Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, an event that is expected to attract crowds of demonstrators and “present a sharp contrast between the two US political parties in their evolving approaches to one of America’s closest allies,” according to the Washington Post.

Netanyahu comes to Capitol Hill at a perilous time in both Israeli and American politics, as Netanyahu was already a divisive figure before the October 7 Hamas cross-border attack that left about 1,200 Israelis dead and sparked the war on the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu also faces a growing wave of opposition at home, with two-thirds of the Israeli public wanting him to leave office.

In Washington, Netanyahu has come to embody the frustrations of the administration of US President Joe Biden with the ally, which some officials believe has exploited US support to unleash excessive lethality on civilians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

“In contrast, Republicans embraced Netanyahu – seeking to portray the right-wing leader as a cherished ally, betrayed and undermined by President Biden and Democrats in Israel’s most critical hour of need,” according to the newspaper.

Netanyahu's speech today to Congress, in response to a call initially made by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) alone, represents an uncomfortable moment for Democrats, who remain divided in their views on the relationship between the United States and Israel four months before the presidential election. Troubled America.

Netanyahu arrived in Washington on Monday, a day after President Biden announced his withdrawal from the race to win a second term and endorsed Vice President Kamla Harris as his successor. Harris has been careful not to deviate publicly from Biden's strong support for Israel, but she was among the first high-ranking officials in the administration to speak definitively about civilian casualties, question the way Israel has continued its war against Hamas, and express deep concern about the devastation in Gaza.

US officials have insisted in recent weeks that they are close to reaching a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, but some still privately point out that opposition to the agreement by Netanyahu's far-right government remains a major obstacle.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers, including several Jewish members of Congress, plan to boycott Netanyahu's speech this afternoon in protest of his government's ongoing war on Gaza for more than nine months, which has resulted in the deaths of about 39,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Harris and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the Senate president pro tempore, declined requests to chair the joint meeting and will not attend, according to aides.

“People don’t want to send a signal of support for Prime Minister Netanyahu and his extremist coalition,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who returned Saturday from a trip to the Middle East and did not deliver the speech. He added: "I refuse to be a supporter of the political deception that Prime Minister Netanyahu is the great guardian of US-Israeli relations, when in fact he and his extremist partners... are sabotaging that relationship."

On Tuesday, Capitol Police arrested dozens of anti-war demonstrators, all Jewish Americans, from the Jewish Voice for Peace organization who sought to occupy an administrative building in the House of Representatives.

Authorities erected steel barriers around the Capitol grounds — a security level reminiscent of measures taken after the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, riot and attack on the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters — in anticipation of larger protests on Wednesday.

Netanyahu's critics in both Israel and the United States, including some of the families of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023, accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war to bolster his political survival. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) in March described the Israeli leader as one of the four major obstacles to peace and urged Israelis to vote him out of office.

This will be Netanyahu's fourth speech before the US Congress, and the largest number of speeches by any foreign president in the US Congress.

Johnson invited Netanyahu months ago, which encouraged Schumer to refuse to sign. “I flattered him,” Johnson told the audience at the Republican National Convention last week, saying he believed Schumer did not sign the invitation until after he leaked the invitation to the press.

On Tuesday, Johnson also criticized Harris for missing the event, which her aide said was due to a scheduling conflict, rather than a reflection of her views on Israel.

Johnson said in a press conference: “Madam Vice President, you say you want to be the leader of the free world, yet you do not want to sit behind our most important strategic ally at this moment.” "That's not a good look for you. It's not a good look for America. It's not a good look for the party that you aim to lead."

At least nine senators have already announced plans to skip the event.

“I will not listen to Mr. Netanyahu,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) said last week on MSNBC. “I think he should have never been invited.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, plans to speak at a counterrally during Netanyahu's speech. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said she was giving her ticket to family members of the hostages. Rep. Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.) said she invited Harrison Mann, an Army officer who resigned over American support for Israel, as her guest, and said they would boycott the speech together.

Representative Rashida Tlaib (Democrat from Michigan), the only Palestinian member of Congress, accused Netanyahu of committing genocide against the Palestinians, and said that he is a war criminal who “should be arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court.”

The vast majority of Democrats, including some who want to see the Biden administration putting more pressure on Israel to accept a ceasefire, voted earlier this year in favor of sending billions of dollars in supplemental military aid to the Jewish state.

Even Democrats who said they would attend the speech made clear their aversion to Netanyahu. Representative Jerry Nadler (Democratic Jewish representative from New York) said in a statement on Tuesday, “Benjamin Netanyahu is the worst leader in Jewish history since the Maccabee king who invited the Romans to Jerusalem more than 2,100 years ago,” describing the speech as “a cynical ploy aimed at... Aiding his desperate political position at home and interfering in domestic American politics just months before an election of great importance.

But Nadler, who describes himself as a "lifelong Zionist," said he planned to attend the speech anyway, out of his respect for the Jewish state and his commitment to an eventual two-state solution. “I feel like my voice has become more influential in the room, holding the prime minister accountable,” Nadler said.

Biden and Harris are expected to meet with Netanyahu this week. But White House officials privately tried to distance themselves from the visit, telling people they were not involved in the invitation, according to two people familiar with the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive conversations.

It is noteworthy that Netanyahu is no stranger to incitement in American politics. He used his last speech before Congress, in 2015, to criticize the efforts of former President Barack Obama's administration towards reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran, which angered the White House. The Israeli leader is expected to take a more bipartisan stance on Wednesday, despite falling out with Biden in recent months over Israel's bellicose behavior and provision of humanitarian aid to desperate Palestinian civilians.

Netanyahu has also made little effort to hide his preference for former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. At one point this year, he spoke via video call at a meeting of Republican senators, and he sent two of his top diplomats to the Republican National Convention last week, where they spoke at It happened alongside Johnson. Trump said on Tuesday that he intends to host Netanyahu for a meeting this week at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.