Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Congress and FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies about the recent attempt on former President Donald Trump's life.
Facing protests, boycotts and accusations of war crimes, Netanyahu pushes Congress for more support in Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of U.S. Congress on Wednesday as more than 100 Democratic lawmakers boycotted and antiwar protesters were pepper sprayed and arrested by U.S. Capitol Police outside.
The speech comes as Netanyahu stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor for his country’s bombardment and “collective punishment” of the Gaza Strip over the last 10 months.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely 2024 Democratic nominee for president, did not attend the speech, where she normally would have sat right behind Netanyahu, citing a previously scheduled campaign event in Indiana.
The next Democrat in line, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, declined to attend, leading to Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Ben Cardin to serve as “senator pro tempore” in place of her. Netanyahu has plans to meet Harris, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump separately later this week.
“This is not a clash of civilizations. It's a clash between barbarism and civilization,” Netanyahu said during his address, to rounds of bipartisan applause. “It's a clash between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life. For the forces of civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together.”
Netanyahu later called the ICC chief prosecutor’s allegations “utter, complete nonsense,” and a “complete fabrication.” He went on claim that “the war in Gaza has one of the lowest ratios of combatants to non-combatants casualties in the history of urban warfare.”
Information from the Health Ministry in Gaza, though, says that more than 39,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, have been killed in retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel by Hamas that killed around 1,200 people and resulted in the abduction of about 250. Some of the family members of hostages attended the speech on Wednesday.
The resulting war has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians, wounded tens of thousands more and forced roughly two million Gazans into famine, according to experts at the United Nations. And according information from the U.N., infants have begun to starve to death because of “Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people" — a campaign the international body’s experts described as “a form of genocidal violence.”
In his speech, Netanyahu directly spoke to the thousands of protestors outside the U.S. Capitol and those who paralyzed college campuses earlier this year calling for an end of the war, saying they were “Iran’s useful idiots” and claimed Iran, a financial backer of Hamas, was funding antiwar protestors in the U.S.
“Many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers,” Netanyahu said. “They refuse to make the simple distinction between those who target terrorists and those who target civilians between the democratic state of Israel and the terrorist thugs of Hamas.”
Netanyahu received a warm welcome from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other Republican lawmakers who arranged his speech in the House chamber. “Today and every day, America must stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel,” Johnson said shortly before Netanyahu began speaking.
“We help keep American boots off the ground while protecting our shared interests in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said during his speech.
Netanyahu's visit was his first abroad since the war started, and comes under the shadow of arrest warrants sought against him by the ICC over alleged Israel war crimes against Palestinians. The United States does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.
“I deeply appreciate America's support, including in this current war, but this is an exceptional moment. Fast tracking U.S. military aid can dramatically expedite and help prevent a broader war in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said, pointing to the U.S. support of Great Britain during the early years of World War II. “Today Israel fights on the frontline of civilization. I, too, appeal to America, give us the tools, faster, and will finish the job faster.”
Netanyahu did not mention a cease-fire specifically in his roughly hour-long address, but said that the war would end if Hamas surrenders, lays down its arms and returns the remaining hostages.
“Israel will fight until we destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and its rule in Gaza and bring all our hostages home,” he said. “That’s what total victory means. And we will settle for nothing less.”
Wray says Trump shooter flew drone near rally site 2 hours before opening fire
Testifying before Congress on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray shared new details in the criminal investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump earlier this month.
Wray confirmed to the House Judiciary Committee that investigators recovered a drone from the vehicle of the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20. It appears that he flew the drone for 11 minutes about 2 1/2 hours before opening fire on Trump at his campaign rally in Butler, Pa. The drone did not fly above the stage where the Republican presidential nominee would later stand, but about 200 yards away, the FBI director testified.
The drone did not record video, but the hypothesis of experts is that the shooter viewed a livestream from its camera, Wray said.
On July 13, Crooks fired several shots at Trump while perched on a nearby warehouse rooftop, striking the former president in the right ear. One rallygoer was killed, and two others were wounded. The gunman was fatally shot by a Secret Service sniper.
"The attempted assassination of the former president was an attack on our democracy and our democratic process, and we will not and do not tolerate political violence of any kind, especially a despicable account of this magnitude," Wray said in his opening statement. "And I want to assure you, and the American people that the men and women of the FBI will continue to work tirelessly to get to the bottom of what happened.
"Now, there's a whole lot of work underway and still a lot of work to do, and our understanding of what happened and why will continue to evolve, but we're going to leave no stone unturned."
Wray said the gunman became “very focused” on Trump and the rally a week before the shooting and that analysis of a laptop linked to him revealed that on July 6 he searched online for “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” The would-be assassin registered to attend the rally the same day, Wray said.
The shooter visited the rally site at least three times, according to Wray: a week earlier for about 20 minutes, the morning of the rally for around 70 minutes and then finally in the afternoon for the event.
Wray said the FBI’s lab is also examining three explosive devices the shooter had in his possession — two in his vehicle and one at his home.
The FBI director described the devices as “relatively crude” but added that “they did have the ability to be detonated remotely.” The gunman had a transmitter on him when he was killed, but it appears that if he had tried to detonate the devices from the roof where he was positioned, “it would not have worked,” Wray said.
Wray testified that investigators are still working to learn more about the shooter’s state of mind, motive and ideology, but he said, based on the shooter’s online search history, it appears “fairly clear” he “was interested in public figures” in general.
The FBI director added that descriptions by people who knew him of Crooks being a “loner” seem to align with what investigators have learned through his devices. His list of contacts was relatively short, and he appeared to have limited interaction, face to face or electronically, with other people, Wray said.
Wray also said he’s seen no evidence the shooter had any accomplices or co-conspirators but that the FBI continues to look into the possibility.