Set against the backdrop of the smoke and chaos of Gaza’s ruined streets, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to address a joint session of the US Congress on Tuesday. This comes as Israeli forces continue their relentless genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza in the name of eradicating Hamas. Netanyahu’s speech aims to consolidate and bolster US support for Israel’s military actions at a time when he’s facing mounting international criticism and loss of prestige of the Zionist project.
Netanyahu’s speech is not just a diplomatic formality; it is a pivotal attempt to justify Israel’s strategy in a war that has left tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza dead, homeless, or in absolute despair, and has drawn intense scrutiny. Over the last 10 months, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been murdered by Israeli forces and bombs, while millions have been displaced from their homes and face conditions of famine as a result of Israel’s blockade. While the Gaza Ministry of Health has reported over 38,000 dead, a study published by the medical journal Lancet reported that the true death toll could reach over 186,000 people. Moreover, Israel has destroyed much of Gaza’s infrastructure, and there are dire shortages of food, water, and shelter. There hasn’t been any respite for the millions told to evacuate to safe zones either, as much of Rafah’s tent cities have also been subjected to Israel’s bombardment.
Coming on the heels of some of the most volatile weeks in American politics, the speech threatens to lay bare the divisions within the US regime, especially with regard to Israel. Despite continued bipartisan support of one of the main allies of US imperialism, many in the capital have grown weary of Netanyahu’s plans and are criticizing Netanyahu’s handling of the conflict. Wednesday’s address threatens to expose many of these tensions, as many Congress members have indicated their intent to boycott the address, including Bernie Sanders. Kamala Harris, the current vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has said she won’t attend or preside over the joint session but will meet Netanyahu in private. Meanwhile, streets near and around Congress have been marked with road closures in anticipation of the huge protests that will surround the Capitol in protest of Netanyahu’s visit. Over seven major unions, including the UAW and SEIU, have called for an end to US aid to Israel. In an X post on July 23, the UAW also announced that it would join the protests in DC denouncing Netanyahu’s visit. This comes after months of fraying support amid the ranks of labor for Netanyahu’s government and its offensive on Gaza; thanks to immense pressure by the rank and file, major unions that have historically stood by the Zionist regime have passed cease-fire resolutions.
As the destruction of Gaza continues unabated, Netanyahu seeks to reinforce the necessity of Israel’s military operations by stressing the “existential threat” posed by Hamas. Yet this trail of destruction has flung the Israeli regime into crisis, as thousands continue to denounce the genocide of Gazans and to question the Zionist project, and, amid fraying support, exacerbated tensions for Netanyahu, both domestically and internationally.
Political Crisis in Israel
Netanyahu’s attempts to consolidate international support behind Israel comes while the domestic political situation grows ever more precarious because of his government’s handling of Gaza. His hard-line policies and aggressive military strategies have become a lightning rod for both parliamentary disputes and public outrage.
For Netanyahu — still reeling from the movement against the “judicial reforms” — the offensive has opened a new challenge for his already weak and precarious government. Despite the continued hostility toward Palestinians, many in Israel grow weary of Netanyahu’s continued assault and see his violent plans as a barrier to the release of hostages still in Gaza. What began as small protests demanding that Netanyahu strike a cease-fire deal for the return of hostages have grown in recent months and been met with brutal repression. Last month, over 100,000 people rallied in the capital city, demanding a cease-fire and a hostage deal, and calling for early elections to remove Netanyahu and his government — which protesters see as the primary barrier to the return of hostages and peace in the region — showing the growing crisis in the Knesset. Many claim that Netanyahu is avoiding a cease-fire and hostage deal in order to stay in power.
In 2022, amid deepening political turmoil, Netanyahu formed his coalition government and returned to the position of prime minister for the sixth time by making a deal with the Far Right. His coalition government, which after the October 7 attacks expanded to include centrist figures like former defense minister Benny Gantz in the name of national unity, is now on the verge of collapse. Gantz, a key political rival of Netanyahu, announced in June that he was quitting the war cabinet — formed to oversee the offensive in Gaza — after a postwar plan for Gaza failed to materialize, given Netanyahu’s plans for the recolonization of the region and the establishment of a free trade zone on the strip.
This instability is compounded by Netanyahu’s far-right allies, who oppose any peace deal that might end the conflict before they see fit. To contain this struggle, Netanyahu dissolved the war cabinet, essentially taking the operations into his hands and that of his closest advisers, and showing no signs of slowing down. As he is pressed to expand his military operations and replenish his forces, however, Netanyahu risks antagonizing the Right, especially as he expands the military draft to overturn the exemption for ultraorthodox men.
Yet, with this carte blanche, Netanyahu has broadened the offensive’s strategic focus to address Israel’s regional concerns, particularly in Lebanon and Yemen, as the Axis of Resistance — a grouping of theocratic militant organizations in the region that claim to “stand up” against Western imperialism while organized politically behind the Iranian regime — begins challenge the imperialist enclave. While the offensive in Gaza continues, with new massacres committed by the Israeli army in Nuseirat and in the humanitarian zone of al-Mawasi, Israel has expanded its military operations against Hezbollah, targeting positions in southern Lebanon.
Furthermore, a few days before Netanyahu’s speech, and in response to a Houthi drone strike in Tel Aviv near the US embassy, Israel conducted brutal air strikes on the port city of Hodeidah, its first against Yemen during this conflict. The expansion of Israel’s military skirmishes on these fronts shows the changing face of the conflict. Yet, while Netanyahu will likely expand his military ambitions to quell any challenge to Israel in the region and to reconstruct consensus behind his regime, doing so threatens to drag Israel and its allies into a long-term regional conflict, one that the US desperately wants to avoid.
A Strained International Situation
In his first overseas visit since October 7, Netanyahu is embarking on a project to revitalize his regime amid intense international scrutiny. Protests continue to engulf the world, with thousands of youth not only rejecting and calling for an end to Israel’s current genocidal offensive on Gaza, but also putting the entire Zionist project into question. These episodes of continued and intense class struggle have further dragged the political leaderships behind it, with key traditional allies like France joining the calls for cease-fire. This loss of popular support is now perhaps most apparent in the United Nations, which, on March 25, with the sole abstention of the United States, passed a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire. In one of the most acute expressions of this geopolitical crisis, the International Criminal Court announced that it would seek an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over his genocidal designs.
These tensions are at the fore ahead of his address to Congress, which he hopes to use as a platform to rally support. In the United States — Israel’s biggest ally — a generation has risen up to contest this offensive and reject the role of US imperialism in sustaining it. Only 36 percent of the US population approves of Israel’s actions in Gaza. As protests in the country have continued, particularly with the most recent round of campus occupations that spread like wildfire across the world, Netanyahu’s relationship with the Biden administration has grown increasingly tense.
Despite maintaining US diplomatic support for Israel, Biden has criticized Netanyahu’s tactics amid this mounting pressure. In recent weeks, Biden has been attempting to lead the charge on a three-phase peace plan, which includes a full cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu, however, has been reluctant to endorse this plan, viewing a permanent cease-fire as unfeasible until Israel’s broader military objectives are met.
This growing tension has spread across the administration. Harris, who embarked on the campaign trail this week after Biden dropped out of the presidential race and named her his heir presumptive, has for months painted herself as one of the harshest critics of Netanyahu from within the Biden government, even as she has backed continued military aid. While neither Biden nor Harris will attend the address, both are scheduled to meet the Israeli prime minister behind closed doors the day after. Progressives like Sanders and AOC, furthermore, have called for the reassessment of US military aid to Israel, while Chuck Schumer — one of the most ardent supporters of the Israeli regime — has, in recent months, called on Netanyahu to step down and make way for new elections.
As his relationship with the Biden administration sours, Netanyahu has found willing allies in Trump and the Republican Party. In the recent presidential debate, Trump reiterated his support for Israel’s attacks on Gaza, saying the president needs to “let them finish the job.” For Republicans, amid an election season that is becoming increasingly volatile, Netanyahu’s speech is an opportunity to bring this crisis within the Democratic Party to the fore while portraying themselves as a party that has been united in unflinching support of the Zionist project. House Speaker Mike Johnson has also reiterated his promise to increase police presence and arrest of anyone who attempts to disrupt the address. For Johnson, who extended the invitation amid growing discontent on Capitol Hill, this invitation was extended to “highlight America’s solidarity with Israel.”
In his speech on Wednesday, Netanyahu’s task will be to strengthen US support for Israel while justifying its bloody offensive — a task that would drip with hypocrisy given the unprecedented horror he’s unleashed on Palestinians over the last 10 months. For Netanyahu and the Israeli regime, the offensive against Gaza is yet another means to expand the Zionist state and strengthen its position in the region. Indeed, just this past week, Netanyahu, along with his allies among the Far Right, passed a resolution that overwhelmingly rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state, saying that the existence of Palestine would be “an existential danger to the State of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and destabilize the region.”
It is yet another stroke that makes the designs of the Zionist state abundantly clear. A state founded on the brutal and violent displacement of Palestinians and the theft of Palestinian land, whose very existence has relied on continuing and expanding this ethnic cleansing, can never guarantee peace for anyone. For over seven decades, it is Israel that has stood in the way of stability in the region. These cycles of violence, which Israelis also live on the borders of, are a direct product of the Zionist project. To break this wheel means to take up the fight for a single, free, secular, and socialist Palestine.
Confronted with the new atrocities inflicted on Palestinians by the Israeli regime, a new generation of radical youth have risen to this reality and are taking the lead, delivering a significant blow to the Zionist consensus. Their actions are inspiring the working class to unite against Zionism and the forces of imperialism that prop it up. From students occupying university buildings in the US, France, Mexico, and beyond, to workers stopping arms shipments in Spain and India, to name a few, a generation of workers and youth have declared that they refuse to coexist with the violence that Zionism has unleashed. The combination of the energy of this radical youth and the strategic power of the working class, organizing with its own methods and independent of the parties of imperialism that prop up our enemies, holds the potential to disrupt key aspects of production, including the manufacture and distribution of weapons to Israel. This unified resistance could cripple the Zionist regime, stop the genocide in Gaza, end the occupation, and achieve a free Palestine.
Originally Published: 2024-07-24 12:15:59
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