Benjamin Netanyahu holds the record for most speeches in front of Congress. Here’s why
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a commemoration ceremony for soldiers killed during the 2014 Gaza war on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on July 16, 2024. Photo by Getty Images
By Benyamin Cohen July 23, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds many records. He is his country’s longest-serving prime minister; the first prime minister born after the establishment of Israel; and, when he was first elected in 1996 at age 46, became the country’s youngest-ever leader.
On Wednesday, he can add another line to his resume: He will become the world leader who has addressed Congress the most times.
Prior to this week’s address, which will be his fourth, Netanyahu was tied for the most addresses delivered to Congress with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, at three times each. Churchill’s speeches were pivotal during World War II and the early period of the Cold War, focussing on the “special relationship” between the United Kingdom and the United States and rallying support against common enemies.
The reasons for Netanyahu’s omnipresence are somewhat more obscure — but no less meaningful.
Why is Netanyahu such a frequent congressional visitor?
For starters, Israel is generally considered the United States’ closest ally outside of the United Kingdom. Only days after Hamas attacked Israel in October, President Joe Biden flew to Israel, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit Israel in wartime.
Since Israel’s founding in 1948, its politics have been deeply intertwined with those of the U.S. Congresspeople are often judged by donors and constituents over their views on and policies toward Israel, and some see inviting the prime minister as a way to solidify their bona fides with voters.
It’s also true that, given that Netanyahu has been Israel’s prime minister off and on for nearly three decades, he’s just had more time as a world leader in which to give addresses. There is no fixed schedule for such addresses and they usually coincide with significant events or during times of international crisis. Nelson Mandela spoke to Congress in 1990 when he was released from prison. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed Congress in 2022 amidst an ongoing war with Russia.
It likely also helps that Netanyahu himself has close personal ties to the U.S. He attended high school in a Philadelphia suburb and, after serving in the Israel Defense Forces, returned to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His first job out of college was at the Boston Consulting Group, where he was colleagues with a future senator — Mitt Romney. (Oh, and he also once spent the night at the childhood home of Jared Kushner in New Jersey. Netanyahu took over the bedroom and a teenage Kushner was relegated to the basement.)
Why is Netanyahu speaking in front of Congress now?
Do you have a few hours? No? Ok, here’s the long and short of it…
Netanyahu is facing plummeting popularity at home. A recent poll found that 72% of Israelis think he should quit over his failures related to Oct. 7. Speaking forcefully and strongly on the world stage may provide him a much-needed domestic favorability bump.
The prime minister also sees benefits to an in-person visit with members of Congress who hold the purse strings when it comes to military aid, something that Israel has relied heavily on in the current war with Hamas. The U.S. agreed to provide $3.8 billion in military aid annually through 2028. In April, Congress voted to provide an additional $8.7 billion.
But the ongoing war, and the mounting death toll of Palestinians in Gaza, is straining the U.S.-Israel relationship. Netanyahu’s critics — including some families of hostages — see his failure to successfully negotiate a deal to end the war and free their relatives as a political ploy to stay in power. (Netanyahu is facing a corruption trial that he has delayed several times.)
Dozens of members of Congress are expected to boycott the speech. Multiple protests are planned for outside the Capitol.
During his 2024 address, expect Netanyahu to spend time talking about Iran, which provided support to terror groups like Hamas.
When else has Netanyahu addressed Congress?
Netanyahu’s most recent address was in March 2015, when he addressed a joint session of Congress during his third term as prime minister.
He was invited by Rep. John Boehner, then the Republican Speaker of the House, without consulting with former President Barack Obama’s White House, a decision that upset the Democratic establishment and led to 58 members of Congress boycotting the speech. The speech largely centered around Netanyahu’s strong opposition to Obama’s proposed nuclear deal with Iran.
The most memorable line from that speech: “Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand.”
Before that, Netanyahu spoke to Congress in May 2011, during his second term as prime minister.
In the speech, he highlighted Israel as a beacon of democracy in a region where it had often been lacking, a few months after mass demonstrations in Cairo amped up the tumult of the Arab Spring. “Israel is not what is wrong about the Middle East,” he said. “Israel is what is right about the Middle East.”
Netanyahu also affirmed Israel’s commitment to peace, acknowledging the need for a two-state solution with Palestinians, but rejected returning to the pre-1967 borders. A heckler shouting “No more occupation! End Israeli war crimes!” briefly interrupted the proceedings.
Netanyahu’s first address, 15 years before, happened in July 1996, during his first term as prime minister.
Then, Netanyahu spoke about the mutual democratic values shared by the U.S. and Israel, and advocated for direct negotiations with the country’s Arab neighbors. He thanked the U.S. for its continuing military and diplomatic support.
“Democracy is not just a matter of elections,” he said. “It is a matter of values. It is the values of freedom, of tolerance, of pluralism, of respect for others. It is a matter of justice.”
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