How Netanyahu’s Washington visit paved the way for regional war

After failing to achieve his military objectives, the indicted war criminal travelled to the US to incite a war against Iran and prolong his genocidal campaign in Gaza

The first US response to the double assassinations this week in Beirut and Tehran came from Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin on 31 July.

In the wake of Israel’s targeted killing of Hamas political bureau head Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and Hezbollah’s top military commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon, Austin reiterated the US’s “unwavering support” for Israel and pledged to come to its defence if attacked.

As Israel ramps up its military provocations, it is now more apparent than ever that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bellicose address in Congress last week was the opening salvo of a wider regional war – to the rapturous applause of US lawmakers.

Indeed, in the days before and after Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, the Israeli regime attacked and killed scores of civilians in Hodeidah port in Yemen, Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the southern Dahiya neighbourhood of Beirut in Lebanon, and crossed a new threshold by assassinating Haniyeh in Tehran.

This escalation has taken place as Palestinians mark 300 days of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, in which at least 50,000 people were killed or buried beneath the rubble and more than 100,000 injured.

Over the past week, many observers have speculated that Netanyahu’s congressional address and his subsequent meetings with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and other US officials gave him the green light to continue Israel’s rampage unabated.

Regardless, however, of what was spoken behind closed doors, Netanyahu stated his objectives for an all-out war in no uncertain terms.

The indicted war criminal, who has failed to achieve his military objectives in Gaza, arrived in Washington to drum up war against Iran and prolong his genocidal campaign against the Palestinians.

So if Netanyahu took advantage of his visit to expand the war – the disastrous results of which the world had already seen this week – then why was he invited to Washington in the first place?

What lies did the aspiring regional hegemon tell Congress to sell his devious plans, and how did he get away with it?

Saving face

The congressional address on 24 July was Netanyahu’s first international trip since he waged his genocidal campaign in Gaza last October.

Even though the Israeli prime minister was indicted on several corruption charges by his own Zionist regime and is facing arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC), US congressional leaders extended an invitation to him anyway.

Netanyahu spoke before a joint session of Congress for an unprecedented fourth time.

This was an “honour” not even afforded to the British imperialist statesman and one of the iconic leaders of World War Two, Winston Churchill, who addressed the US Congress three times during his tenure (in 1941, 1943 and 1952).

Remarkably, all of the invitations to the belligerent Israeli prime minister were extended by Republican House Speakers during the terms of Democratic presidents, namely Bill Clinton in 1996, Barack Obama in 2011 and 2015 and Joe Biden in 2024.

Each occasion was a sinister Republican attempt to showcase their pro-Israel fidelity for political gain against their Democratic rivals.

During his last address at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2023, Netanyahu boasted about Israel’s perceived invincibility and its pivotal role as the anchor for the region’s security, stability and economic prosperity.

Unable to achieve any of his military and political objectives after waging an all-out genocidal war in Gaza, Netanyahu is in trouble not only at home but also internationally because of his conduct in the war. The world is no longer able to look away. As the mass murder reaches unprecedented numbers, as some estimates say, the total number of victims could reach as many as a staggering 186,000 dead.

Netanyahu’s performance was pathetic and full of flagrant lies and hubris on many levels. It was not lost that he was trying to resemble what US presidents usually do during their annual State of the Union addresses. He flaunted several Israeli soldiers and former hostages, sharing fabricated tales of valour amid one of the most humiliating and humbling days in the history of the Zionist regime.

Third-rate con artist

Netanyahu tried to demonstrate strength and resolve by declaring that he would not stop the war unless achieving what he called “total victory.”

In fact, Netanyahu used bait-and-switch tactics before riveted members of Congress who acted like extras in a poorly scripted play featuring a third-rate con artist.

He started his speech by invoking the 9/11 tragedy, saying what happened on 7 October was the equivalent of 29 9/11s when adjusted to the US population. What went unsaid is that what has happened to Palestinians in Gaza since October is equivalent to 2,900 9/11s when adjusting to the population. In other words, what Netanyahu and his army have done in Gaza is equivalent to killing 7.5 million Americans, injuring 22 million Americans, and destroying all American civilian life and infrastructure.

Perhaps one of his most blatant lies was to assert that his invasion of Rafah last May, while killing “1,203” resistance fighters, “accidentally” caused a few civilian casualties.

Debunked lies

The racism and ethnosupremacy that this Israeli sociopath displayed during his congressional appearance was incredible.

Netanyahu had the audacity to talk about the “sanctity of life” upheld by the Israelis and the “culture of death” by Muslims.

Such proclamations come from a genocidal maniac who is prosecuting a war that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said has caused suffering on an “unprecedented” level – the worst he’s seen in his seven-year tenure – which has claimed tens of thousands of lives in the tiny enclave, displaced 85 percent of its population and rendered Gaza uninhabitable.

This means that out of a minimum of 150,000 truckloads that should have been allowed since Israel waged its war on Gaza, less than 27 percent of the needs had been delivered.

Adding to this is the loss of the entire agricultural and industrial production and the cutting off of electricity and energy supplies, creating a situation in Gaza that is nothing short of catastrophic.

All of these facts were omitted in the fairytale Netanyahu presented. He also continued to peddle the lie that Hamas was stealing the humanitarian aid, a charge that UN officials have already rejected. And, of course, his own army and extremist settlers have been blocking supply trucks and attacking aid workers for months.

Political theatre

Netanyahu claimed that the US needs to give Israel the “tools needed to finish the job”, insinuating that the US administration has been withholding the arms that Israel seeks. It is, of course, a false charge designed to divert blame for his lack of victory, let alone the “total victory” he’s been advocating.

If anything, the havoc and hell he has been inflicting on Gaza over the past 10 months could not have happened without unprecedented American support.

Such aid by the US and its western allies for Israel’s war against defenceless Palestinians included massive armaments that exceeded in total the destructive value of five Hiroshima-size bombs – including “smart” bombs, artillery shells, missiles, fighter jets – in addition to intelligence services, massive economic aid, diplomatic protection, political cover and the support of a compliant mainstream media and elite political class.

Beating the war drums

Netanyahu spent about a third of his speech beating the drums of war against Iran.

He claimed that Iran was responsible for all of Israel’s troubles – not its occupation of Palestine, its denial of Palestinian rights or its construction of illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian lands. Israel’s policies of dehumanisation and dispossession of the Palestinians, the Judaisation of Muslim holy sanctuaries and daily incursions of Palestinian towns, villages and camps, assassinating hundreds and detaining thousands of Palestinians are also not to blame.

This record, detailed in the recent ICJ ruling a few weeks ago, was expediently dismissed in Netanyahu’s speech as he condemned the ICJ and ICC rulings to yet more cheers from his audience.

Such condemnations not only ignore facts that are overwhelmingly recognised globally but also significantly undermine the rules-based order the US has been allegedly trying to enforce for decades.

Netanyahu brazenly carried on with his lies by claiming that the Israeli army was the most moral army in history. In fact, his army has been perpetrating the worst war crimes record since World War Two, according to the top European diplomat Josep Borrell.

In fact, because of the conduct of this most immoral army in decades, the ICC prosecutor has called for his indictment and arrest along with his partner in crime, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

“Israel’s enemies are the US’s enemies,” Netanyahu asserted, making his objective very clear: to incite against Iran and implore American policymakers to support or even wage a US war against Iran. He also called for the creation of a regional coalition that he dubbed the “Abraham Alliance”. It would include America’s Arab allies that would join Israel’s dangerous war against Iran and its allies in the resistance axis.

In contradiction to its own stated interest of not expanding the war into a wider conflict, the US continues to be dragged further into Israel’s war.

The degree of such Zionist hubris is breathtaking.

‘Useful idiots’

For many Americans, perhaps the most insulting claim in a stream of falsehoods was Netanyahu’s sensationalist and totally baseless assertion that the massive anti-genocide protests across US cities and college campuses were instigated and paid for by Iran.

Despite there being no evidence to support this outrageous charge, members of Congress applauded him, while making a mockery of the sacred First Amendment protections, constitutional rights and rich tradition of campus anti-war activism and dissent.

In 2007,  American academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt argued in their book, The Israel Lobby and American Foreign Policy, that the only plausible explanation for the US’s calamitous policy in the Middle East and the submission of many American politicians to Israeli policies and interests, which often contravene America’s strategic interests and stated principles, is the grip the Israel lobby, led by Aipac, has over US politicians.

While the US’s imperialist designs and other military interests contribute to this support, the blind enthusiastic reception of a war criminal and one of the most hawkish Israeli leaders by US politicians signals the impact of the lobby, which has also long advocated for war against Iran.

Within a week of Netanyahu’s address, some US politicians are openly calling for US involvement in Netanyahu’s hegemonic war.

During a phone call with the Israeli prime minister, Biden once again reaffirmed his support for Israel while pledging to continue to support and defend the Zionist regime. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham introduced a war powers bill on Thursday that called for a direct US attack on Iran while further urging Israel to bomb Iranian oil refineries during a Fox News appearance.

While Netanyahu insulted countless Americans who are vehemently protesting his war of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza – and his attempt at regional supremacy – as “useful idiots”, it turned out that the useful idiots were not outside the halls of Congress but enthusiastically celebrating their master in the People’s House.