Opinion: Benjamin Netanyahu Is No Ally, He’s a Liar and Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Address Congress
Inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress is a bad idea that just got worse. Multiple news sites report that the Netanyahu government, via its Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, ran a multi-million dollar AI-powered disinformation campaign designed to generate support for their Gaza war among U.S. elected officials and the U.S. general public.
Yes, you heard that right. Our so-called ally—within weeks of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack—was covertly creating fake social media accounts pretending to present American voter views in support of Israel. Their targets were, according to the account in The New York Times, “particularly ones who are Black and Democrats.”
The revelation was so shocking that even members of the Israeli establishment who had supported the Gaza war effort condemned it. (The effort was also exceptionally inept, reminding yet again that the vaunted Israeli intelligence and security community is something less than their reputation once suggested.)
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) responded to the news saying, “Our nation should speak in one voice against any foreign interference in our democracy from any country.” His comment frames precisely why the invitation to Netanyahu ought to be reconsidered. It is, after all, difficult to imagine other nations that use such tactics—the Russians, for example, being rewarded with the honor of an invitation to Vladimir Putin to address our federal legislature.
Of course, there were already deep reservations about extending the invitation to Netanyahu due to his other similarities with Putin—the fact that he is overseeing war crimes, for........
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