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CNN International: Israel's Netanyahu Wraps Address To U.S. Congress; Biden To Address Nation For First Time Since Exiting Race. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired July 24, 2024 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:02]

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: In this noble mission, as in many others, Israel will always remain America's indispensable ally. Through thick and thin --

(APPLAUSE)

NETANYAHU: Through thick and thin, in good times and in bad, Israel will always be your loyal friend and your steadfast partner.

On behalf of the people of Israel, I came here today to say thank you, America. Thank you for your support and solidarity.

(APPLAUSE)

NETANYAHU: Thank you for standing in Israel -- with Israel in our hour of need. Together -- together, we shall defend our common civilization. Together, we shall secure a brilliant future for both our nations.

(APPLAUSE)

NETANYAHU: May God bless Israel, may God bless America and may God bless the great alliance between Israel and America forever.

(APPLAUSE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: We've been listening to the Israeli prime minister address the U.S. Congress there, an address that could only be described as strident throughout a number of headlines. He began with the description of the current conflict as a clash between not just civilizations, but as he described it, barbarism and civilizations.

He went on to say, referencing the protesters, many of which were outside the chamber, outside the U.S. Capitol today, accusing all of those protesters as supporting Hamas. He went on to say that they are Iran's useful idiots.

That stands in contrast to the facts of which that many of those protesters, we've interviewed some of them on the air here. Some of them pro-Jewish, some of them focusing their criticism on Israeli policy, not on Israel's right to exist as a state. He deflected a whole host of criticisms that have been leveled against Israel in the prosecution of its war in Gaza. He says that if Palestinians are not getting enough food, that that is not Israel's responsibility or fault. He blames it purely on Hamas. We should note that aid groups have said that Israel has made it very hard to get not just food, but needed medical supplies into Gaza. And it right now, we're seeing levels of starvation rising as well as the return of diseases such as polio.

Regarding civilian casualties, which number according to the Gaza health ministry in the tens of thousands, he claimed that when he has spoken to Israeli military officers, that those civilian casualties are greatly exaggerated. He even went so far as to say that he spoke to one commander who said there were practically none. I should note that U.S. military commanders themselves have expressed quite a different view of the level of civilian casualties Israel since the start of the war, as has U.S. President Joe Biden at times, and Kamala Harris, now vice president, of course, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

Two other bits of news from his speech.

[15:05:01]

He used this language when describing Israel's intentions as regard the Iranian nuclear program. He said that when Israel acts to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, he said when not, if quite a public commitment, it seems to potential Israeli action, perhaps military action against Iran's nuclear program.

And finally, regarding a post-war future in Gaza, he did say that Israel does not intend to re-occupy or resettle. But he said that Israel must retain what he described as overriding security control there for the foreseeable future.

A strident speech one that received a tremendous amount of applause from the Republican side of the chamber. There were a number of moments there during some of those lines when you could see on the Democratic side of the chamber that they were not standing and not applauding his comments.

Our panel is with us now for their own thoughts. We're joined by Edward Djerejian. He's a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, Alon Pinkas, longtime diplomat, as well as colonel Cedric Leighton. Of course, our military analyst.

Ambassador, I wonder if I could begin with you. I certainly didn't hear from the Israeli prime minister and effort to reach out to both parties in this country, or even to others on the Palestinian side in his own country, or I should say Israelis who oppose the prosecution of the war there.

How would you describe his address?

EDWARD DJEREJIAN, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: I think it is vintage Netanyahu, there was in my eyes very little new in terms of strategy or tactics that he expressed. It was a very skillfully orchestrated political theater, actually almost like a sports event. We win, you lose, in most of the applause lines.

What disappoints me a great deal, again, is that Netanyahu framing the existential threat to Israel as only Iran. Iran is obviously a threat to Israel to the region. We know that.

But Iran is a nation-state at will have to be dealt with as a nation state in conflict and conflict resolution. But in my eyes and in the eyes of many people, Israelis and Arabs and throughout the world, one can make the argument that the real existential threat to a democratic Jewish state called Israel is the Palestinian issue because in-between and Netanyahu mentioned between the Jordan River and the Eastern Mediterranean Sea -- well, let me put it in this reference point, in between, the Jordan River and the Eastern Mediterranean, there are approximately 7.2 million Palestinian Arabs and approximately 7.2 million Israeli Jews.

They share the land. They have to share the land, and neither one is going anywhere. So, what is Israel's future going to be, to continue to occupy the Palestinian territories infinitum? Because this has been has proven to be a disastrous policy with intermittent intifadas, instability, and wars, as we're seeing today in Gaza.

And where was -- where was --

SCIUTTO: His words were -- sorry, go ahead.

DJEREJIAN: Where was Netanyahu's vision for reaching out for a negotiated peace agreement with the Palestinians?

All I heard in division statement at the end of his remarks was that he -- his vision has a demilitarized and de-radicalized Gaza and the other points he made. But that's not a strategy. That's a tactic.

And so, President Biden and even President Trump have advocated for a two-state solution. But we've never translated these words into action.

So that's one of my great disappointments in this speech and then conflating U.S. national security interests with Israel's national security interests almost totally is a bridge too far.

Well, there's some of my original thought, yeah.

SCIUTTO: The phrase two-state solution did not come in what was nearly an hour address and he used this language for nearly 4,000 years. It's always been our home. It will always be our home, which is often read as a message directly to those in Israel who do not see a two-state solution, and in fact, see the annexation of the West Bank as a right, and certainly not an opening to a peace agreement to share that land, as you describe.

[15:10:07]

Alon Pinkas, as I was listening there. I heard at least just as many "thank yous" to Donald Trump as to the sitting president U.S. -- U.S. President Joe Biden, who, of course, has been steadfast in his support of Israel, while through four decades in public service, but particularly since October 7, for which he's received an enormous amount of political criticism inside his own party and from voters, in this country. And it's one of the reasons why you see 80 Democratic members of the House who were not present for that address, nine senators not present, and the vice president, Kamala Harris, not present.

Did you hear Alon Pinkas in that address a direct appeal, linking of arms in particular with the Republican Party?

ALON PINKAS, FORMER ISRAELI CONSUL GENERAL IN NEW YORK: Oh, obviously. What you've seen is not the prime minister of Israel. You've seen the Republican senator from Jerusalem speaking to his colleagues on the Republican side.

And every -- even though I agree on substance with everything Ed Djerejian said, and very few people know as much about this as Ed Djerejian does, I got to tell you, this is not -- dissecting and analyzing the content of the speech detached from the political intentions and the political motivations of Mr. Netanyahu is doing it injustice.

This was a series of 100 Chinese restaurant fortune cookies, just a bunch of incoherent cliches laid -- laid on the table. It was filled with inaccuracies. It was mendacious. It was manipulative.

But back to your question, it catered to Republicans and you're right when you said that the Republicans were cheering because they invited him in order to sow discord in the Democratic Party and he colluded with them in order to deliberately turn Israel into a wedge issue.

This was not a political speech. This was not foreign policy being enunciated. This was just a bunch of a series, a parade of cliches with absolutely no practical value. I'm sorry to say that.

SCIUTTO: There was even some red meat for Republicans there. He referenced the UNC, University of North Carolina fraternity brothers who were caught on social media confronting pro-Palestinian protesters there. That got a cheer -- that got to cheer out of the Republican audience there.

Cedric Leighton, it's good to have you on here because resisting all evidence to the contrary, the Israeli prime minister claims really know Israeli sponsored responsibility whatsoever for the thousands of civic billion casualties there.

I know from speaking to U.S. military commanders that they have been critical of the conduct of the IDF inside Gaza, that they advised early on at difficulty of preventing civilian casualties there. And we heard from the U.S. president, public criticism of the conduct of the war when Netanyahu claims and uses this language, practically none to describe the number of civilian casualties in Gaza as a result of IDF action.

Is that a lie?

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, Jim, yeah, you have to call it a lie because it is because one of the most wrong statements that you could possibly make in a case like this.

It is very clear, even though when you look at the statistics from Gaza, the Palestinians, Palestinian authorities, they do not differentiate between combatants and civilians. It is still very clear that thousands and of women and children have been killed in these Israeli actions.

And as a result of this, anytime you do something like that as a military force, you are definitely putting yourself at risk to be sanctioned by international legal organizations such as the International Criminal Courts or the International Court of Justice.

And that becomes a very serious issue for in this case, the IDF, and it is really essential, I think Jim, that people understand that everything that is being talked about here has -- there's a real problem with some of the things that have been said because the facts on the ground are quite simply these: that the Israelis have killed civilians and there have been numerous casualties on the civilian side, not just a few, not just two dozen, as he mentioned in his anecdotal reference to one of the military officers that he spoke to, but we're talking thousands here.

And that is serious, serious problem.

SCIUTTO: Before we go, Ambassador Djerejian, the Israeli prime minister suggested the possibility of the broader regional alliance against Iran.

[15:15:04]

He suggested the title the Abraham Alliance, building on the Abraham Accords negotiated under President Trump.

Now, there has been some tension in those diplomatic relationships in the months and years since, particularly since October 7, given the conduct of the war. Do you see a basis for the kind of alliance that he was suggesting there?

DJEREJIAN: I think it's sheer empty rhetoric on the part of Netanyahu because what Hamas did, brutally, on October 7 was to raise the price of normalization of Arab countries with Israel to the point where the Saudi, the top Saudi officials and said that normalization with Israel will now have to be predicated on, quote, unquote, irreversible steps thought the creation and establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

You cannot build a so-called Abraham coalition on sand. It has to be built on dealing with the critical land for peace issues between Israel and Palestine. And that's why this is empty rhetoric on Netanyahu --

(CROSSTALK) SCIUTTO: You speak for, speak from experience certainly.

DJEREJIAN: May I say, Jim, also, we all know this, but one of the reasons Netanyahu cannot utter these words in terms of possible agreements with the Palestinians for a state or anything of that nature is because of his coalition, his extremist coalition.

If he utters that, he risks his coalition falling apart. And he's losing power and we know that one of the reasons that this trip is for him to continue to stay in power despite all the challenges he's facing internally legally and politically.

SCIUTTO: Ambassador Djerejian, Alan Pinkas, Cedric Leighton, thanks so much for helping us digest the comments from the Israeli prime minister.

Paula Newton, certainly a striking speech from the Israeli leader and the reaction in the chamber there that show some of the political divisions in this country over -- over Israeli policy as well.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN HOST: Yeah, Jim. I mean, such a consequential platform that the Republicans gave Netanyahu there.

I have to bring up the comments of Jerry Nadler, who we have to say is a representative who was sitting there, and in fact did say, that this -- even though he would sit there, he said this is the next step in a long line of manipulative bad faith efforts by the Republicans to politicize the U.S.-Israel relationship.

I want to go now to the video that you are seeing, and that is protesters burning American flags as we said, very tense moments on the streets of Washington, D.C. as pro-Palestinian protesters at times have clashed with pro-Israeli protesters. Many of them voicing their concerns that Netanyahu would be given this kind of a platform.

Kylie Atwood, I believe you're standing by for us as we continue to parse this speech again, as Jim said strident, but again, he was given a platform to really air a lot of grievances that we have been hearing from him for months, specifically though, when we talk about a proposed ceasefire deal that is on the table right now, the fate of which hangs in the balance.

What did you hear from that speech? And obviously negotiators will listen to that speech as well.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Well, listen what we've heard from the speech was really a rallying call from the prime minister aimed at both an American audience and Israeli audience. The Israeli audience trying to make the case that he is the prime minister who has the best connection to the American public. He is standing there on Capitol Hill being listened to by so many members of Congress and then to the American audience, really reminding them of how horrific October 7 actually was going through that in quite some detail, and making the case that going after Hamas is a greater effort at play that benefits the United States. He said, our victory will be your victory. He talked about going after

Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, saying that that is ultimately targeting Iran, which is an enemy of the United States. So, really trying to rally people behind Israel as there have been, you know, questions, criticism of the how Israel has been conducting this war, particularly recently with the mounting number of Palestinian deaths.

The other thing that the prime minister did here was speak to all factions of the political system here in the United States. He thanked, of course, President Biden for his continued support of Israel, saying that he is a proud Zionist, but he also at the end of the speech, made a point to thank former President Trump for all that President Trump did for him when he was in office.

[15:20:01]

Notably, the prime minister is going to be meeting with both of those leaders over the course of the next few days here, while he is in the United States. So he is a very deft political actor and he took this stage to make sure that he could speak to both of those.

And we should note that his praise for Biden wasn't exactly effusive. He thanked him, but then he also went on in this speech, notably to request that U.S. military assistance to Israel is expedited at this time. He said, give us the tools faster and we'll finish the job. Of course, quoting Winston Churchill in World War II, making that plea United States at the time for weapons.

So that was a notable remark that he made. We'll have to watch and see how that plays out, how that is received by U.S. officials who have repeatedly said that their military support to Israel has gone on, mostly unimpeded minus that hold on. Those 2,000 then pound bombs that remains in place.

NEWTON: Yeah. It is a very good point that although he did thank the Biden administration, it seemed to come with those caveats and conditions that more is yet to be done.

Kylie Atwood for us, thank you so much.

We want to go now to Jeremy Diamond who's been following all of this from Tel Aviv. And obviously, I'm curious about your reaction. The reaction in Israel to what was really an extraordinary platform for this prime minister that has seen really his troubles and domestic politics there.

How do you believe this will be viewed, especially with those all- important coalitions that make up the Israeli government right now?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that will indeed be the question. It'll be interesting to see how the Israeli political system digests the speech over the coming days. I mean, there was a little bit of something for everyone who was watching this speech he made several nods to the families of hostages, to a former hostage, Noa Argamani, who was in the crowd at that moment. But ultimately, what he really focused on was this notion once again,

of achieving victory over Hamas. And so while he did talk about the ceasefire negotiations, he did talk about bringing the hostages home, I think it was clear that the overarching tone of the speech to members of Congress, but also clearly too in Israel elite political audience as well was to say to the United States, give us the tools we need and we will finish the job and finishing the job in his view, as he said repeatedly, was we will fight until we achieve victory.

Those do not sound like the words of an Israeli prime minister who is on the cusp of signing a ceasefire agreements with Hamas. And we should note that U.S. and Israeli officials have told us in recent days that they are -- that a ceasefire deal is indeed within reach and it very much now seems to depend on the position of the Israeli prime minister himself on whether or not he wants a deal. And I don't know that this speech gave us any more confidence that the Israeli prime minister does indeed want a deal here.

Now, he did try and strike a largely bipartisan tone as he was addressing these lawmakers in Congress, he thanked President Biden for his solid support for Israel. He also thanked former President Trump for signing the -- achieving the Abraham accords, break through and talk about propelling that forward, which is a major goal of the Biden White House.

But I also think that one of the key goals of the Israeli prime minister here was trying to effectively, you know, portray the Israeli military campaign in a positive light and to try and push back on and what we have all watched over the course of the last nine months, which is just an enormous, enormous number of civilians who have been killed during this military campaign.

And the Israeli prime minister at several points tried to push back on those notions and some of his claims were simply false or not believable. I mean, he talked about the ICC, making these allegations that Israel is starving the people of Gaza. Members -- and he said that that claim was laughable. He talked about big numbers of aid that's actually getting in.

But there is just clear evidence that Israel has not allowed enough humanitarian aid into Gaza. Its been evidenced by the very fact that they have that point points allowed more aid and then less aid and very significant numbers, indicating that they can indeed have some control over -- over the faucet of aid that gets in, and it's also clear that the Israeli military, if you listen to any humanitarian organization, they simply have not done enough to provide safe passage for those aid trucks to get in.

Now, he also talked about Rafah claiming that he was told by an Israeli commander that practically no civilians have been killed in Rafah, which is simply not true. I can think of several strikes in Rafah off the top of my head.

And he also made this kind of broader claim about the Israeli military having the lowest civilian casualty ratio in modern warfare, basing it on a West Point expert, John Spencer. I can tell you, I've talked to a number of military experts, experts on civilian casualties in warfare.

[15:25:03]

And they all say that Israel simply does not do enough to protect civilians in warfare, and that it doesn't even come close to the efforts that the United States has made in various contexts, even those conflicts in which the United States has killed a significant number of civilians, even -- even kind of the worst-case examples of U.S. military action, they don't come close to the number of civilians that were seeing killed per strike, for example, as these really military carries out this campaign in Gaza.

NEWTON: Yeah, and going so much further in this speech, Jeremy, actually ridiculing the pro-Palestinian protesters and called them, of course, the useful -- Iran's useful idiots.

Jeremy, before I let you go, I just want to ask you as well though about what he said about the northern border there. It was, in fact, a comment here regarding the fact that he would take up -- he would return tens of thousands to their homes in northern Israel.

Jeremy, and I'll let you go for now. We're going to get back to you right now. I want to toss back to our Jim Sciutto who has a guest for us on Capitol Hill.

SCIUTTO: Thanks so much, Paula. I'm joined now by Congressman Don Bacon of Nebraska, a Republican. He was in the room for the Israeli prime minister's address. He joins us now.

So tell us your reaction.

REP. DON BACON (R-NE): That was a great speech. You know, the prime minister, I think he's concise, but he's forceful in his presentation and he made it clear he's going to finish the job against Hamas in Gaza and he's got to reestablish a Palestinian government -- some type that's got to be -- can't be an adversary to Israel. But he also made it clear that Iran, it's a long term threat, they're the puppet master of Gaza, or I should say, Hamas, Hezbollah, as well as the Houthis in Yemen.

But he only shows moral clarity when he speaks, and I think he's forceful.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you, he did not mention the phrase two-state solution once and, you know, this debate has been long term. There have been questions from inside Israel whether he has any interest whatsoever in what has been a longstanding bipartisan U.S. policy among Republican and Democratic presidents. Is that a mistake? Is he throwing all of his weight behind purely force as opposed to the possibility of a negotiated peace with the Palestinians?

BACON: My taken and I've met with him multiple times in Israel, he would support a second state, but they're not ready yet. They are -- they want to destroy Israel. They always say they wanted --

SCIUTTO: Who's they though? Hamas -- BACON: Hamas, also the Palestine Authority really doesn't want an

Israel state. They would -- they see it as one state where they're in charge. That's all I take their response.

Once the Palestinians accept that they will -- they can have the West Bank, perhaps Gaza, and they have to figure out how to connect the two, then they can have peace, but there's really not an acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state. Until we get there, there's not going to be a two-state solution, but the Paulsen is going to come to understanding that there's going to -- if there's a two-state solution, one of them is a Jewish state.

SCIUTTO: Do -- do you, of course, 80 -- some 80 Democratic members of the House did not attend today, nine Democratic senators did not attend, and the vice president, who normally would be presiding behind a speaker such as this was not, she had a previous engagement, but you can imagine there might be a political element to that as well. There was a lot in this speech that seemed directed specifically to the Republican audience there.

And there were moments when your side of the aisle was standing and applauding in the Democratic side deliberately was not. Where does Israel's relationship stand with America writ large as opposed to the Republican Party in America?

BACON: It's interesting that dynamic I find in the House, we're very unified on Israel, we're divided on Ukraine, which I support.

SCIUTTO: Right.

BACON: But on the other side of the aisle, the Democrats are fairly unified on Ukraine and divided on Israel. And it's -- and that's why we hit -- we handle the funding bills. We did them separately because if you get both over the finish line, so I'm going to give credit to the speaker. Good chess match there. And you played well.

We -- I want to make sure it's an American support for Israel, not just Republican support I've traveled there. I went there in '15. I've been there as a colonel putting missile defense.

And I want America to stand by our ally Israel, if it's just Republican Party, that's not good for our country. It's not good for him because in the end, Israel will be at risk on there, and I wish the same thing for Ukraine. I would like to see more unanimity because Americans have a strong voice in the world, strongest voice for freedom and for divided in Israel that threatens Israel.

I thought -- I thought he gave a good speech that wasn't divisive. And you're right, there some -- there was more support on the Republican side.

SCIUTTO: No question. There was a particularly as relates to civilian casualties in Gaza since the start of Israeli military operations there post October 7, he addressed that. He used the phrase practically none when describing civilian casualties there. And he said that Israeli forces should be commended for the conduct of the war.

As you know, President Biden, who's been a steadfast supporter of Israel for decades, including since October 7. He has criticized that there needs to be more attention to civilian casualties.

[15:30:03]

And I've heard that I will say from Democrats and Republicans and I've heard it from U.S. military commanders as well.

Do you think that was a fair statement for him to deny any responsibility for civilian casualty casualties in Gaza as a result of Israeli military action?

BACON: I would say generally, I agree with him, but obviously there's been a lot of civilian casualties. But whose fault really is that? Hamas is hiding in the midst of the civilians. They're the ones putting civilians at risk.

I do believe Israel is trying to do their best to discriminate between Hamas --

SCIUTTO: Even that the weapons they're using -- because some of the criticism from President Biden has been using really big weapons and you know, with your military background, that commanders have choices as to what they used for particular -- you could use a 2,000 bomb or you could use something smaller and oftentimes it's been the 2,000- pound bombs.

BACON: Well, the other side of that is if you do smaller weapons, you may not get your target and then Israeli soldiers are being killed.

So typically, if they're -- the other side of this, more soldiers get killed for Israel and that's the hard decision if you're the Israelis commander, and you're going after terrorists who are hiding in the civilian population, but it's a tough -- it's a conundrum, it's very hard.

I mean, I served by Iraq and Afghanistan when terrorists are hiding amongst the civilian population, it's hard and -- but I think Israel's, I believe, is trying to do the very best they can. But in the end, they're going to kill Hamas.

They murdered and raped 1,200 people. This is -- war is hell, as Sherman said in civil war. And they're going to kill Hamas.

And the best thing for them to do is surrendering and give up. And I don't think they're going to do that, but I think Israel is driven to finish this war and its going to end when they think Hamas is totally destroyed in Gaza.

SCIUTTO: That's certainly seemed to be the message from the Israeli leader there.

Congressman Don Bacon, always a pleasure to have you on the show.

BACON: It's a pleasure.

SCIUTTO: Thanks so much for taking the time.

BACON: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Paula, you hear the view from inside the chamber there.

Well, actually, we're going to take a short break and then go back to Paula Newton as we continue to cover the Israeli prime minister's address to the U.S. Congress.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:31]

SCIUTTO: Well, the Israeli prime minister addressed the U.S. Congress for 52 minutes and it was 52 minutes of a strident defense of Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza, but also what Netanyahu described as a broader regional conflict between Israel and Iran, which he said is also very much America's enemy in the region.

In fact, he suggested a broader alliance against Iran, suggesting the title, the Abraham alliance.

Joining me now, Avi Mayer, longtime expert on Israeli political affairs.

Avi, good to have you with us today.

I wonder, as you listen to the prime ministers speech, he was strident in his defense of Israel, but he made a number of statements which I think you can at a minimum say were not entirely accurate, but you might even say were straight up false.

He said that there were practically none when he was describing political -- rather civilian casualties as a result of military action there. He denied any Israeli responsibility for food getting in and out of Gaza. And he characterized all protesters in this country, which is, you know many of the anti-Israel protesters, some of them are Jewish, right? He called all of them supporters of Hamas and useful idiots for Iran. Did he go too far in this speech?

AVI MAYER, FORMER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE JERUSALEM POST: Well, Jim, I think the prime minister hit pretty much all the notes I would've expected him to. As you said, a very robust as strident speech that I think was focused at both un American audience and in Israeli one. I should note that he was referring specifically to the military operation in Rafah when he referred to that low number of casualties, he said they said we couldn't do it, we could evacuate these large numbers of civilians. Israel did in fact do that, which resulted in a comparatively low number of civilian casualties there.

He did characterize the protesters on U.S. college campuses and elsewhere as useful idiots. That is not necessarily a description that I would disagree with. But when he talks about the Iranian hand in steering those -- those protests on and offline, he is referring to an assessment made by the director of national intelligence who said Iran is directly involved in funding and directing those protests, perhaps not all of them, but certainly number of them.

So, look, I think he certainly engaged in rhetorical license, but I wouldn't say that his points as a whole were entirely off base.

SCIUTTO: But the trouble is, though, he's denying the possibility of any criticism of his leadership or the conduct of the war, which we know is not isolated to the protesters. We were just showing some live pictures there outside the Capitol building today or on college campuses, we know that includes -- that includes members of Congress. There were 80 Democratic members of Congress who deliberately were not in the room. Nine senators, the vice president Kamala Harris and President Biden himself has criticized Israel's conduct of the war for not paying sufficient attention to civilian casualties in Gaza.

So my question is by -- by closing off any such criticism, which certainly got applause from the Republican side of the chamber, but not from the Democratic side of the chamber, is he throwing his lot in entirely with one party in this country? And is that -- is that a long-term interests, right, of Israel to be aligned with a party rather than the country itself?

MAYER: Look, I just read an assessment that he received 52 standing ovations and it's certainly true that in some of those be Republican members of Congress were certainly more promptly represented, but there were a certain number of them that were also by bipartisan.

He did make significant nods to President Biden and his administration for the robust support of the Jewish state since the atrocities of October 7th, and in the war that has ensued. Look at the end of the day, he understands that the U.S.-Israel relationship has to remain a bipartisan priority.

And so, even as he engages in praise for, for example, President Trump and the policies that he enacted during his presidency, I think he did try to strike that balance. I think that manifested throughout his speech as well.

SCIUTTO: There were certainly a number of "thank yous" to Donald Trump in his speech, as well as you mentioned "thank you" to President Biden.

[15:40:01]

Avi Mayer, long longtime editor chief for "The Jerusalem Post", we appreciate you joining us.

Well, as we've been covering the speech inside the halls of Congress, outside the protests have continued, certainly familiar to many Americans who saw similar shows of support for the Palestinians on college campuses, a number of weeks ago. We are seeing those shows today in and around the capital.

Do stay with us. Our coverage continues just after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NEWTON: Now as we've been showing you for the last few hours, protesters have been out on the streets of Washington since this morning in fact, some of them holding signs calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal and police earlier broke up a scuffle between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators. In fact, many anti-war protesters are demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

Now, not in his speech, a short time ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu said anti-Israel protesters should be, quote, ashamed of themselves. He called them, quote, Iran's useful idiots. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU: Many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers. They stand with people who came into the kibbutzim, into a home, the parents had the children, the two babies in the attic, in a secret attic. They murdered the families, the parents. They found the secret latch to the hidden attic, and then they murdered the babies.

These protesters stand with them. They should be ashamed of themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: And we now want to bring you in Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib of the Atlantic Council. He is there live at the protest for us in Washington, D.C.

[15:45:01]

Ahmed, obviously, give us your reaction to those comments from the prime minister. He appeared to take the pro-Palestinian protesters like you, taking you on directly.

AHMED FOUAD ALKHATIB, NONRESIDENT SENIOR FELLOW, THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL: So I have actually attended three protests today. There was one that was pro-Israel, anti-Netanyahu, pro-hostage deal protest organized by Israeli hostage families that came in here as one of the largest independent delegation that I helped with.

I attended a pro-Palestine protests and a pro-peace protests. And the message was -- the consistent message across all three is that Netanyahu is not welcome in the United States. Netanyahu is viewed as an unserious player who is neglecting his duty to bring back the Israeli hostages, which we know requires ending the war.

I saw -- I spoke with Israeli hostage families and actually the message was one focused on, we need a ceasefire as part of releasing the hostages. So it's really interesting to see the consistency and the messages across all those three categories of protests today.

NEWTON: The protesters, though, at this point in time, they have their platform, and the prime minister took them on directly. What would you say to the prime minister about the nuance that you're talking about, right? Because we have also, for months now, been speaking to the families of the hostages. They seem aligned with wanting to have a ceasefire that brings their loved ones home.

What would you say that the prime minister?

ALKHATIB: I would say, listen to these rallies, listen to your people, the people that elected you. And these were not just leftist or peace activists, some of them -- some of these families that I've been talking to, were, in fact, Netanyahu voters, they are right- leaning.

But the fact that matter is I grew up in the Gaza Strip. My -- half of my family were killed in this war. I lost 31 family members of mine. Most of my childhood homes were destroyed. My mom and my brother are homeless. I've got some family out.

So this idea that this war as he was trying to claim is not harming civilians, is inaccurate. I have experienced that myself.

I'm also been critical of some of the pro-Palestine protesters, on some of the messages that I feel like there's a missed opportunity right now, historic, once in a generation opportunity to drum up support for true Palestinian independence through the two-state solution, to leverage the international sympathy for the pro-Palestine cause if you will. So, I'm not -- I'm all about this and he wants and I think it's unfair to paint all protesters as empathizers with Hamas. There are a lot of people who are simply upset and furious with this loss of life.

But again, going back to Mr. Prime Minister, listen to your people. I spoke to those folks. I did the Twitter live space and so many of these families were so eager to speak to me as a Gazan, to build bridges, to heal together, to actually keep the focus on ending the suffering of my family and theirs through a hostage ceasefire deal.

NEWTON: Yeah, and in fact, some of those families continue to ask for that kind of negotiation and that kind of compromise across party lines. And families that would normally have spoken to each other, right? That had good relations across Gaza and the kibbutzim.

I want to ask you, given this speech though, right now, what do you believe it takes away from the ceasefire negotiations going on at the sour, it really was a consequential speech. And the fact that he did not give an inch I think it was inappropriate timing. I think he needs to be in Israel working, doing his best to focus on the hostage deal. It came out in several news outlets today that the delegation -- the Israeli delegation to negotiate a ceasefire deal has been ordered to hold back until after Netanyahu's visit.

So, clearly, his political grandstanding, his political priorities coming at this very time, which is tumultuous in D.C. to put it mildly is highly inappropriate. It is ineffective. It is planning seeds of division. It is not serving the families of the Israeli families, again, that are diverse that I've been talking to.

And I also think it is dehumanizing of all to say that everybody who is displaced --

(CROSSTALK)

NEWTON: Sorry, I -- we have to go, but I really do thank you for your perspective as you are out on the streets of Washington, D.C., when there remain thousands of protesters there. Appreciate it.

We're going take a quick break and be right back with more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:52:11]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

Well, we've just witnessed the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the U.S. Congress.

Later this evening, we're going to see the U.S. leader address the nation. President Joe Biden will speak -- deliver a national address on primetime television at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time tonight. This to explain his momentous decision just three days ago on Sunday to exit the presidential race and open the path since then to his Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now the presumptive Democratic nominee.

He announced that via letter. Now, we're going to hear it in his own words.

Joining me now to discuss this moment is Mark Updegrove. He's a presidential historian, CEO of the LBJ Foundation.

Mark, it's good to have you.

Goodness. So much history for presidential historian like yourself to cover just in the last week and less here we have a president stepping down voluntarily and really the last time we witnessed this was 1968 when LBJ did the same, though earlier in the cycle, a few months earlier.

Tell us about this moment in this country, how significant a moment.

MARK UPDEGROVE, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Enormously significant. You talked about LBJ, Jim, and that's absolutely right. LBJ step to -- decided not to seek nor accept the nomination of his party for another term as president on March 31st, 1968.

The difference here, and its a big one, Jim, is that Joe Biden for the first time in history, has become a nominee of his party based on the primary process that went forward and is declining to accept the nomination of his party when the party convenes next month in Chicago. So that's a big difference.

We've never seen something like that in history. We've never seen somebody bow out this late in a presidential cycle. So that makes this a very different moment from 1968. And we hear this all the time, this term, Jim, but an unprecedented

moment in American history after that determinative performance that was proved disastrous to Biden's reelection efforts. That's another unprecedented moment that we have seen.

SCIUTTO: And that is one of the differences here, right, in that LJB, he decided not to run in the midst of the Vietnam War. He had a number of reasons. He had just lost in one of the primaries prior, but here you have a president who was wounded, criticized by some in his own party is not being up to the race, or do the job going forward.

So what message would you expect to hear from him tonight? What message do you think he needs to deliver to the American people?

UPDEGROVE: I think he needs to give us a more fulsome explanation for why he has decided not to accept his party's nomination again, after seeking that nomination earlier this year and going through the primary process, that's one.

[15:55:03]

Number two, I think he has to give a robust endorsement and justification for why he's passed the torch onto his heir apparent, and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

And finally, I think he has to show the American people that while he might not have the stamina to vie for another term as president, he has enough energy. He has the mental acuity to remain on in the role of president and commander in chief for the balance of his term.

Those are things that we will be looking for tonight, Jim, in addition to Joe Biden telling us what he believes his legacy is what he believes his presidency will be to history. This will certainly be one of the highlights that you will see when you run down the trajectory of Joe Biden's presidency and political career.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. And I call it a presidential swan song, although, of course, still has months to serve.

Mark Updegrove, thanks so much for your views.

We have a presidential speech tonight. Biden to address the nation shortly after today. Of course, we heard the Israeli leader address the U.S. Congress.

I'm Jim Sciutto, reporting to you today from the U.S. Capitol. Please do stay with us.

Coming up, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS".