Documenting Netanyahu's lies in his address to congress

A list of eight blatant lies told to congress by Netanyahu

Recently Israeli Prime Minister, war criminal, and architect of the genocide in Gaza Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech to Congress. He was met with an absurd amount of applause and cheers from Congress, a disturbing reaction to a man who has so far killed over 40,000 civilians including 15,813 children in Gaza. Watching the American Congress be so submissive to a foreign leader was also disturbing. Zionist senator John Fetterman who is known for dressing like a slob even wore a suit to the address because, as journalist Murtaza Hussain put it his “boss is in town”. Congress clapped for Netanyahu more than once per minute and he even had to tell them to stop clapping at one point so he could finish. Even CNN’s Dana Bash said it looked like a president giving a State of the Union address. The speech was full of lies, warmongering, and dehumanization of Palestinians. It would be hard to document every lie said in the speech, as journalist Richard Medhurst said “Every word that came out of that man’s (Netanyahu) mouth was a lie”. Despite this, I will attempt to document every provable lie I was able to find in the speech. While this will not be a complete comprehensive list, it will hopefully be a good documentation of many of the blatant lies told by Netanyahu.

Lie #1: Hamas killed 1,200 people on October 7th

Netanyahu starts his speech recounting his version of what happened on October 7th. In the speech, he says “They (Hamas) butchered 1,200 people”. Somehow Netanyahu missed the recent report in Haaretz, one of his country's top newspapers that proved Israel issued the “Hannibal Directive” in multiple locations on October 7th, intentionally killing their own civilians. This report proves that at least some of the 12,00 civilians listed by Netanyahu were not killed by Hamas but were in fact killed by Netanyahu himself.

Lie #2 Hamas raped women.

Netanyahu goes on to claim “they (Hamas) raped women”. This is an evidence-free claim. As the Times of London documented the claims of rape came from non-professionals who had no understanding of forensics. The Times goes on to say that many of the claims of rape came from Zaka and other religious groups on the ground who also made many false claims about what happened on October 7th such as that babies were baked in ovens or that a pregnant woman had her fetus removed and killed. The article also reports that Isreali police were only able to find three witnesses who claimed to have seen sexual assault on October 7th and they could not match their stories with the bodies collected. The article goes on to say that even the UN investigation that claims there were reasonable grounds to believe rape and sexual assault occurred on October 7th was not able to find any video or photographic evidence of rape. As the article puts it

The report also confirmed Israeli authorities were unable to provide much of the evidence that political leaders had insisted existed. In all the Hamas video footage Patten’s team had watched and all the photographs they had seen, there were no depictions of rape. We hired a leading Israeli dark-web researcher to look for evidence of those images, including footage deleted from public sources. None could be found.

Lie #3: Hamas burned babies alive

Netenyahu in his speech says “They (Hamas) burnt babies alive”. This is the most easily disprovable claim so far. The names and identities of all the civilians killed on October 7th have been documented by Israel’s social security agency. One baby was killed on October 7th, a 10-month-old who was tragically shot at the Kibbutz Beeri. But this is the only baby that was killed on October 7th, proving the claim of “burnt babies” false.

Lie #4: Hamas killed babies in an attic

In his speech, Netenyahu made up a story about Hamas killing two babies hidden in an attic on October 7th. In his speech he says

“people who came into the kibbutzim, into a home, the parents hid the children, the two babies, in the attic, in a secret attic. They murdered the family, the parents, they found the secret latch to the hidden attic and then they murdered the babies.”

As stated earlier one baby was killed on October 7th, 10-month-old Millie Cohen who tragically got caught in between gunfire. But again this is the only case of a baby being killed on October 7th, proving Netenyahu’s “babies killed in the attic” story completely false.

Lie # 5 Anti Genocide protestors are funded by Iran

Netenyahu claimed that people protesting the genocide in Gaza are funded by Iran and that Iran may have funded the protests against him outside. As he said in his speech:

We recently learned from the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, that Iran is funding and promoting anti-Israel protests in America

For all we know, Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests that are going on right now outside this building

The claim cited from Netenyahu about the U.S. DNI is an evidence-free claim from the director of national intelligence Avril Haines that Iran is “providing financial support to protesters”. I think any reasonable person can understand why an evidence-free claim targeting anti-government protests from the same people who made up Iraq W.M.Ds and Russigate should not be taken seriously. As for the claim that Iran is funding anti-Israel protests outside, there is absolutely zero evidence for it. The fact that Congress applauded a foreign leader smearing and trying to shut down Americans exercising their First Amendment right to protest is extremely disturbing, to say the least.

Lie #6 Israel is not deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza

Netenyahu attacked the international criminal court’s ruling against Israel and even accused it of “blood libel”. One of the reasons for this was because he claimed the idea that Israel was intentionally starving civilians was a lie, saying

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has shamefully accused Israel of deliberately starving the people of Gaza. This is utter complete nonsense. It’s a complete fabrication.

In fact Israel has been deliberately starving civilians in Gaza long before October 7th. Before putting a brutal blockade on Gaza in 2006, Israeli advisor to the prime minister, Dov Weisglass bragged that the point of the blockade was to “put the Palestinians on a diet”. By 2012 this blockade caused 10% of children under five to experience stunted growth and caused 59% of schoolchildren to be anemic as well as 68% of children aged 9-12 and 37% of pregnant women. According to the Institute of Middle East Understanding, the blockade stopped “Food items such as pasta, flour, yeast, rice, salt, sugar, black pepper, garlic, cinnamon, cooking oil, tea, instant coffee, chickpeas, lentils, beans, olives, cookies, canned tuna, and powdered milk,” from coming into Gaza. Since the genocide in Gaza started, Israel ramped up this brutal blockade causing 70% of the entire population to be on the brink of famine and one in three children below the age of two to be malnourished. According to the U.N., one in every 4 people in Gaza has reached the level of starvation. Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant even admitted the point of the blockade was to stop food from entering Gaza saying “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.”

Lie #7 Israel is not intentionally killing civilians

Probably the most outlandish lie told by Netenyahu was the claim that Israel is not intentionally killing civilians in Gaza. As he said in his speech

The ICC prosecutor accuses Israel of deliberately targeting civilians. What in God’s green earth is he talking about?

This claim is just absurd. There have been 500 instances documented of Israeli officials making genocidal statements towards civilians in Gaza. These include statements calling Palestinians “human animals'' and claiming there are no innocent civilians in Gaza. Israel has so far directly killed over 40,000 civilians and recent research has shown that the long-term effects of the war will lead to 186,000 deaths. These facts coupled with the many genocidal statements said by countless Isreali politicians show not just that they are intentionally targeting civilians but that they are actively committing genocide against the population of Gaza. Netenyahu even went so far as to absurdly claim that Israel has enacted more precaution towards civilians than any other military in history saying

I suggest you listen to Colonel John Spencer. John Spencer is head of urban warfare studies at West Point. He studied every major urban conflict, I was going to say in modern history, he corrected me. No. In history. Israel, he said, has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history and beyond what international law requires.

Putting aside the fact that John Spencer’s “research” has been discredited, you only have to compare Gaza to other current wars to show it has caused more civilian deaths. For example, the Russia/Ukraine war has caused 10,582 civilian deaths since February of 2022. This is almost four times less than the amount of civilian deaths in Gaza in over double the amount of time.

Lie #8 : No civilians killed in Rafah

One of Netanyahu’s most blatant lies is his claim that Israel has killed “practically no” civilians in Rafah. As he says in the speech:

Well, last week I went to Rafah. I visited our troops as they finished fighting Hamas’ remaining terrorist battalions. I asked the commander there, “How many terrorists did you take out in Rafah?” He gave me an exact number: 1,203. I asked him, “How many civilians were killed?” He said, “Prime Minister, practically none. With the exception of a single incident, where shrapnel from a bomb hit a Hamas weapons depot and unintentionally killed two dozen people, the answer is practically none.”

This is a blatant lie. Research from Amnesty International has shown that in four separate strikes, at least 95 civilians have been killed in Rafah, almost half of them (42) being children.

Conclusion

The U.S. government drones on and on about supposed “foreign disinformation” from official enemy countries and yet applaud like obedient seals when a foreign leader comes and delivers lie after lie to Congress. Journalist Abby Martin documented that Congress gave 58 standing ovations to Netenyahu many of which were given after he made provable false statements. Below is a shorter summary of the lies documented in this article.

1. Hamas Killed 1,200 people on October 7th. : Haaretz proved the IDF killed at least some of these people using the Hannibal directive.

2. Hamas raped women: Evidence-free claim that originated from a discredited organization with no expertise in forensics.

3. Hamas burnt baby: All civilian deaths on October 7th have been documented, no baby was burned.

4. Hamas killed babies in an attic: All civilian deaths on October 7th have been documented, no babies were killed in an attic.

5. Anti Genocide protestors are funded by Iran: No evidence to back up this claim.

6. Israel is not deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza: There are mountains of evidence that Israel has deliberately starved civilians before and after October 7th.

7. Israel is not intentionally killing civilians: There are mountains of evidence that Israel is not only killing civilians intentionally but actively committing genocide.

8. No civilians killed in Rafah: At least 95 civilians have been killed in Rafa.