You couldn’t ask for a better example of everything Washington stands for: Both houses of Congress rising to feverishly applaud one of history’s worst genocidal monsters dozens of times as he lies over and over again, writes Caitlin Johnstone.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib protesting Netanyahu’s speech. (C-Span screenshot)
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress was everything you’d expect: packed full of lies and propaganda spin, yet simultaneously very illuminating and revealing.
The Israeli prime minister received no fewer than 58 standing ovations while speaking before both houses of Congress and spewing the most despicable lies you could possibly imagine in his conspicuously American accent. Depending on how politically aware you are, this spectacle could be perceived as either deeply un-American, or as American as it gets.
Netanyahu repeated evidence-free atrocity propaganda about what happened on Oct. 7, falsely asserting that Hamas “burned babies alive” and killed two babies in an attic. He falsely claimed that Hamas “butchered 1,200 people”, pretending it’s not a well-established fact that many of the 1,139 Israeli deaths that day came from both indiscriminate IDF fire and deliberate targeting in implementation of the Hannibal Directive.
The rapturous reception of each and every outrageous claim by the war criminal Netanyahu makes starkly plain that the USA has abandoned not just international law, but common humanity.
Europeans must realise that NATO is a force for the projection of evil. https://t.co/aP1XmjEovB— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) July 24, 2024
He made the completely baseless claim that Iran may be paying the anti-genocide demonstrators outside the Capitol Building during his speech, saying, “When the Tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.”
Netanyahu spent minutes ranting and raving about protests in America against his government’s atrocities in Gaza, during which he received a standing ovation from Congress that went on for nearly a minute.
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
He accused the International Criminal Court of “antisemitism” and “blood libel” for saying that Israel deliberately targets civilians, as though this hasn’t been conclusively established by mountains of evidence like the IDF’s Lavender AI system and statements from doctors describing what can only be deliberate sniper executions of children in Gaza.
He repeated Israel’s evidence-free claim that the only reason people are starving in Gaza is because Hamas is “stealing” all of the aid Israel allows in for itself.
Netanyahu went out of his way to frame Israel’s plight as civilized people against uncivilized barbarians, which only works if you harbor a supremely racist worldview. He kept repeating the word “civilization”, contrasting this with the “barbarism” of Hamas and its supporters, calling Israel’s U.S.-backed military violence “a clash between barbarism and civilization” and saying “Israel fights on the frontline of civilization.”
He made these appeals to the racism that westerners harbor toward middle easterners in the same speech wherein he decried the “outrageous slanders that paint Israel as racist and genocidal.”
Netanyahu said Israel “must retain overriding security control” over Gaza “for the foreseeable future”, an open admission of plans for indefinite military occupation.
This deluge of lies and racist invective received dozens and dozens of standing ovations. The same political class that’s spent the last eight years shrieking about the threat of misinformation, disinformation and foreign propaganda just normalized and applauded a foreign genocidal war criminal as he stood before Congress telling lie after lie after lie.
You couldn’t ask for a better example of everything Washington stands for than this. Both houses of Congress rising to feverishly applaud one of history’s worst genocidal monsters dozens of times as he lies over and over again is a much better representation of what the U.S. government is about than anything you’ll see during the presidential race from now until November.
This is everything Israel is, and this is everything the U.S. empire is. They’re showing you who they are. Believe them.
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This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Netanyahu is the Israeli version of Donald Trump.
The problems are several. The lies were there for all to hear. The Congress is elected to do the will of the people. What has been demonstrated is that they cannot differentiate between right or wrong. Most, if not all, are threatened with removal from office if they don’t toe the Israeli line. And they all, with few exceptions, toe that line. Why? They will not lose their lives. Their positions are nothing compared to the lives that were lost in this on-going debacle. Kamala Harris stayed away. She was panned for doing so, as if her presence was mandatory. I could go on but thinking people should know where.
Good for Kamala. Staying away from mass murderer Netanyabu’s tissue of lies was a good move. I wholly support it. She was taking a stand against genocide.
Kamala Harris’s day after comments focusing on the protests to the speech, rather than the head genocider’s actual genocidal speech:
“I support the right to peacefully protest, but let’s be clear: antisemitism, hate and violence of any kind have no place in our nation.”
Yes, yes, antisemitism is very bad … but apparently, actual racial and ethnic genocide of a people is not to be commented on.
Judging from the applause Netanyahu could be the de facto president of the United States while Harris remains vice president.
“Civilisation” – for a war criminal and chief genocidal executioner he does seem to have a sense of humour. Or perhaps he and the very rich charlatans who gave him his ovations have driven themselves way beyond the bounds of sanity and humanity by now.
The only things more vile and reprehensible than this creature are those animals applauding him and those who vote for them in election after election. Amazingly, many of these–like JD Vance–are firm opponents of abortion….as though murdering a child in the womb is more inhumane than murdering him at his mother’s breast with his entire family using a 500-pound bomb.
“‘Freedom, democracy, laws, reputation, official po-
sition, were no longer of any use to anybody, since
even the office of tribune, which had been devised
for the restraint of wrong-doers…was guilty of
such outrages and suffered such indignities.
APPIAN'”
-Mike Duncan
The Storm Before the Storm p.145
That demonstration in congress tells it all. Everyone clapping for their suitcase of shekels. If there were any doubts about where the U.S. stands, it should be clear to all.
The bellowing, the howls piercing the air- this was a truly demonic spectacle. It was as though Satan was returning to Hades with a multitude of fresh souls for the rack, to be greeted rapturously by his horde of loyal minions. For me it wasn’t the sight of them struggling to their feet with every lie. It was those joyous cries from the belly of perdition that produced the real shock. I used to think Congress was a sewer. It’s not. It’s Hell.
Methinks you give hell a bad name.
A pathological sadistic criminal.
America…a nation that just isn’t worth idolising…AND USrael should be shunned.
Seat-of-the-pants “lawmakers”. Up down up down. Seig heiling with their bottoms because bums are what they’ve become.
What is it with Yammerin’ Binyamin and his targeting of young people who protest his campaign of mass slaughter that uses the most sophisticated & deadly weaponry available against unarmed, undefended women & children? Would you take advice on what’s best for your children from a homicidal maniac?
Why do elected reps suck-down the raw sewage of hatred that pours forth from this man’s mouth? Hands full of gimme, mouths full of much obliged, that’s why. Pledge allegiance to a foreign flag & pocket their reward. Endorse threats to violate the civil protections of their own people who claim the right to disagree.
Congress members stand & applaud in opposition to bedrock democratic principles. Too easy to hide their complicity behind a belligerence of ignorance.
Isn’t it time there must be a wealth cap for citizens running for Senator and Representative? Doesn’t too much personal wealth distance you from realities of life that most Americans experience? Perhaps, too much wealth distances you from La Vida itself. Making you prone to gravitate to a brother whose waywardness wreaks of your own. Especially, in the Gaming of Power. Where purloining – money, power, position, soul, the commons, property, climate -has been raised to a sophisticated corporate racket, normalized and insidiously popularized by the Fraternity. Who was that famous character who sold his soul to the Devil?
Me, I say show some damn spine, America. Launder your own mess. Vote all incumbents out now. No need to ponder the “arguments”. You can ignore the big money ads, the pundits, the polls & the pols. They love to “send messages”? Well, send them a whopper. All out now! Rinse & repeat each cycle, the ones longest in office out first. No Matter What. Cleanse the Congress until those newly seated begin to get the message & act to represent the will of the people. And teach your kids not to swallow this crap from private corporate parties & the elect. It may take longer than a generation to clean house. The situation has gone way beyond rascality.
You ask why? My take it is the convergence of the three Ps: Power, Profits, and Prophets. What could be worse? We overlook any one of these at our peril, and I see that happening all the time. Analysts who look through a single lens and find they are stupefied by being unable to make sense of it all.
“What to make of the fact that the Jewish state, of all places, has a Holocaust revisionist for a prime minister?” This is the very pertinent question asked by J.J. Goldberg in an article for the “Forward” website called:
“Why Benjamin Netanyahu’s Defense of Hitler Is So Wrong — and Matters So Much” (22 October 2015).
Thank you for sharing your truthful and thought provoking perspective, Caitlin – we certainly won’t hear this from our MSM because they just perpetuate the lies fed to them by our ineffective government…
It was like a State of the Union speech. I didn’t realize he was our President. Yet our politicians apparently already know that and think it’s just dandy. Absolutely revolting!