What happened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a rare address during a joint session of Congress yesterday amid ongoing protests over Israel's war in Gaza.
Who said what Speaking to members of both chambers of Congress, Netanyahu lauded the US-Israeli relationship while lambasting the large demonstrations taking place across Washington DC over his presence.
"For all we know Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests that are going on right now outside this building," Netanyahu said. He earned his "biggest cheers" for calling protesters "Tehran's useful idiots", said The New York Times.
Democrat Rashida Tlaib, who is Palestinian-American, attended Netanyahu's speech holding a sign reading "war criminal" and "guilty of genocide". Many other high-profile Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders, were not in attendance, with "around half" of each of the Democratic caucuses "absent", said Andrew Solender at Axios.Â
Heading into his speech Netanyahu had to contend with a "new balancing act, appealing to the new, potentially more progressive face of the Democratic Party while not antagonising Trump", said The Wall Street Journal.
What next? Despite skipping his address yesterday Harris is scheduled to join President Joe Biden for a bilateral meeting with Netanyahu today. Netanyahu will then meet with Donald Trump tomorrow, although their once-glowing relationship has "grown tense in recent years following the 2020 election", said Politico. |