After America was attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, it joined forces with Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
But will Americans listen to Benjamin Netanyahu? In a fiery speech, the Israeli prime minister addressed Congress Wednesday and asked lawmakers to stand beside Israel nine months into its war with Hamas.
“America and Israel must stand together," he said. "When we stand together something really simple happens: we win, they lose.”
Israel continues in its effort to eliminate Hamas in a war that started after the Iran-backed terror group killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took another 240-plus hostages – including women, children and the elderly – last Oct. 7.
The Hamas attacks included the raping of women, beheadings and children killed in front of their parents, Netanyahu told Congress.
But world sentiment quickly turned to the Palestinians as the Israel Defense Forces set about removing Hamas, which shields itself amid heavy civilian population centers, from the country.
“Almost any direction you go you can find enemies that want to destroy the Jewish state,” Chris Mitchell, the Middle East Bureau Chief for CBN News, said on Washington Watch Tuesday prior to Netanyahu's speech.
“I think Benjamin Netanyahu sees himself as the 21st Century’s Winston Churchill warning about the grave threats not only to Israel but the United States, to the West, to human civilization, the threat not just of the Iranian regime but of radical Islamism and Apocalyptic Islamism, those who would use their Islamic political theory to use violence to accomplish their objectives. That’s Hamas, using their violence to drive Israel out of the region or Hezbollah, or Al-Qaeda back in its day or the Taliban,” Joel Rosenberg, an author, journalist and expert on Israeli affairs, said on American Family Radio Wednesday.
Netanyahu’s speech was his fourth before Congress, surpassing three Capitol speeches by Churchill, but Netanyahu’s presence was boycotted by some lawmakers and met with thousands of protesters.
Pro-Hamas protesters also attacked the Watergate Hotel in Washington, where Netanyahu and his traveling party were staying, releasing thousands of maggots and mealworms onto banquet tables and throughout the hotel, according to ToddStarnes.com.
Netanyahu continued undeterred Wednesday and delivered his message that called protesters "useful idiots" for Hamas.
Rosenberg, best known as a best-selling author, pointed out that Churchill recognized Nazism and Adolf Hitler, and the Holocaust, years before.
"Nobody listened to him," the author said. "That’s what’s happening to Netanyahu today, so I think the United States is at a critical turning point, a crossroads. Is America going to abandon Israel or stand with Israel?”
Biden and Israel – a shaky partnership
Rosenberg told show host Jenna Ellis that the U.S. has stood with Israel more than any country in its modern-day history. But President Joe Biden’s response has been “pro-Israel on some days and hostile to Israel on other days,” Rosenberg said.
Biden is entering a lame-duck stage of his presidency after quitting the race for a second term through an X post Sunday afternoon.
Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in South Florida Friday.
However, Netanyahu’s most important meeting, Rosenberg says, will be with Vice President Kamala Harris, who avoided Netanyahu at his airport landing and did not attend his Congressional address Wednesday.
Harris did not change her schedule which called for her to be traveling to speak to a black sorority group in Indianapolis. She agreed to meet Netanyahu at the White House later during his visit.
“Kamala Harris was a non-entity for the last three and a half years, but she now has enormous influence in the Democratic Party and nationally, and if Biden cannot finish the term, she will be the president, whether she's elected or not.
“So, the fact that she won't even show up for Netanyahu's speech tells us how hostile she is towards Netanyahu and towards Israel,” Rosenberg said.
The timing of a possible expanded war
Israel, facing daily attacks from Iran-backed Hezbollah, faces the possibility of an expanded war in the northern part of its country.
Hezbollah is a foe with “maybe 10 times the military strength” of Hamas, Mitchell, the CBN correspondent, told Washington Watch host Tony Perkins.
It isn’t a certainty that the war will expand, but the fall’s U.S. election could dictate the timing of an Israeli initiative or response.
“There are some people that are saying it might be better in the springtime for Israel to go to war with Hezbollah. One of the reasons is the political situation in the United States with a (possible) Trump administration might be more favorable to Israel than the Biden-Harris administration has been,” Mitchell said.
