Isaac Herzog’s Visit to Congress: A Showcase of Apartheid Apologetics
As the anticipation built for Israeli president Yitzhak Hertzog’s (Isaac Herzog) visit to Washington, DC insiders scrambled to hide the fact that Israel is a racist state. At first, the center of the crisis was the incomprehensible fact that someone had told the truth about Israel. Yet House Representative Pramila Jayapal, a progressive democrat, would later apologize for calling Israel what it is, a racist state.
Her remarks at an event in Chicago where she called Israel a racist state were seen to be so controversial that House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries weighed in. He and three top leadership aides quickly took to the media, proclaiming, “Israel is not a racist state.” According to Reuters, the most criticism they could muster was, “There are individual members of the current Israeli governing coalition with whom we strongly disagree.”
Absolute hysteria
Representative Jayapil told the truth and has irrefutable evidence of it, so why did she back down? The 2022 Amnesty report on Apartheid in Palestine demonstrates beyond any doubt that what the congresswoman said is true. However, the panic her truthtelling sparked was so powerful that she apologized for telling it rather than holding up the report as evidence of her proclamation. Then, leader Jeffries ran out to make sure everyone knew it wasn’t him, that he never said or even thought that Israel is a racist state – “she did it” was all that was missing from his statement.
His apologia harkened back to foregone days when people would rush to deny that the world is round or that the earth revolves around the sun for fear of being excommunicated or burned at the stake. An atmosphere where telling the truth is a dangerous prospect.
Then things got worse. As the visit by the head of the apartheid state approached, more and more members of Congress announced they would boycott the joint session. This would be a problem in any circumstance, but what made it worse was that they were all people of color, which didn’t stop Israel’s apologists from calling them racist. Then in a state of fury, the House decided to demonstrate its love of apartheid Israel by passing a resolution stating that Israel is not a racist or an apartheid state.
One can only imagine the relief millions of Palestinians felt when they learned of this resolution. Here they were for decades, thinking they were being abused, targeted, murdered, dispossessed, subjected to ethnic cleansing and even genocide. Now, here is the U.S. House of Representatives announcing loud and clear that millions of Palestinians were wrong. Now Palestinians can rest assured none of this is true. They are fine, there is no racism, no apartheid, and they can sleep soundly at night from now on.
Nine out of four hundred and thirty-five
Then the apartheid president came to Congress, and only nine members of the House of Representatives did not attend. These nine will be remembered as the only members of the House with the courage of their convictions. Nine out of four hundred and thirty-five.
What will history say about the remaining four hundred and twenty-six members who came and gave the apartheid president twenty-nine standing ovations? Where will these members of Congress hide when future generations accuse them of appeasing the head of a brutal racist state? What will they say to their children and grandchildren when they ask, “How could you do it?”
No matter how hard one tries, one will fail to find even a phrase in the apartheid president’s speech worthy of remembering or repeating. It was as bland and as unimpressive as the man himself. The presidency is a post created by the apartheid state of Israel for useless, failed politicians who want a cushy job complete with honors and void of responsibility.
One would be hard-pressed to find even one person who held this post that was impressive enough to remember. Nor would one find a statement or a speech by any of the eleven men who had the position. For the sake of full disclosure – the third one to hold this post, Zalman Shazar, was my great-uncle on my mother’s side.
Why he came
Since the Biden administration is clearly uncomfortable with the idea of welcoming the indicted Benjamin Netanyahu to the white house, they invited President Herzog. While he is no less a criminal than Netanyahu and deserves a spot at the defendant’s bench in the Hague, Herzog has the advantage that he has never been indicted. Furthermore, since many liberal Zionists find Netanyahu’s coalition partners unpalatable, Herzog is a perfect choice.
In his first few months in office, the apartheid president visited Palestine’s apartheid laboratory, also known as the city of Hebron. He went there to celebrate Hanukkah with Jewish hate groups who had settled at the city’s heart. He has shown these racist, violent gangs that he, the symbol of the apartheid state, will not forsake even the most vile and hate-filled racist groups Zionism has ever produced. This, however, for reasons beyond understanding, does not bother even the more sensitive liberal Zionists.
Nothing was exciting or even noteworthy in the staged visit of the head of the apartheid state to the United States House of Representatives. Perhaps the only unplanned element was the number of standing ovations he would receive during his lackluster and unimpressive speech.
As it happens, Herzog is only the second head of the apartheid state to ever speak in front of a joint session of Congress. The first was his father, Chaim Hertzog, in 1987.
Feature photo | Israeli President Isaac Herzog addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol, July 19, 2023. Tom Williams | AP
