Netanyahu in Congress: Why sulphur doesn’t smell like sulphur

In a brazen public display of political depravity, the United States is hosting a child killer and war criminal just five days after the World Court, in a landmark ruling, confirmed that every inch of Palestinian territory Israel has been occupying since its creation is illegal.

Watching Israel’s genocide-committing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu address a joint session of the US Congress brings to mind what Venezuela’s then-socialist President Hugo Chavez said of the then-US president George W. Bush’s appearance at the United Nations General Assembly session in 2006. Of war-mongering Bush, Chavez said, “The devil came here yesterday, and it smells of sulphur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of.” Chávez then made the sign of the Christian cross and gestured as if he were praying to save humanity from Bush.

The more people become accustomed to the world’s foulest odour, the more normal it will seem to them. In science, the phenomenon is called olfactory adaptation. Sulphur does not smell like sulphur anymore for most US Congress members who have been dabbling in sulphur-contaminated politics. As a result of this contamination, they regard the devilish sulphur as the best fragrance they have ever smelt. Or one can put it this way: they see the devil as an angel, a bloodthirsty psychopath as the epitome of morality.

To paraphrase Lady Macbeth, “Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten their blood-soaked hands,” as they are complicit in the genocide of the Palestinians, the genesis of which goes back to the creation of Israel in 1947 through a crooked UN resolution.

Billions of peace-loving people worldwide were shocked when Netanyahu received overwhelming standing ovations. A few Democratic Party progressives and one Republican member abstained. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s likely pick for the presidential race, was also conspicuous by her absence, but she has scheduled a meeting with Netanyahu for the upkeep of her Zionist credentials. 

Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, was the sole lawmaker who, during Netanyahu’s speech, held aloft a placard that read “Guilty of Genocide.” 

That Netanyahu is the leader of a nation that is illegally occupying Palestine is lost on the US lawmakers even after Friday’s International Court of Justice ruling that has received a wide welcome from several countries, including US allies.

Most US lawmakers turn a blind eye to growing pro-Palestinian and pro-peace voices in the United States. These progressive voices form a significant part of every Congress member’s electorate. As Netanyahu was speaking, thousands of American citizens were protesting outside the Congress building, calling him a war criminal. 
The protesters—whom Netanyahu labelled as “Iran’s useful idiots”—are angry that US lawmakers—whom the protesters described as Israel’s useful idiots—put Israel ahead of the American citizens they represent. These protesters are also learning that US-Israeli ties are intricately linked to corrupt politics that is bankrolled by the Zionist lobby and the military-industrial complex that benefits from multibillion-dollar US military grants to Israel. Besides, there is the powerful presence of evangelical fundamentalists who seek to fast-track eschatological predictions. Incidents are aplenty that prove that US presidents and lawmakers ask no questions even if Israel kills US citizens.

Given the US servility to Israel, it is wishful thinking to expect US lawmakers would have Chavez’s courage to call Netanyahu a devil. After all, they gave a heroes’ welcome to a wicked mutant who is committing genocide in Gaza and prosecuting the world’s first war against children after the Pharaoh’s massacre of male children three millennia ago and King Herod’s massacre of the innocents just before the birth of Jesus Christ. Going by the prestigious British medical journal Lancet’s estimate of 186,000 deaths in Gaza due to Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023, we can make an intelligent guess that nearly 100,000 children have been killed, given that children constitute 50 percent of the population in the Gaza Strip.

Commenting on Wednesday’s obscenity in the no-more hallowed chamber of the Congress, pro-peace US journalist Abby Martin in an X post said, “58 standing ovations for the Hitler of our time by the bloodthirsty maniacs in Congress. Twice the amount when he came in 2015. Just pure, unadulterated evil.”

ith these standing ovations, the US goes into history as a great admirer of genocide. 

While Israel’s atrocities were shamelessly being normalised by the US Congress, more than 100 Palestinians were massacred in Khan Younis, less than two minutes after they received orders to move into a safe area that is nowhere to be found. Yet, amid another standing ovation from Congress members, Netanyahu lied to Congress that no civilians were killed when Israel launched its Rafah operation.

The obnoxious behaviour of the US Congress members makes one wonder whether they are under a satanic spell from Israel. They are under an obligation to the so-called Israeli lobby led by the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that decides who gets elected as President and Congress member in the United States. Most Israel-supporting Congress members are fundamentalists who want to fast-track the second coming of Jesus Christ. The question they should ask themselves is, if Jesus were to come today on whose side would he be? Would he take the side of the genocide-committing Israel, or would he come forward to protect the victimised and wronged Palestinian people?

Most Congress members are Zionists. Some are part of the Temple Movement. House Speaker Mike Johnson, an Evangelical Christian Zionist, is an ardent member of the Temple movement, which seeks to build the third temple in Jerusalem over the walls of Temple Mount, where Islam’s third holiest mosque, al-Aqsa, is also situated. Opposing the Temple Movement, the Torah Jews believe no temple should be built until the Mashiach, the final Jewish messiah, comes. But the Temple Movement interprets the scripture differently and insists that the temple should be built to expedite the arrival of Mashiach. 

Eschatological disputes apart, the fact that last Friday’s World Court’s landmark judgement that seeks to correct historical wrongs committed against Palestinians made little or no resonance in US politics. The ICJ’s advisory ruling found that Israel has no right to sovereignty over the occupied territory, has violated international laws against acquiring territory by force, and is blocking Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

The court reminded the UN members that they are obligated not to “render aid or assistance in maintaining” Israel’s presence in the territory—a direct hit on the US.
In its first reaction, the US State Department criticised the judgement by invoking the so-called two-state mantra with which Washington has been leading the Palestinian people down the garden path. It said, “We are concerned that the breadth of the court’s opinion will complicate efforts to resolve the conflict and bring about an urgently needed just and lasting peace with two states living side by side in peace and security.”

Whether binding or nonbinding, the International Court of Justice’s judgements become part of international law, and civilised nations are expected to respect and comply with its rulings. But often big powers disregard the court’s rulings, thus contributing to the dangerous shift from a rules-based international order to international anarchy.