WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday delivered an impassioned speech to Congress, taking on protesters inside the House chamber and thousands gathered outside the Capitol, all while emphasizing the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
It was his first address to U.S. lawmakers in nearly a decade and the first since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel killed 1,200 people and resulted in the taking of over 240 hostages to Gaza, where about 100 are still believed to be held captive.
Netanyahu’s speech comes at a critical period: The U.S. is in the middle of a chaotic election year, and the Biden administration continues to push negotiators toward a cease-fire agreement that could end the war in Gaza, where more than 39,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
“My friends, I came to assure you today of one thing: We will win,” Netanyahu, standing in the same spot where President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his “Day of Infamy” speech after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“Like Dec. 7, 1941, and Sept. 11, 2001,” Netanyahu said, “Oct. 7 is a day that will forever live in infamy.”
Later he added: “For the forces of civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together.”
Netanyahu also directly addressed the protests against his handling of the war in Gaza, both on college campuses this spring and outside the Capitol. “Incredibly, many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers,” he said.Protests against the war in Gaza, which has killed and maimed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and displaced an estimated 90% of the enclave’s population, have swept the world and the halls of Congress. Roughly 40 Democrats in the House and the Senate boycotted the address, outraged at Netanyahu’s policies and the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as well as the U.S.’s military support for it.
“He’s a war criminal!” progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told NBC News.
He later accused the protesters in Washington of being funded by Iran, citing U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, who said in a statement this month that the U.S. has “observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.”
Netanyahu said he had a message for the protesters: “You have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.”
Three months after Congress passed a military aid package that included $14 billion for Israel and with the U.S. presidential election around the corner, Netanyahu personally thanked the political leaders of both parties.
He praised President Joe Biden, who he has known for 40 years and who has recently publicly criticized the prime minister’s war strategy. There has also been growing frustration among members of the Biden administration at the stalled cease-fire talks.
“I want to thank you for half a century of friendship to Israel and for being, as he says, ‘a proud Zionist,'” Netanyahu said. “Actually, he says, ‘a proud Irish-American Zionist.'”
Netanyahu also thanked former President Donald Trump, who hopes to return to the White House next year, and said Israelis were relieved that Trump had survived a “dastardly” assassination attempt.
The prime minister devoted some of his address to slamming the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for him and other Israeli leaders for war crimes, an action that drew condemnation from Biden and many in Congress, particularly Republicans.
The Israeli prime minister accused the ICC of libel, saying it is “trying to shackle Israel’s hands and prevent us from defending ourselves. And if Israel’s hands are tied, America is next.”
He disputed the ICC’s claim that Israel has deliberately targeted Palestinian civilians, saying Israel had warned civilians to evacuate before conducting airstrikes. An April NBC News investigation into the airstrikes, however, found that Palestinians were killed in areas of southern Gaza that the Israeli military had explicitly designated as safe zones. NBC News crews compiled the GPS coordinates of strikes, all of which hit an area identified by the Israeli military as an evacuation zone in an online interactive map published on Dec. 1.
Netanyahu also pushed back on ICC accusations that Israel had intentionally tried to starve Palestinians in Gaza, saying that Israel not only isn’t blocking aid but that Hamas is stealing it.
In March, Mohamed Nossair, head of operations at the Egyptian Red Crescent, accused Israel of blocking aid: “They limit the number of trucks that can pass,” Nossair said of Israeli officials and soldiers charged with inspecting aid destined for Gaza. “The problem is also they reject these items … that are very essential.”
Oxygen canisters, water filters, metal forks, over-the-counter painkillers and generators were among the items on trucks that Nossair said had been prevented from entering Gaza, which is suffering from an acute humanitarian crisis with most hospitals incapacitated and basic services shattered.
“If I have a truck with rejected items, they reject all the truck,” Nossair said in an interview with NBC News.
Some families of American hostages attended the speech and had a meeting planned afterward with Netanyahu and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. Six American hostage families are in Washington and said they are upset that Netanyahu made the trip rather than staying in Israel trying to get their loved ones home.
The families said they are looking toward a Thursday meeting at the White House with Biden and Netanyahu as a chance for the U.S. to pressure the prime minister to agree to a deal as soon as next week to end the war.
Vice President Kamala Harris is also expected to meet with Netanyahu at the White House this week. And on Friday morning, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
Democratic boycotts, protests and some arrests
In the middle of the speech, progressive Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., the first Palestinian woman to serve in Congress, held up a small black-and-white sign at Netanyahu that read: “War criminal” and “Guilty of genocide.”
At one point, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and later a House security official, appeared to try to get Tlaib to take down her sign. But she continued to raise it throughout the speech.
Capitol Police also escorted three people out of the chamber who were wearing yellow T-shirts reading “SEAL THE DEAL NOW,” likely a reference to a cease-fire agreement. They were put in zip-tie cuffs and taken away. Police said six people from the chamber were arrested.Outside, Capitol Police deployed pepper spray on protesters. The department had erected the same fencing around the Capitol that was used after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack in anticipation of demonstrations on Tuesday.
Foreign leaders typically address Congress in coordination with official invitations from the president. But in this case, Johnson in March began publicly pushing for a Netanyahu address to lawmakers amid pro-Palestinian protests and encampments on college campuses this spring.
The invite, months before the November election, underscored the GOP’s support for Israel and further drove a wedge between Democrats who’ve been divided over Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the highest-ranking Jewish American in Washington, who had called for new elections to replace Netanyahu, later sent the formal invitation with Johnson.
Harris, who as president of the Senate would normally preside over such an address, did not attend the speech. Neither did several other prominent Democrats, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California, and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, of Illinois, the No. 2 leader. Retiring Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., an Orthodox Jew and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, presided over the address instead.
Harris was in Indianapolis on Wednesday as she embarks on her presidential campaign now that Biden has dropped out of the race.
Johnson said Tuesday that it was “inexcusable” that Harris was skipping Netanyahu’s speech and that she should be “held accountable” for it. That criticism was echoed by Republicans in both chambers, but they did not take similar exception to Sen. JD Vance’s missing the speech.
Vance, of Ohio, missed Netanyahu’s speech because “he has duties to fulfill as the Republican nominee for Vice President,” Jason Miller, senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a statement.While Netanyahu received a warm welcome from Republican lawmakers, Democrats were more lukewarm, with some boycotting his speech, outraged at his handling of the war and calling his address months before the election politicized and improper.
Instead of the speech, Pelosi “will join a Members meeting with Israeli citizens whose families have suffered in the wake of the October 7th Hamas terror attack and kidnappings,” her spokesperson Ian Krager said in a statement.
Other top Democrats who boycotted the address were Rep. James Clyburn, of South Carolina, an influential Black Caucus member, and Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. Other progressives like Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a member of the “squad”; Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., the first Generation Z member of Congress; and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also skipped the speech, as did several Jewish members of Congress, including Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.
“The Hamas attack on October 7 was unprovoked and cowardly, and its continued holding of hostages unconscionable,” Durbin said in a statement. “However, Israel’s execution of its war in Gaza under the direction of Prime Minister Netanyahu with 39,000 Palestinians dead and 90,000 injured is a brutal strategy beyond any acceptable level of self-defense. … I will stand by Israel, but I will not stand and cheer its current Prime Minister at tomorrow’s Joint Session.”
Notably, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the president pro tempore of the Senate, did not attend either. “Securing a lasting, mutual ceasefire is of the utmost importance right now, and I will continue to push for one to be reached as soon as possible,” Murray said in a statement.
Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, was the only GOP lawmaker to say he would boycott the speech, writing on X: “The purpose of having Netanyahu address Congress is to bolster his political standing in Israel and to quell int’l opposition to his war.”
“I don’t feel like being a prop so I won’t be attending,” he said.
The top party leaders in each chamber — Schumer; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.; and Johnson — all participated in a private meeting with Netanyahu and attended his speech.
“Even though I disagree with many of Bibi Netanyahu’s policies,” Schumer said, “I will attend the speech because the United States relationship with Israel remains ironclad and transcends any prime minister or president, and we must do all we can to get our hostages home.”
But as Netanyahu entered the chamber and walked down the center aisle, he and Schumer noticeably did not shake hands. Schumer, hands folded, nodded instead.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., an ardent supporter of Israel who attended, said he wanted to hear from Netanyahu about how he plans to bring the hostages home and what to do about Iran.
Moskowitz was one of a handful of Jewish House Democratic lawmakers who sat together in the same row and enthusiastically applauded many of Netanyahu’s lines. Among them were Reps. Brad Schneider of Illinois, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Dan Goldman of New York, and Kathy Manning of North Carolina.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk also attended the address, saying he was there as a guest of Netanyahu. Musk sat in the prime minister’s section above the House floor, behind his wife, Sarah Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s fourth address as prime minister
Wednesday was Netanyahu’s fourth address to Congress, the most of any foreign leader in history. Winston Churchill, the legendary British prime minister, addressed Congress three times.
Netanyahu last addressed Congress in March 2015, in a similar political situation. Then-Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, had invited Netanyahu to address lawmakers about threats from Iran without consulting President Barack Obama. The White House slammed it as a breach of diplomatic protocol.
Wednesday’s speech was “somewhat similar” to Netanyahu’s 2015 address, said Rep. Greg Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee. “It seems like it’s politics; it seemed that what Boehner did was trying to influence … it was a political season then.”
Ahead of the speech, U.S. Capitol Police warned that it could draw “a large number of demonstrators.”
The Capitol Police said it had put enhanced security measures in place for potential protests and also swore in more than 200 New York police officers to assist this week in Washington, according to Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, who shared a video of the swearing-in on X.
On Wednesday, police used pepper spray to disperse crowds of protesters outside the Capitol. The Metropolitan Police Department said at least five people were arrested for obstruction.
On Tuesday, more than 200 Jewish Voice for Peace protesters were arrested after they demonstrated in one of the House office buildings and chanted pro-Palestinian slogans, Capitol Police said.
More than two dozen former senior officials who worked in Israel’s security establishment — like the Mossad and Shin Bet — and Israeli businesses also voiced opposition to Netanyahu’s speaking before Congress. In a letter addressed to congressional leaders, obtained Tuesday by NBC News, they said they have “grave concerns” about the “damage” Netanyahu’s visit will do to the U.S. and Israel’s joint objectives. The letter’s signers include former Mossad Director Tamir Pardo, former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Dan Halutz, among others, some of whom worked under Netanyahu’s leadership.
The Biden administration has been working behind the scenes to reach a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas. Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared to express some optimism late last week when he said the negotiators were “driving toward the goal line.”
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