Netanyahu’s Address Before Congress

I just returned from Capitol Hill, where I sat in the packed gallery of the House of Representatives during a joint session of Congress. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a stirring address, urging the world to reject the bad deal Obama is negotiating with Iran and to do whatever is necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from becoming a nuclear power.

I believe this speech was historic. (It was reminiscent of President Bush’s address to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001, after the 9/11 attacks.) Of course, what is not yet known is whether the speech is historic because it awakens the political elites of the U.S. and the Western world in time to stop the growing strength of radical Islam embodied in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Or will it be historic because, as powerful as it was, it was not sufficient to awaken us from our slumber?

Here are some things that jumped out at me as I sat in the gallery looking down on the House floor.

President Obama and the American left did not want this speech to be given. The conventional explanation for why Obama feared a Netanyahu speech was that it would warn us in time to prevent him from signing a terrible deal.

But I believe there was a bigger reason Obama didn’t want this speech to happen. He did not want the American people to be reminded of what it sounds like when a head of state actually defends the cause of his own country.

Source: Gary L. Bauer, fggam.org