If only Netanyahu governed Israel as effectively as he speaks about it
The prime minister delivered a masterful address to a largely enthralled Congress, hailing our nation and scorning its critics. But his public diplomacy skills were never in doubt

David Horovitz is the founding editor of The Times of Israel. He is the author of "Still Life with Bombers" (2004) and "A Little Too Close to God" (2000), and co-author of "Shalom Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin" (1996). He previously edited The Jerusalem Post (2004-2011) and The Jerusalem Report (1998-2004).

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress was a tour de force of public diplomacy.
It was painstakingly constructed, and delivered with verve and charisma.
He grabbed his audience from the very start, when describing the current “crossroads of history” which sees Iran’s axis of evil confronting America, Israel and their Arab allies. And he cemented his hold over much of that audience by promising that, together, America and Israel would prevail: “When we stand together something very simple happens: We win, they lose. And my friends,” he pledged, “we will win.”
He went on to describe the horrors of October 7, and the monstrous crimes committed by Hamas. He pointed out rescued hostage Noa Argamani, next to his wife Sara in the audience, and then turned the spotlight on several heroic soldiers who fought Hamas that day and since.
He denounced and derided anti-Israeli protesters, including those demonstrating outside as he spoke, and noted US intel indicating some of them are being funded by Iran. He compared “Gays for Gaza” to “Chickens for KFC” who wouldn’t last a moment under Hamas rule, and scorned “river to the sea” advocates who know neither geography nor history. He warned against spiraling antisemitism, in the US and beyond, and lamented that even the presidents of America’s most elite universities, including his own alma mater MIT, had failed to speak out definitively against calls for genocide against Jews.
He countered claims of Israeli responsibility for hunger in Gaza, blaming Hamas for stealing Israeli-supplied food. He defended Israel’s war record in Gaza against criticism of civilian losses — criticism that has flowed for months from the Biden administration.
When he turned to Iran, as the orchestrator of all the terrorism, turmoil, chaos and killing, he drew the US deep into the challenge, reminding his audience that America, “the guardian of Western civilization” and “the world’s greatest power,” stands in the way of Ayatollah Khomenei’s declared goal of exporting the Islamic Revolution to the entire world. Or rather, he added, America, and “one proud, pro-American democracy… Israel.”
Thus, he elaborated, when Israel is fighting Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, “we’re fighting Iran.” And when Israel acts against Iran’s nuclear program, it’s not only protecting Israel, “we’re protecting you.” Israel’s enemies are America’s enemies, and “our victory will be your victory.”
He set out a vision for a demilitarized and deradicalized Gaza, with a civilian administration run by Palestinians who don’t seek to destroy Israel. And he sketched a broader regional future featuring an anti-Iran alliance — forged by the US, Israel and Arab allies.
On his best bipartisan behavior, he thanked President Joe Biden for giving a glimpse of that alliance by assembling the coalition that thwarted Iran’s April 14 missile and drone attack on Israel. And he thanked former and would-be president Donald Trump for instituting the Abraham Accords that could now facilitate a wider “Abraham Alliance.”
“Thank you for standing with Israel in our hour of need,” he said as he neared his conclusion, after almost an hour at the podium punctuated by innumerable rounds of applause and many standing ovations. “Together we shall defend our common civilization,” he predicted, and “secure a brilliant future for both our nations.”
**
But even as he spoke, word was coming out that IDF troops had recovered the body of Maya Goren, the kindergarten teacher of Kibbutz Nir Oz, who was abducted on October 7. Further grim news, of the return of the bodies of more slain hostages, was to follow soon after.
The juxtaposition of Netanyahu’s rousing rhetoric with the dark tidings back home underlined that, in his speech, he seemed to have presented October 7 as a disaster that befell Israel but was somehow unrelated to him — almost as though he had not been the leader at the time, and had not been overseeing national political, diplomatic and security policy for almost the entire period since Hamas seized power in Gaza 17 years ago.
Even as all of his security chiefs and his own defense minister are entreating him to move ahead with a deal for more hostage releases, on the basis of terms that he himself approved at the end of May, he offered only the vague promise not to rest until all the hostages were home. He has every reason to be thoroughly wary of Hamas. But the concern among those security chiefs is that he is avoiding a potentially viable deal because he fears the far-right component of his coalition will bolt if he approves it.
Relatives of some of the hostages had urged him to announce a deal in the course of his speech. Others had pleaded with him not to fly to Washington at all without finalizing the terms. Very few would have truly expected him to make a bombshell announcement, but shortly before his address he delayed the dispatch of negotiators to resumed talks — initially contemplated for the start of this week, then postponed until Thursday, and now put off again until after his White House meeting with Biden.
He talked glowingly of our resilient and innovative and democratic Israel. But back home, reservists are wilting under the strain of, in many cases, over 250 days of military service — a burden exacerbated because he has refused to require military service, or any national service, for much of the Haredi community. Without the ultra-Orthodox parties, of course, he has no coalition.
Tens of thousands of displaced northern and southern Israelis are unable to return to their homes, and many are still living in hotels, meanwhile, without adequate government support or provision for needs as basic as the education of their children. His government is bloated with incompetent ministers, and wastes precious resources on their narrow interests and pet projects.
He brought messianists and racists into the heart of that government, and indulges their pyromaniacal antics — because, again, to ditch these coalition partners would spell his political defeat.
Under his leadership, the very foundations of that Israeli democracy he championed in his address were challenged last year by a bid to subjugate the judiciary to the will of his coalition — a devastatingly divisive gambit that emboldened Israel’s enemies and undermined the country’s deterrent capability.
**
While his speech was warmly applauded and widely broadcast, America has political preoccupations of its own in these tumultuous days. Netanyahu’s prime intended audience was the nation watching at home, and he constructed an address that he hopes will remind the electorate of his peerless oratorical talents, and possibly lift his standing in the polls, which have tended to show a large majority want him to resign — either now or when the war is over.
But Netanyahu’s advocacy skills were never in question, and Wednesday’s performance demonstrated why. It’s his Mr. Security credentials that were destroyed on October 7 and can never be restored. And his standing at home is further weakened by his abiding refusal to take responsibility for the catastrophe which, though barely hinted at in his speech, did happen on his watch. All that, and his relentless denigration and demonization of any and all domestic critics.
The prime minister delivered a powerhouse address to Congress on Wednesday. He is, without question, Israel’s most effective practitioner of public diplomacy. But under his leadership, it might be emblematically pointed out, the official Public Diplomacy Directorate, run out of the Prime Minister’s Office, is under-staffed, under-resourced and largely non-functional.
If only he had been governing Israel as effectively as he spoke about it.
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Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel