Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau has called his trip to the United States an important one that will tell the American leaders and the people how much their support matters in Israel’s war against Hamas. But so far, his trip has been largely low-profile. He is scheduled to address Congress, meet with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris separately. He will also meet Donald Trump at his resort in Mar-a-Lago in Florida on Friday.
Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the U.S. at a time there’s a lot happening politically. Joe Biden has given up on his re-election bid and stepped down. Kamala Harris is now on top of the Democratic Party ticket. Ahead of his address to the Congress, Jewish protesters courted arrest and protested inside the Capitol Hill’s building rotunda. Talia Eraester, who was among the protesters said, “We don’t want our tax dollars funding genocide. We are willing to put our bodies on the line to say to our Jewish values and our values as people that we can not be funding this.” Tal Frienden, another protester said, “I am a Jewish American, my grandparents survived the Holocaust, and growing up I was always told that we should never let anything like the Holocaust happen again. That’s why I am here today protesting the genocide of the Palestinian people, and calling on our government to enact an arms embargo of Israel, and send no more weapons to the Israeli military.”
Netanyahu met with some families of hostages who are still in captivity nine months into this war. The families of hostages want the American government to put pressure on Netanyahu to work out a deal at the earliest and ensure the safe return of their loved ones. Alon Gat, who is still waiting for word on his sister’s well-being, wants an immediate ceasefire so hostages can return home. “We want to push Netanyahu, our prime minister, to push harder for getting this deal. And we think that here in the (United) States (U.S. President, Joe) Biden and the other people here need to push harder on Netanyahu and to push on Hamas to get to this deal because our loved ones won’t last another two months there, another three months there, maybe even not two weeks. So we need them back.”
The visit comes at a time there is growing pressure domestically on Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel has continued to push deeper into Gaza where close to 40,000 people have died since the war started in 2023.
