OPINION:
Last week, one of the world’s great orators came to Washington and delivered an address to Congress that was so powerful and so true that a number of progressive Democrats boycotted his remarks, apparently because they can’t handle the truth.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proved a comment once made by ABC newsman Ted Koppel: “Our society finds truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder. It is a howling reproach.”
Mr. Netanyahu delivered a howling reproach to the anti-Israel and antisemitic demonstrators outside the Capitol building and on college campuses when he said: “Defeating our brutal enemies requires both courage and clarity. Clarity begins by knowing the difference between good and evil. Yet incredibly many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas.”
He called such people “useful idiots” to Iran, which he said was behind much of the demonstrations that promote hatred of Israel, Jews and, yes, America, as we saw when demonstrators burned American flags outside Union Station and defaced monuments.
Just how useful these “idiots” are to Iran was noticeable in an earlier statement by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said anti-Israel demonstrators on college campuses are “on the right side of history.”
Mr. Netanyahu mocked the demonstrators: “These protesters chant ’From the river to the sea.’ But many don’t have a clue what river and what sea they’re talking about. They not only get an F in geography, they get an F in history. They call Israel a colonialist state. Don’t they know that the land of Israel is where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob prayed, where Isaiah and Jeremiah preached and where David and Solomon ruled?”
He also responded to Hamas’ propaganda that Israel is deliberately targeting civilians in the Gaza Strip, saying that “despite all the lies you’ve heard, the war in Gaza has one of the lowest ratios of combatants to noncombatant casualties in the history of urban warfare. And you want to know where it’s lowest in Gaza? It’s lowest in Rafah.”
What about another Hamas lie that humanitarian aid is not reaching civilians (a lie Vice President Kamala Harris perpetuated after she met with Mr. Netanyahu).
“The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has shamefully accused Israel of deliberately starving the people of Gaza,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “This is utter, complete nonsense. It’s a complete fabrication. Israel has enabled more than 40,000 aid trucks to enter Gaza. That’s half a million tons of food, and that’s more than 3,000 calories for every man, woman and child in Gaza. If there are Palestinians in Gaza who aren’t getting enough food, it’s not because Israel is blocking it, it’s because Hamas is stealing it.”
After meeting with Ms. Harris, Mr. Netanyahu said her public statement differed from what she told him in private. She asserted that Gaza residents were suffering from food insecurity and some were starving. She highlighted the old formula that only a two-state solution can end the regional conflict. This has been debunked so many times by statements from Israel’s enemies, which favor a one-state solution. Amazingly, the line continues to be repeated over several administrations.
After his meeting with Mr. Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump said he asked the prime minister why so many American Jews vote for Democrats, many of whom vote against Israel’s (and America’s) interests. “Habit,” he quoted Mr. Netanyahu as saying.
What ought to stick with Americans is what Mr. Netanyahu said about Iran’s ultimate goal: “Last month, I heard a revealing comment, ostensibly about the war in Gaza, but about something else. It came from the foreign minister of Iran’s proxy Hezbollah, and he said this: ’This is not a war with Israel. Israel,’ he said, ’is merely a tool.’ The main war, the real war, is with America.’”
If Iran is allowed to produce a nuclear bomb, it is likely to prove the truth of that claim.
• Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book, “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).
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