Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the US Congress comes after nine months of war in Gaza following the 7 October attacks.
Netanyahu arrived in Washington seeking to secure bipartisan support for Israel and to lay out his country’s blueprint for the future or so-called ‘day after’. The speech, his fourth to the legislature, failed to achieve either.
Instead of offering urgently needed security solutions that could appeal to both sides of the US aisle or win regional support from leaders across the Middle East, he played for time – and appealed for unity by playing on the easy and always-looming Iranian threat.
The prime minister’s mission was challenging, following a tumultuous week in US politics that saw President Biden finally step away from a second presidential bid, Vice President Kamala Harris kick start her campaign, and a feisty Republican convention conclude with the nomination clinched for Donald Trump.
What was intended to build solid cross-party support fell flat amid significant public protests around the Capitol and Democratic boycotts.
Netanyahu’s badly damaged image
Netanyahu’s US visit (at the invitation of Republican House speaker Mike Johnson) offered the prime minister an opportunity to rebuild his international credibility and rehabilitate his deeply damaged domestic reputation as ‘Mr Security’ after a harrowing nine months of war.
As Israel’s longest serving prime minister, Netanyahu has prided himself on raising the alarm on the Iranian nuclear and regional threat.
But the Hamas attacks of 7 October have badly undermined his security credentials, as has his very visible failure to prevent Israel’s encirclement by Iranian-backed groups.
He is also personally responsible for supporting Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement – a move that since 2018 has seen Iran accelerate its nuclear programme to alarming and unsupervised levels. (Netanyahu’s 2015 congressional address fiercely criticized the Obama administration for its nuclear negotiations with Iran).
Failure and catastrophe in Gaza
Most notably, since 7 October, Netanyahu has yet to achieve his goal of ‘total victory’ by eliminating Hamas. Instead, the war has left a disastrous wake of Palestinian death and destruction in Gaza – and failed to retrieve 116 Israeli hostages.
Much of the Israeli public remains infuriated by this failure, viewing those held as sacrificed to the war effort.
In a poll released before the trip, over 72 per cent of the Israeli public personally blamed Netanyahu, and called for him to resign. The prime minister has also been personally charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court, alongside his defence minister.
Biden’s frustration
These weaknesses meant that Netanyahu badly needed a strong show of bipartisan support for his agenda, from a US that is heading into an increasingly uncertain election cycle.
But, despite President Biden’s steadfast support after the Hamas attacks, mutual frustrations between the president and Netanyahu remain.
In his speech Netanyahu did thank Biden for being a ‘proud Zionist,’ and for standing by Israel. But tensions over ceasefire conditions, a lack of consistent humanitarian aid to Gaza, expansion of Israeli settlements into the West Bank and peace settlement negotiations continue.
Biden’s attempt to lay out ceasefire plans has stalled. So has his broader vision to build on the Trump-negotiated 2020 Abraham Accords and further Israel’s regional integration.
Key to this vision was the delivery of Saudi-Israeli normalization in exchange for a Palestinian peace process. But neither is achievable with the war ongoing and Israel refusing to discuss future plans for Palestine.
Netanyahu’s speech did dangle his vision for a ‘deradicalized and demilitarized Gaza’, but provided no detail on broader prospects for peace.
Part of this obstruction is due to the composition of Netanyahu’s fragile far right coalition. Figures like Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich vehemently oppose striking any deals with Hamas.
Both have repeatedly threatened to collapse the government. Both have also supported the continued and unprecedented expansion of Israeli settlements into the West Bank – moves which are a violation of international law and the 1993 Oslo Accords.
Not only a question of the far right
However, the far right on its own cannot be solely to blame. Israeli leaders of all kinds have yet to mobilize against Netanyahu or put forward a plan to address Israel’s security crisis.
Just before Netanyahu’s trip, on 18 July, the Knesset passed a resolution overwhelmingly rejecting Palestinian statehood. Benny Gantz’s National Unity party, sometimes spoken of as a possible alternative to Netanyahu’s government, also supported the motion.
While left leaning parties including Yair Lapid largely abstained, the vote showcases the limited domestic appetite in Israel to support a two state solution – let alone address Israel’s leadership and domestic and regional security crisis. This lacuna is one that Netanyahu continues to fill.
Seeking common cause
The prime minister’s speech was short on substance, but he did remind his audience of the strong bonds between Israel and the US on shared threats and values.
‘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… when we stand together, something very simple happens. We win. They lose.’
Here, Netanyahu tried to build clear synergies through the shared threat of Iran, that he also directly blamed for anti-Israel protests.
This is a tried and true strategy that will be hard for US lawmakers to shrug off. The Iran threat – be it nuclear, regional or local – is a persistent one that requires consistent US attention.
Netanyahu also tried to keep the dream of normalization and Israeli regional integration alive through the idea of an anti-Iran Abraham Alliance.