The premiere of Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress and President Biden’s address to the nation is merely a whisper to the cacophonic discourse unleashed by recent events surrounding both. We cannot but define this current inflection point in American politics as critical, yet no matter what happens in November the current state of affairs will continue. Hardly a critical point.
On July 24th, 2024, thousands of protestors descended onto Washington, D.C. to resist the arrival of notorious war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and to deafen his speech to Congress, the Democratic and Republican architects of the genocide. The protestors formed a coalition of people of conscience from varying backgrounds, geographies, histories, and identities to attempt to cease U.S. complicity in genocide and to advocate for an immediate ceasefire. They were, of course, unsuccessful in the short term, and participated in acute agitation against the U.S. state machine; Hundreds of activists from the Jewish Voice for Peace were arrested after occupying the U.S. Capitol building, six activists were arrested after verbally disrupting Netanyahu’s address, and dozens were arrested and injured after police moved in to attempt to disperse the crowd. The violence that the police claim to have witnessed is violence toward property, which despite being regarded as a sacred and unalienable right in America, has little significance to the incredible violence brought onto Palestine by Israel and the United States.
As many other commentators have suggested, Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress was as American as it gets. Netanyahu’s speech perfectly resonated with the types of rhetorical devices and political tact employed by our own politicians, often sounding better than our own President Biden. Netanyahu enjoyed over 50 standing ovations from the members of Congress that were in attendance. Representatives broke out into cheers of “USA! USA!”. This speech was crafted to help lube the hands of the circlejerking American exceptionalists and nationalistic chauvinists.
Netanyahu’s purpose for his speech was to highlight the longstanding alliance between the United States and Israel, delegitimize the criticism of Israel by calling protestors “Iran’s useful idiots” and equating their critics as anti-semites, and to increase the transfer of U.S. weaponry to Israel. It was clear that even before his speech, the U.S. Congress is fully backing Israel through ideological and material means and ignoring rulings from the ICJ and ICC that determine Israeli occupation and aggression are violations of international law. We are asked not to trust our instincts, our determinations of genocide, nor expert analysis from genocide scholars nor humanitarian groups on the ground. Instead, we are asked to trust the administration and custodians of the Empire who are actively aiding in the genocide and to denounce those who are vocal about their resistance to genocide.
Finally, President Biden’s remarks demonstrate nothing noteworthy other than the Democratic effort to distance themselves from their complicity in the genocide in Gaza and promoting the unity of the country. Once again, Biden finds himself echoing the same warning as he did in 2020, that is, the engagement of the battle for the soul of America means that we must vote to be rid of Trump’s fascist program. Once again, we are told that this election is the path either toward the destruction of democracy or toward healing and unity. We should refuse this dichotomy. Democrats and Republicans are both vessels of the bourgeoisie to strengthen capital and quash anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist dissent. No matter who is voted in office, material contradictions are sharpening and we must organize to provide for alternative paths forward in order to survive the existential threat posed by capitalism.
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