Bibi’s bull

To the editor:

On July 24, Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered a highly arguable speech to a joint session of Congress at the invitation of Mike Johnson, Mitch McConnell, Charles Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. This appeared to give Netanyahu’s appearance bipartisan support. 

Congress members gave Netanyahu numerous standing ovations during his address, at which he strongly defended Israel’s response to the murderous attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. 

Netanyahu never mentioned a ceasefire or a two-state solution, claimed victory over Hamas was near and that the hostages would be released. He also accused anti-Israel protesters of being funded by Iran, and vehemently denied Israel was carrying out mass starvation and targeting Palestinian civilians. 

The following is a reality check: The International Court of Justice made a preliminary finding that it was plausible Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. Its directives to prevent this have been consistently ignored by Israel. The head of the ICC announced he would seek arrest warrants for war crimes committed by Netanyahu and the Israeli defense secretary, as well as for the three leaders of Hamas.  

The charges against the Israel leaders include mass starvation of Palestinians and deliberate targeting of civilians (in Gaza, nearly 40,000 Palestinians have died and there are over 90,000 injured, the majority of whom are women and children). Since Oct. 7, Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with the complicity of the Israel Defense Force, have been attacked by extremist settlers. Some of them have illegally seized land.  

The ICJ has ruled that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is unlawful, and Israel should leave and pay reparations. Finally, Israel’s 10-month siege of Gaza has created horrific living conditions for 2.3 million people.

Howard Elterman