The appearance again in Congress of the Israeli prime minister makes it seem as if he is the American president and Israel and the U.S. are one country, writes Corinna Barnard.
Netanyahu addressing U.S. Congress for third time on March 3, 2015.
(Speaker John Boehner, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)
By Corinna G. Barnard
Special to Consortium News
A man whose arrest warrant is being sought by an international court prosecutor for war crimes is making his triumphal return to Washington.
When Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress on Wednesday for the fourth time, some representatives and senators will boycott the event in protest against the genocidal devastation in Gaza that the Israeli prime minister has, for months, been directing.
But the chamber where he delivers his speech is sure to be filled with ardent admiration bestowing on him the legitimacy he is rapidly losing at home.
Given the grisly crimes against humanity that Netanyahu’s armed forces are committing, and the International Court of Justice’s ruling last week about the illegality of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, the Israeli prime minister’s celebrated appearance on Capitol Hill will evoke images worthy of Federico Fellini’s surrealist Satyricon.
Imagine the rousing applause, the elbow rubbing, the pomp and protocol while the devastation in Gaza grows direr by the day and hour.
Netanyahu arrives on the tailwinds of a historic vote in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, on July 17, in which lawmakers voted against Palestinian statehood and in the process, put the kibosh on the long-standing talk by U.S. policymakers about a two-state solution, while rebuffing White House plans for a ceasefire.
The Knesset vote represents a defiant rejection of U.S. influence over Israel’s affairs. But in the U.S. House of Representatives, it’s just the opposite; whatever Israel wants, for now and the foreseeable future, it gets.
How the American public, broadly speaking, feels about this, is hard to say. The numbers of Americans who disapprove of Israel and its conduct move around in polling data like a great unknown beneath the surface of the news.
Sometimes a majority of voters back Israel, sometimes a majority disapprove. But whatever the U.S. public thinks, it doesn’t seem to matter, as far as the election season goes.
I am honored to invite Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress. pic.twitter.com/rYKx0Z1p93
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) May 31, 2024
Neither of the leading candidates offers anything to stop Israel’s barbaric slaughter. Vice President Kamala Harris, now contending for the Democratic nomination, will follow in the footsteps of President Joe Biden, “aka Genocide Joe,” who was the leading recipient of cumulative pro-Israel funding over the years and continues to arm Israel’s genocide.
The Biden-Harris administration has worked to expand the Trump administration’s so-called Abraham Accords, which were helping Israel sideline the Palestinian cause by removing it as a thorn from Israel’s relations with regional neighbors. Biden himself credited Hamas’ fear of normalized Israel-Saudi relations with motivating the Oct. 7 attacks.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, for the Republicans, meanwhile, is awash in millions from Zionist mega donor Miriam Adelson, who is hoping to see Trump push for the Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
While in office, Trump, 78, — who has advised Biden to let Israel “finish the job” in Gaza — escalated Palestinian-Israeli tensions. In addition to helping Israel normalize relations with the U.A.E, Bahrain and Sudan, the Trump White House moved the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the flashpoint of Jerusalem, reportedly to please Sheldon Adelson, before his death in 2021.
Leading independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. opposes a ceasefire in Gaza, where people, Al Jazeera reports, are now drowning in sewage due to Israel’s wholesale destruction of the territory.
Thousands of displaced Palestinians are reportedly 'drowning' in sewage, as Israel’s intense bombardment of Gaza continues to worsen the dire humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave.
? Follow our LIVE coverage: https://t.co/BmnnMgzJMG pic.twitter.com/9P2kGBXzPN
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 19, 2024
With support for the Israel genocide in Gaza ironclad across all three of those rivals, three third party candidates are staunchly anti-genocide, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, independent candidate Cornel West and Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver.
Doubts on Ukraine, But Never on Israel
Some Republicans at their convention last week in Milwaukee, such as venture capitalist David Sacks, blasted the White House for provoking Russia to enter the war in Ukraine and for subverting peace initiatives there.
But nowhere, on either side of the main partisan contest, is much of anything being said against Israel or the war crimes for which Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, is seeking the arrest of Netanayhu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with some Hamas leaders.
Politicians’ reluctance to raise the ICC’s pursuit of Netanyahu is not surprising. The U.S. House of Representatives made it clear, a couple of months ago, that such subject matter is taboo.
Most of the world became aware of ICC Prosecutor Khan’s application for arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and defense minister, along with three leaders of Hamas, after he gave CNN’s Christiane Amanpour the scoop on May 20.
[See: ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu]
But Israel’s vigilant Republican allies in the U.S. House of Representatives, alert to early press reports in late April about the move Khan was mulling, were on the job before the news broke on CNN.
By May 7, almost two weeks before Khan’s official announcement, they had drafted the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, which imposes sanctions on anyone involved with the ICC prosecution. Approved by the House on June 4, the bill, which was ultimately opposed by the White House, stalled in the Senate.
But it made its point. With the support of 42 Democrats it served as a bipartisan renunciation of the ICC and its criticism of Israel.
The bill targeted “foreign people” linked to the pursuit of Netanyahu and Gallant with a number of restrictions. It blocked and revoked visas. It barred property transactions. It served, essentially, as a big “No Entry” sign to the Israeli leader’s pursuers.
“This land is Netanyahu’s land” it said and he’s welcomed anytime.
In December 2023, the U.S.-based human rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), founded by the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was assassinated in 2018, submitted a dossier on 40 commanders of the Israeli Defense Forces to the ICC for war crimes.
[See: Israeli Commanders Reported to ICC]
In June, Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director, issued a warning about lawmakers’ handiwork on their anti-ICC legislation.
“The House bill exposes U.S. lawmakers themselves to the risk of ICC sanctions and arrest warrants for violating Article 70 of the Rome Statute which prohibits intimidation, retaliation, or obstruction of the court’s judicial proceedings,” Jarrar said in an email statement to Consortium News.
Before the vote, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, the Texan Republican who sponsored the anti-ICC bill, hyped it as a means of protecting nothing less than U.S. sovereignty.
“And let’s be clear, this isn’t just about Israel, this is about ensuring that our nation’s sovereignty is protected, as well as our service members,” Roy said on Twitter/X to promote the bill. “Absent decisive leadership at the White House, Congress must stand in the breach defending our allies and our sovereignty.”
“But let’s be clear, this isn’t just about Israel, this is about ensuring that our nation’s sovereignty is protected, as well as our servicemembers" pic.twitter.com/gTZ5Fkiqma
— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) June 5, 2024
U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster, a Florida Republican, echoed the sovereignty claim.
“This bill sends a clear message to the ICC,” Webster wrote on Twitter/X. “The United States will defend the sovereignty of our country and will protect our allies against illegitimate attacks by sanctioning ICC officials.”
I just voted to pass H.R. 8282, the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act. This bill sends a clear message to the ICC. The United States will defend the sovereignty of our country and will protect our allies against illegitimate attacks by sanctioning ICC officials. pic.twitter.com/mYcxJQ1zbt
— Daniel Webster (@RepWebster) June 4, 2024
To say that the ICC’s interest in Netanyahu and Gallant for committing war crimes in Gaza somehow constitutes a threat to U.S. sovereignty demonstrates a confusion about the difference between Israel and the U.S.
Israel does, of course, exert undue influence over U.S. politicians, as overwhelming congressional support for the Israeli military’s genocidal operations in Gaza has made clear.
On top of that, Netanyahu repeatedly shows up for joint sessions of Congress in the manner of a U.S. president delivering a state-of-the-union address.
As a result, Israel and the U.S. appear to be blurring together into one country for many in Congress. That’s the real sovereignty problem; the willing conflation between Israeli national interests and those of U.S. lawmakers’ own constituencies.
Corinna Barnard, deputy editor of Consortium News, formerly worked in editing capacities for Women’s eNews, The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. At the start of her career she was managing editor for the magazine Nuclear Times, which covered the 1980s anti-nuclear war movement.
Views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
NOTE: This article mentions three third-party candidates without reference to their ballot access numbers due to a lack of clarity about these numbers in a fluid situation.
When you control the nation’s money supply, much of the big corporate media outlets and the entertainment industry, you get to control the narrative for the general dumbed-down public devoid of critical thinking and historical knowledge and certainly unaware of how our government functions or “malfunctions.”
But money talks, and our politicians are bought and sold for which is why they are subservient to the direction of Israel and the Hitler-like Netanyahu, whom, from the White House down through both the Repulsive and DemoRAT U.S. Representatives and Senators, stand in line waiting to kiss his derriere every time he comes to Wash. D. C. and his arrogant derisiveness on those few politicians who speak out against the Palestinian Holocaust or and their plan for using the U.S. to attack Iran or any other nation they don’t like.
Totally disgusting, and the subhuman way they are exterminating the Arabic people in Palestine, which now, diseases of all sorts are on the rise in Gaza, with polio victims which could spread to the “Devil’s Chosen People” as well.
“Democracy” in America? Not anymore! $$$ rules Uncle Sam!
Anyway, thank you, Corrina, for writing this important article and for your courage and conviction for telling the truth.
America is just as much ZOG occupied territory as the West Bank and Gaza. America is owned lock, stock and barrel by the Zionist lobby. All the bought and paid for whores in Congress will jump up and down like trained seals every time Nuttyyahoo so much as breaks wind. This whole tawdry degrading spectacle just reveals the bogus sham democracy for what it is.
And the USG has the almighty gall to complain that Russia interfered with our elections.
No one who attends this charade and applauds this monster will ever get my vote. Netanyahu should be arrested the second he sets foot on US soil. Certainly he should never be allowed to enter our Congress.
In all fairness [sarcasm and honesty] the offending and funding state must be given first place — thus.
isr’ica
isr’ica has no discernable soul.
A good piece to confirm that for a long time our nation has
been the United States of Israel.
Our ruling elite, Republicans and Democrats alike:
Trump willing to turn Gaza into prime beach front
hotel property, while Harris holds his hand.
It’s this response to US/Israeli/West genocide, that
allows the slaughter of innocents by “the most moral
army in the world” that welcomes the “beast” (Rev.13.4)
itself into its Congressional lair.
What I call…US-rael. So much for integrity and self-respect.
This makes my blood boil and makes me ashamed to be American! Our Congress is nothing but a shill for Israel. How did we arrive here but for the greed of money that allows these people to continue in Congress. They are bought and paid for by Israel. We have become USisrael as my friend calls it.
Ashamed, indeed. This slaughter of human beings for no other reason than a land grab, and visceral hatred, is an abomination, especially with its full American support. I just read of a man in Gaza, whose home was obliterated by an Israeli attack, using an American-made bomb. He said he later found his daughter’s body parts scattered amongst the destruction. No one should ever have to experience that. Perhaps it is time to start publishing photos of these ghastly atrocities. Some might say it crosses a line of civility and decency, Well, what can one say about ceaseless bombing of innocent people? What line has that crossed? If Americans really saw the absolute barbaric destruction we pay for, maybe they would wake up and say enough to these spineless politicians.
Wholly and completely devoid of wisdom, dignity, self-respect. A form of belligerence and violence trumpeting to the world our founding aspirations of liberty and justice for all are now available at great prices for your next legislative run covering all expenses including a luxury trip wherever your heart and wife desire at no expense provided by Commodified, Inc. Contact your regional office of AIPAC now to see how we can wind you cosier than ever around our third erect finger now!
And, how much money are Congress members being paid by AIPAC to listen to this mass murderer?
“To say that the ICC’s interest in Netanyahu and Gallant for committing war crimes in Gaza somehow constitutes a threat to U.S. sovereignty demonstrates a confusion about the difference between Israel and the U.S.”
Yes and no. USA is complicit in genocide by sharply increasing supply of weapons used in the mayhem, FREE OF CHARGE, and failing to adhere to international and DOMESTIC laws to stop such supply when there are reason to believe that they go to a country committing war crimes. So should it be a free sovereign decision to adhere to duly ratified treaties and domestic laws?
What percentage of Congresspersons will pull muscles getting up and sitting down, getting up and sitting down, getting up and sitting down for the standing ovations? Seventy percent, 80%, 90%?
How does fascilatating genecide benefit our soverienty?
In what way is the genecide convention illagitamate??
Maybe ground (impound) limos for the duration of Nastyonyu’s visit
It benefits our sovereignty because this “sovereignty” is defined as “the freedom to choose to violate human rights at any time, in any place, by any means, anywhere on this planet without penalty.”