Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu certainly has impeccable timing. In 1998, when he visited Washington as a young prime minister, Netanyahu was literally in a meeting with Bill Clinton when the Monica Lewinsky scandal was breaking. This Wednesday, he addressed a joint session of Congress hours before a deteriorating President Biden gave an Oval Office speech about his dramatic decision to drop out of the presidential race just three months before the election.
In his speech, Netanyahu tried his best to navigate the delicate political moment in the U.S., thanking both parties for their support of Israel. In an emotional moment, as he discussed the horrific attacks of October 7, he pointed to Noa Argamani, the Israeli hostage who was rescued in a daring mission, who was seated in the House gallery and joined by the families of other hostages still being held as well as several IDF soldiers. Netanyahu gave a rousing defense of Israel’s conduct of the war against Hamas and branded as “useful idiots” the pro-Hamas protesters who took over college campuses this spring and swarmed the Capitol for his speech. He framed Israel’s conflict against Iran and its proxies as one pitting civilization against barbarism on which America and Israel must always stand on the same side because a robust and nuclear Iran is also a threat to the United States. He said if there was one takeaway from his speech, it should be: “Our enemies are your enemies. Our fight is your fight. And our victory will be your victory.” The protesters helped drive his point home when, just blocks away from the U.S. Capitol, the mob took down an American flag from a pole at Union Station and set it on fire.
Beyond the substance, and in spite of Netanyahu’s deft attempt to bridge the divide, the reaction to his presence was revealing about the huge gulf that has opened up between the two parties when it comes to supporting Israel, which was once an uncontroversial position. For Republicans, strong support for Israel is as uncontroversial as it comes, while for Democrats, there is a huge split between the traditionally pro-Israel section of the party and the growing anti-Israel contingent, which views Netanyahu with contempt.
At least 80 Democratic members of the House and six senators boycotted the speech. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is supposed to preside over joint sessions of Congress in her capacity as president of the Senate, skipped the speech, citing travel to Indiana. She is supposed to meet with Netanyahu privately later this week, but it’s pretty clear what happened here. Harris’s team has tried to send different signals about her position on Israel, with reports that she had been pushing for a harder line on Israel, raising the hopes of the progressive Left that they would get more of what they wanted in a Harris administration, while her team insists there is no daylight between her and Biden. If Harris were to sit in the background during Netanyahu’s speech, all eyes would be on her and it would complicate the dance. Whenever she applauded, she would be attacked by the pro-Hamas segment of her party for being a sellout in the face of “genocide.” But if she sat still while House Speaker Mike Johnson applauded, she would expose the hostile attitude toward Israel that has become common within her party. By meeting with Netanyahu in private, Harris can frame the conversation however she wants. She can blunt the attacks that she snubbed a key ally, but can tell the pro-Hamas crowd that behind closed doors she spoke “tough truths” to Netanyahu about his need to end Israel’s campaign against Hamas.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s Thursday meeting with Biden, whose mental acuity remains a worry, comes at a tense moment for cease-fire negotiations. There has been some movement on a deal that would bring home hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and at least a temporary halt of the war in Gaza, but obstacles remain.
It increasingly looks as though Israel successfully killed Mohammed Deif, the top Hamas military commander who is believed to have been the operational architect of the October 7 massacre. That could make Hamas more desperate for a deal while making it more plausible for Israel to declare victory in Gaza and shift focus to the northern front, where Hezbollah has become increasingly bold in its attacks and 80,000 Israelis had to be displaced from their homes. Netanyahu is also facing increasing internal pressure to cut a deal that would recover the roughly 120 remaining hostages, of which eight are American citizens (five of whom are believed to be still alive; three are presumed dead but would need to be returned home so their families can have the closure and properly mourn them). But in his speech, Netanyahu emphasized that Israel is determined to keep fighting to achieve its war aims, no matter the pressure.
For Republicans, Israel is a much more unifying issue, as Netanyahu was treated to over 50 standing ovations driven by GOP members while many of their Democratic colleagues who attended were sitting on their hands. Representative Rashida Tlaib held a “War Criminal” sign. At last week’s Republican National Convention, delegates cheered speakers who touted the importance of supporting Israel. The RNC provided a prominent time slot to parents of an American citizen being held captive by Hamas as well as students who highlighted the antisemitic takeover of college campuses by pro-Hamas radicals. In contrast, in a recent interview, Harris said the protesters were “showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza.”
Trump’s relationship with Netanyahu is a bit more complicated. During his presidency, the two leaders had a strong relationship, and Trump was arguably the most pro-Israel president in American history. However, following the 2020 election, Netanyahu did the diplomatic thing and congratulated Biden for his victory, which Trump saw as an act of betrayal, embittering him toward Netanyahu. Trump is welcoming Netanyahu to Mar-a-Lago on Friday, which is an opportunity to mend fences. And, for his part, Netanyahu made sure that even though the speech thanked Biden, he also thanked Trump for his record of supporting Israel and expressed relief for his having survived an assassination attempt.
Democrats have attempted to portray their attacks on Israel’s conduct as opposition to Netanyahu, a polarizing figure even in his own country who has been coded as MAGA among progressives in the U.S. But many of the issues on which Democrats have attacked Netanyahu during the war (broadly, rules of engagement against a monstrous enemy that uses its own civilians as shields) are policies that are supported by a broad cross-section of Israelis and would be the same regardless of who is in charge with Israel. The anti-Israel coalition among Democrats is only going to grow as younger radicals supplant older Democrats who came of age during a time when their party’s support for Israel was uncontroversial.