Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was met with both rousing applause and snubs as he addressed Congress on Wednesday for the first time since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
Outside the building, thousands of anti-Israel protesters gathered, some of whom became unruly and were pepper sprayed by police.
Netanyahu heckled the protesters right back, suggesting the largely left-leaning demonstrators who have disrupted college campuses and other venues nationwide, are funded by Iran and ignorant about the history of the Jewish state.
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“You have officially become Iran’s useful idiots,” Netanyahu said in a fiery speech that drew round after round of standing ovations from lawmakers and guests gathered in the gallery of the House of Representatives.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a Muslim of Palestinian descent, sat in the chamber holding a sign that said “war criminal” on one side and “guilty of genocide” on the other.
More notable than who attended the prime minister’s fourth speech before Congress was the paucity of lawmakers, mostly Democrats. Many of them boycotted the controversial leader’s speech.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who under the Constitution serves as president of the Senate, declined to preside over the meeting, or even attend, citing a previously scheduled event in Indiana. Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray declined in protest, leaving retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) to do the job.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also skipped in protest, along with Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC). Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Steve Cohen (D-TN) also boycotted the speech.
Cohen told the Daily Beast he felt the invitation extended by House Speaker Mike Johnson, rather than from a bipartisan group of leaders, was “political” rather than diplomatic. “It was when I read that he was going to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump that I decided I could not go,” Cohen said.
Also notably missing from the joint session was Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate, who, like Harris, was campaigning.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has called on Netanyahu to resign over his handling of the war in Gaza, where countless numbers of innocent civilians, including children, have been killed, attended. However, Schumer conspicuously avoided shaking Netanyahu’s hand as he walked past, instead giving only a half nod.
Elon Musk was also there as a guest of the Israeli prime minister, sitting in the upper gallery with Netanyahu’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, and other invited guests, who included Matt Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, whose late founder, GOP mega donor Sheldon Adelson and his widow, Miriam Adelson, are close personal friends of the controversial prime minister.
Pro-Palestine protesters outside the Capitol building.
Umit Bektas/ReutersA handful of Pro-Palestinian protestors were arrested and taken out of the Capitol, while outside, U.S. Capitol Police reported the crowd “became violent” and “failed to obey our order to move back from our police line,” adding, “We are deploying pepper spray towards anyone trying to break the law and cross that line.”
Netanyahu shouted throughout much of the speech, rallying members of both parties to their feet.
“These monsters raped women, they beheaded men, they burnt babies alive,” he said. “They killed parents in front of their children and children in front of their parents.”
Numerous other Democrats said they would be skipping out to send a message. Squad members were among the foremost objectors, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) saying she would not attend because Netanyahu is a “war criminal.”
Other notable absences included Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus chair Judy Chu (D-CA).
After the address, Rep. Jerrod Nadler (D-NY) called Netanyahu’s speech “fundamentally dishonest.”
“His interest is to keep the war going as long as possible,” Nadler, who is Jewish, told MSNBC after the speech, adding, “I don’t believe he has any interest in releasing the hostages because that would hasten the end of war.”
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), a Jewish House member who identifies as a Zionist and represents a heavily Jewish district, told the Daily Beast following the prime minister’s speech that she was offended by Tlaib’s sign.
“I thought it was absolutely inappropriate and unbecoming of a member of Congress,” Wasserman Schultz said, “and unfortunately par for the course with her.” But she described Netanyahu’s speech as “relatively unifying” and said she was grateful to hear the Israeli leader thank President Joe Biden.
