Netanyahu Doesn’t Speak for Israel

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands before Congress on Wednesday, he will present himself as the voice of Israel. But an Israeli man who spoke before Congress a day earlier is a more accurate voice of the Israeli public. His name is Jonathan Dekel-Chen, and he is the father of Sagui Dekel-Chen, a 35-year-old Israeli American who has been held hostage by Hamas—and in a way, by Netanyahu—since Oct. 7. Dekel-Chen was speaking for millions of Israelis when he told lawmakers, “Any true friend of Israel today must pressure our Prime Minister to finish the deal now.”

Netanyahu is expected to call for a hostage deal in Washington, as if such a deal is being held up by Washington. Yet back home, Netanyahu is accused by many Israelis—including the family members of hostages—of sabotaging that deal. On the eve of Netanyahu’s flight to Washington, just one-fifth of Israelis felt he was doing enough to secure the release of the 116 hostages still held by Hamas.

Netanyahu reportedly told his cabinet last week that “the hostages are suffering, but they are not dying,” drawing shock and outrage from the families of hostages who have indeed died while hostage negotiations falter. On Monday, the families of two additional hostages were notified of their deaths, raising the total to an estimated 44 dead out of those who remain in captivity. “The urgency of the matter did not seem to resonate with him,” said Daniel Neutra, the brother of 22-year-old American hostage Omer Neutra, referring in his own Tuesday testimony to his family’s meetings with Netanyahu. Hostage family members who have met with both Joe Biden and Netanyahu have said they received more empathy from the U.S. President than their own leader.

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Hostage family members, who number in the thousands, have been protesting in Israel almost daily for weeks, calling on Netanyahu to agree to the deal that is now on the table—the same deal that Biden accurately described as a proposal from Israeli negotiators. Even Israel’s security establishment has urged the government to accept that deal. Military officials have stated that the time is right for a ceasefire, and that the Prime Minister’s refusal to formulate a legitimate “day after” plan has hamstrung the military, enabling Hamas to return to areas that the IDF had already cleared. With near-daily drone and missile attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon, tens of thousands of Israelis are still waiting to return to their homes in the north, nearly ten months into the war. And of course, the lives of more than 2 million people in Gaza have been devastated beyond recognition—to say nothing of the many thousands dead.

According to the nonpartisan Israel Democracy Institute, a majority of Israelis support a deal to end the war and secure the release of all the hostages. Most Israelis believe that freeing the hostages should be Israel’s first priority, dismissing Netanyahu’s stated objective of eliminating Hamas as fantasy. Even the IDF spokesman has said that the goal of eliminating Hamas is unachievable.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu is likely to repeat his Trumpian calls for “Total Victory” in Gaza. He is far more intelligent than his American ideological counterpart. Surely he knows there is no total victory in Gaza. His political calculation is almost certainly counting on the ovations that greet his speech to deliver a political boost back in Israel, at least among the minority of Israelis who still support him. As Israel fights its most consequential war since 1948, the man steering his country through it has an approval rating of just 32%. Even before Oct. 7, Netanyahu was already considered the most divisive Prime Minister in Israeli history. Since the Hamas attack, he has become even more unpopular. Polls have consistently shown that most Israelis believe he should resign over the failures that led to Israel’s deadliest day.

Yet Netanyahu has dismissed calls to resign or hold early elections. While other military and political leaders have apologized or accepted responsibility for those failures, the man who has for decades framed himself as Israel’s protector has dismissed the overwhelming evidence that he failed to heed numerous warnings in the days, weeks, and months before the Oct. 7 attack shook the nation.

The last time Netanyahu spoke before Congress, he placed a wedge between Israel and the Democratic Party, whose voters had until then been far more supportive of Israel. That wedge has widened ever since. I suspect this speech will have the same detrimental impact on U.S.-Israel relations—at a time when Israel needs the support of its most important ally more than ever before. 

It is the hope of many Israelis that Americans remember that Netanyahu does not speak for all—or even a majority—of Israelis.