“When we fight Iran we are fighting the most radical and murderous enemy of the United States,” Netanyahu said.
All countries who are at peace with Israel and who will make peace with Israel must join a military alliance against Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as he delivered his historic fourth address to a joint session of Congress.
“We saw a glimpse of that alliance in April,” when five armies took to the skies to shoot down an Iranian missile and drone attack against the Jewish state, he said,
This new alliance would be a natural extension of the groundbreaking Abraham Accords, he stated, noting that it should be called the Abraham Alliance.
In a veiled reference, he described this alliance as a Middle Eastern form of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
After World War II “America forged a security alliance in Europe to counter the growing Soviet threat,” Netanyahu recalled. “Likewise, America and Israel today can forge a security alliance in the Middle East to counter the growing Iranian threat,” he stated.
Netanyahu thanked both US President Joe Biden for his role as the architect of that April defense and spoke of his gratitude to former US President Donald Trump for brokering the Abraham Accords.
“Israel will always remain America’s indispensable ally,” Netanyahu said, adding that “I came here today to say: Thank you, America “for your support and solidarity” and “for standing with Israel in our hour of need.”
By working together the two countries can defend democracy over tyranny, particularly when facing Iran’s axis of evil,” he added.
“Iran sees America as its greatest enemy,” Netanyahu said, explaining that the Islamic Republic has been fighting Washington since it seized power in 1979, including taking US hostages, killing its servicemen, and bombing its embassies.
“They sent death squads here to murder a former secretary of state and a former national security adviser. And as we recently learned, they even brazenly threatened to assassinate [former] President Trump,’ Netanyahu stated.
Iran understands that to conquer America it must first conquer the Middle East, Netanyahu said. “Standing in Iran’s way is one proud pro-American democracy—my country, the State of Israel.”
Axis of evil
“When we fight Iran, we are fighting the most radical and murderous enemy of the United States,” Netanyahu said. When Israel engages in that fight and works to prevent a nuclear Iran, “we are not only protecting ourselves, we are protecting you,” he said.
“Our enemies are your enemies, our fight is your fight, our victories will be your victories,” he stated to resounding applause. One person yelled out, “Yes, sir.”
That victory is in sight, as an Israeli defeat of Hamas would be a powerful blow to the axis of terror, Netanyahu said. He referenced the IDF multi-front battles against Iranian proxies, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Lebanon.
Earlier this month, Netanyahu explained, the Houthis sent an armed drone to Tel Aviv, which caused an explosion next to a branch of the US embassy.
Just as Israel plays an important defensive role for the United States, “I know that America has our back,” Netanyahu said. He referenced the the joint defense and intelligence cooperation that helps protect both countries.
“We help keep US boots off the ground while protecting our citizens in the Middle East,” Netanyahu stated, adding, “I deeply appreciated America’s support.”
US-Israel relations
Netanyahu appealed to the US to fast-track military aid to help Israel destroy Hamas, end the Gaza war, and prevent a broader war in the Middle East.
Outside of the Congressional building anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protestors demonstrated against Netanyahu. According to the Jewish American group J-Street, some 68 out of the 263 Democratic members of Congress boycotted the speech. One Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky also skipped it in protest.
Inside the chamber, which was standing room impossible, the support palpable. Netanyahu’s speech was successful from the moment he walked into the room, where he was greeted with resounding applause throughout his address, including multiple sounding ovations.
Netanyahu told Congress that they were meeting at a moment that was a “crossroad of history.”
Congress members stood and applauded when Netanyahu stated, “For the forces of civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together.” They got out of their chairs again, when Netanyahu stressed, “When we stand together, something important happens, we win, they lose.”
And “We will win,” he added to another standing ovation.
Netanyahu referenced the Hamas-led invasion of October 7 in which over 1,200 people were killed and another 251 seized as hostages.
He described the brutality of the attack and mentioned the hostages and their family members who were in the gallery, including rescued hostage Noa Argamani, who sat between her father and Netanyahu’s wife Sara.
“I will not rest until all their loved ones are homes,” Netanyahu said.
“As we speak, we’re actively engaged in intensive efforts to secure their release, and I’m confident that these efforts can succeed. Some of them are taking place right now,” he stated.
Netanyahu thanked US President Joe Biden for his unwavering support since the start of the war, including his October trip, which he said, “would never be forgotten.”
“I want to thank him for half a century of friendship with Israel and for being a proud Irish American Zionist,” Netanyahu said.
He also thanked the IDF soldiers, including those who were Muslim and Bedouin. Among them is Master Sergeant Ashraf al Bahiriof who came with Netanyahu to Congress and who Netanyahu recognized in his speech for his bravery in battling Hamas on October 7.
Persecution of Jews
Pointing to the long history of persecution, Netanyahu said, the “Jewish people are no longer helpless in the face of our enemies.”
To the bereaved families of IDF soldiers who fell in battle on Israel’s southern and northern fronts in the last nine months, he said, “I pledge to you that the sacrifice of your loved ones will not be in vain.”
“Never again must never be an empty promise; it must always remain a sacred vow, and after October 7, never again is now,” he stated.
Defeating Israel’s enemies requires courage and clarity, and “knowing the difference between good and evil,” he said
Increasingly many anti-Israel protestors stand with evil, they stand with Hamas, with rapists and murderers,” he stated.
“They should be ashamed of themselves,” he said.
Israel recently learned that Iran is funding and promoting anti-Israel protests in America, to disrupt public life in the United States, he said.
Someone in the gallery shouted out “yes,” to that statement. Others shouted out, “USA, USA!”
“I have a message for these protesters: 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 stated.
“Some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming “Gays for Gaza.” They might as well hold up signs saying “Chickens for KFC,” he said.
“These protesters chant ‘From the river to the sea.’ But many don’t have a clue what river and what sea they’re talking about. They not only get an F in geography, they get an F in history,” he started.
They charge that Israel is a colonial state, without any understanding that this is the land of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he stated. For 4,000 years Israel has been the land of the Jewish people, Netanyahu explained, stressing, “It has always been our home and it will always be our home.”
The problem is not just with the protestors but also in the halls of the country’s top elite schools, including his own alma mater MIT, whose presidents could not condemn calls of genocide against Jews, he said.
Malicious lies historically leveled against Jews for centuries that led to mass persecution and eventually to the Holocaust, are now leveled against the Jewish state, Netanyahu said.
“Whenever and wherever we see the scourge of antisemitism, we must unequivocally condemn it and resolutely fight it, without exception,” Netanyahu stated.
This includes when the international courts level preposterous charges Israel, Netanyahu said. It was a reference to the International Court of Justice’s judicial hearing on charges that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and the possibility Israelis could face war crimes charges before the International Criminal Court.
“I want to assure you, no matter what pressure is brought to bear,” Netanyahu said, he would never allow another October 7-style attack to happen against Israel.
The vast majority of Americans have not fallen for the “preposterous” lies against Israel, Netanyahu said. That minority should listen to urban warfare expert John Spencer, who has lauded IDF efforts to preserve civilian life and explained how Israel has taken steps above and beyond what international law requires, as Netanyahu pointed out.
The IDF’s Military campaign in Gaza has one of the lowest ratios of combatant to civilian deaths of any war and its lowest in Rafah, Netanyahu stated.
The ICC
At issue for the ICC, however, is stripping Israel of the right to self-defense, Netanyahu said.
“The ICC is trying to shackle Israel’s hands and prevent it from defending itself,” Netanyahu said, warning that if this happens, the ICC would do the same to the US and other democracies.
“Let me assure you, the hands of the Jewish state will never be shackled. Israel will always defend itself,” Netanyahu said.
He pushed back at calls within the US and on the international stage that Israel must end the war in Gaza before Hamas is defeated or the hostages are released.
“Israel will fight until we destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and its rule in Gaza and bring all our hostages home,” Netanyahu stated.
“That’s what total victory means, and we will settle for nothing less,” he emphasized.
In looking at the day after a Hamas defeat in Gaza, Netanyahu explained the importance of the IDF retaining overriding security control of Gaza to ensure that “it never again poses another threat to Israel.”
Israel, he said, doesn’t want to “resettle Gaza.” The governance should be by Palestinians “who do not seek to destroy Israel, that is not too much to ask,” Netanyahu said.
Gaza “must be de-militarized and de-radicalized,” he said. Netanyahu was also careful to bring up Jerusalem and to stress that the historic biblical city was Israel’s “eternal capital” that would “never be divided again.”
“As Israel’s prime minister, I promise you this: no matter how long it takes, no matter how difficult the road ahead, Israel will not relent. Israel will not bend.
“We will defend our land. We will defend our people. We will fight until we achieve victory. The victory of liberty over tyranny, the victory of life over death, the victory of good over evil. That’s our solemn commitment,” Netanyahu said.