biological and now to national antisemitism—is a truth little understood by most. The result is that, in addition to fighting Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran, all of whom are bent on their total destruction, Israel has had to simultaneously fend off false accusations of genocide, colonialism and apartheid, among others.

These accusations would be merely absurd if they weren’t so effective in turning global opinion against Israel and world Jewry. The only reasonable explanation for this slander—which, let’s remember, emerged within twenty-four hours of the October 7^th massacre itself—is antisemitism.

Antisemitism, which has now come to take the form of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist sentiment, is as virulent as it ever was. Which is not to say that there are no legitimate criticisms of the Israeli government or its policies. Of course, there are.  But to ignore the fact of antisemitism and its role in the current conflict would be immoral and irresponsible.

To repeat: I don’t consider myself a supporter of Benjamin Netanyahu. I think he’s been in power too long, to the great detriment of Israel and its people. But as Maimonides famously wrote: “Accept the truth from whoever utters it.” And yesterday, for all that Netanyahu left unsaid (like, for example, his own culpability in preventing Oct 7 from happening at all), he uttered a whole lot of truth as well.