Controversy over Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday denied US media reports that he plans to address the US Congress on June 13, amid mounting pressure on him to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s office told Israeli media that the date of his speech to Congress hasn’t been definitively set, but it won’t be on June 13 because that date conflicts with a Jewish holiday.
Speculation about the visit comes as Netanyahu faces heavy criticism over the number of civilian casualties in the ongoing war in Gaza, which has escalated tensions with President Joe Biden’s administration.
Biden on Friday presented what he called an Israeli plan to end the bloody Gaza conflict in three phases, including a ceasefire, the liberation of all hostages and the reconstruction of destroyed Palestinian territory without Hamas in power.
Netanyahu’s office confirmed that the war sparked by the October 7 Hamas offensive would continue until all of Israel’s goals were achieved, including the destruction of Hamas’s military capabilities.
Bipartisan leaders in the US House and Senate last week called on Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress, in a message expressing solidarity with Israel against terrorism, especially as Hamas continues to detain American and Israeli citizens.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in March urged Israel to hold new elections, a rare example of US harsh criticism of Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza.
Schumer, the highest-elected US Jewish official in US history, came amid the White House’s alarm at the rising number of civilian casualties in the war sparked by the October 7 attacks on Israel.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who votes for Democrats, denounced Netanyahu and his management of the military response to the Hamas attack, vowing not to attend the right-wing Israeli leader’s speech.
“It’s a very sad day for our country that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — by bipartisan leaders — has been invited to address a joint meeting of the US Congress,” Sanders said in a statement over the weekend.
“Israel, of course, has the right to defend itself against the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, but it doesn’t have, and doesn’t have, the right to wage war against the entire Palestinian people,” he said, calling Netanyahu a “war criminal”.
