Netanyahu Addresses Congress

After the previous fireworks, I simply have to watch this speech live.  Sorry, Nerd Lords, no research for an hour at least.  CNN's talking heads are being as obnoxious as ever, but I'm not really here for them.  Goodness, I haven't been this interested in a major policy speech since ... well, forever.  Bonus: Netanyahu's a great speaker.  

Heck with it: I'm liveblogging.

AFTER-SPEECH UPDATE:  In a nutshell?  Epic speech was epic.  Transcript as released by Netanyahu on his Facebook page.  Full video of the speech here.  My liveblogging is after the fold.  Oh, heck.  Let's just embed the video:

11:23: Netanyahu takes the podium to cheers and applause.  It's a warm welcome indeed, and he's beaming.  Oh, cute aside to Biden about when they were "the new kids."
11:25: 3 minutes in, and it's already a lovefest.  This is no bad thing.
11:25: "Congratulations, Mr. President.  You got Bin Laden!  Good riddance!"  NICE.  Aaaand that's the fourth standing ovation.
11:28: On the tumult in the Middle East and the Arab Spring.
11:29: Who's the heckler?  Netanyahu takes the moment and says this is real democracy.  Kudos, sir.  Ovation #5.
11:30: Back to the Arab Spring and the specter of 1979 Iran and the Cedar Revolution of Lebanon -- revolutions can go wrong.  It really is "a fateful crossroads."
11:31: We ALL hope folks go for "the path less chosen, the path of liberty."  You know, Bibi's articulation of current events is actually energetic and passionate and worth listening to.  I've gotten too used to boring talking heads and, dare I say it, the president's professorially condescending, boring glittering nothings.
11:33: He's referring to George Eliot!  
Netanyahu's ability to use a touch of humor is a real plus.  Would-be public speakers, take a page out of his book, please.
11:35: On Arab citizens of Israel.  It's a good point and too often forgotten.
11:35: "Israel is what is right about the Middle East."  Bibi's going straight for the everlasting shibboleth about Israel being the unicausal source of Middle Eastern trouble.
11:36: Peace and democracy in the Middle East as key.  
11:37: Singling out Iran and listing its many negative contributions.  Nuclear Iran.  Bibi's not flinching.  I'm so used to people beating around the bush that I'm almost surprised to hear anybody speaking candidly about militant Islam and the terrible things it could perpetrate.  "The nightmare of nuclear terrorism" ... "if we don't stop it, it's coming."
11:39: A reminder of Iran's threat to Israel.  Nothing is so obvious that it doesn't need to be stated again and again.
11:41: The lack of outrage is itself an outrage.  Then Bibi deftly states that the US is different, to ovation #6.  I don't think Obama has done enough, but Netanyahu is a consummate statesman.
11:42: Is he trying to tell us something about the art of diplomacy?  Hmmm.  About clarity and leverage.
11:43: "When we say 'Never again,' we mean 'Never again.'" Ovation #7.
11:44: "Israel always reserves the right to defend itself."  This always also has to be said, coupled as it is with the reiteration of Israel's desire for peace.
11:45: Anecdotes from his days in the IDF and a mention of Yonatan and that personal experience.  
11:46: Peace with Egypt and Jordan is good but not enough: must have a lasting peace with the Palestinians.  Ovation #8.
11:46: Here we go -- Bibi on the two-state solution.
11:47: Judea and Samaria and the Jewish people there.  On making painful compromises.  
11:48: On the 4000-year-old bond between the Jewish people and the Jewish land.  Ovation #9, though what gets me is his aside that he's read a lot of historical distortions both old and new.  You don't say.  Preach it.
11:49: On a Palestinian state. "We've seen the beginnings of what is possible."  On the Palestinian economy growing.  "And all of this is happening without peace.  Imagine what could happen with peace."
11:51: "Now here's the question.  You've got to ask it."  -- if the benefits of peace are so clear, why isn't there any?  All Israeli PMs have wanted peace.  So why not?
11:52: HERE WE GO: It's not about a Palestinian state.  "It's always been about the existence of the Jewish state.  That is what this conflict is about."  BOOM.
11:53: History lesson on Palestinian refusals over time, and then a shot at hate culture.  "This must come to an end." Ovation #9.
11:54: "President Abbas must do what I have done." -- On how difficult it was for Bibi to stand and say that he accepts a Palestinian state. "It's time for him to stand before his people  and say 'I accept a Jewish state.'" Ovation #10.
11:55: "I will be prepared to make a far-reaching compromise."  HERE WE GO.  Demographic changes, reality on the ground (read: settlements), and "under any realistic peace agreement" these places and also locations of critical strategic importance must be incorporated into the borders of Israel.  There's no wishy-washiness on this point.
11:56: "I'm saying something that should be said publicly by anyone serious about peace."  Negotiations about borders and settlements.  Ovation #11 to Israel not going back to the indefensible borders of 1967.
11:58: "Israel will be generous on the size of the Palestinian state, but very firm on where the borders are with it."  This is important, and Bibi underlines this so there's no mistaking it.  
11:59: "The Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside the borders of Israel. You know, everybody knows this, it should be said." Ovation #12.
11:59: Jerusalem.  It must never again be divided.  Ovation #13. Bibi is not holding back.  And he shouldn't, I'm thinking.  Blunt honesty.
12:01: Peace and security and defensibility.
12:01: On Israel pulling out of Gaza and southern Lebanon.  "We thought we'd get peace.  That's not what we got."  He has to spell it out.
12:02: On rockets into Israel.  "Could you live that way?  Could anybody live that way?  We're not going to live that way."
12:03: On size and security -- and even a little touch of humor, with a nod to Biden about the size of Delaware.  I am loving this speech, frankly.  It's riveting.
12:03: "It is vital that a Palestinian state be fully demilitarized."  And that Israel maintain a long-term military presence along the Jordan River.  Ovation #14.
12:04: On Israel's need to defend itself in case the peace unravels.
12:05: The UN attempt on a Palestinian state is not going to do it.  "Peace cannot be imposed. It must be negotiated.  But peace can only be negotiated with a partner committed to peace."
12:06: Hamas is NOT a peace partner.  On the Hamas charter.
12:06: Ovation #15 to Israel not negotiating with THAT.
12:07: The call to Abbas: "Tear up your pact with Hamas!  Make peace with Israel!"  Wow.  Add: With peace, Israel would be the first to welcome a Palestinian state to the UN.
12:08: Thank you for supporting liberty and Israel.
12:09:  Massive ovation as Netanyahu closes his speech.


A speech of clarity.  A powerful thing passionately delivered.  It's like red meat compared to the silly equivocating fluff and mush of other speeches.  Wow.  I'm going to have to stop and think about it more later, but my initial reaction is: Wow!  It was masterfully delivered, and the delivery was engaging and in places electrifying.  I'm famously hard to impress, but I was ... er ... pretty impressed.


OK, I'm now going to say something that's probably going to be unkind, but ... I watched this speech and I thought, now here is a statesman and a leader of a free nation who has clarity of vision and a grip not only on harsh reality in an extremely dangerous region but also on the hope of improving it.  He's not just a pretty face.  There was the definite appearance of a spine as he outlined what Israel would and would not do. I don't think it was "disrespectful" as I don't think his previous schooling of Obama was, but the speech was in its way defiant and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.  It was also distinctly a declaration that Israel will not be pushed into a corner.


He also deftly rode the wave of Congress's (and more in general, America's) support for Israel, and it built up a momentum that offset the previous rockiness with Obama. Even if Obama's own approach turned out to be much less than effective and necessitated that now-famous schooling by Bibi, Netanyahu managed to pull out a positive note today and subtly included Obama in it.  Now this is statesmanship. 


(And, OK, masterful ... and just a little bit, if you will forgive the word as I break my own rule about no real profanity, badass.  So often now public figures speak only in slick, glittering, overly scripted meaninglessnesses ... To hear someone actually say home truths clearly and unashamedly with no timidity is wildly ... um ... liberating.  I'll now be curious to see how other people receive Netanyahu's speech.  I'm sure the Bibi-bashers will soon be out in force.)


UPDATE 1: ABC News says Netanyahu received 29 standing ovations.  C-SPAN says 26.  I didn't count that many, but then again, I only counted the ones in which everybody got up and actually held up the speech with thunderous applause.  It was nice to see bipartisan support.  Random thought: Maybe neither ABC News nor C-SPAN nor I can count?

UPDATE 2: More analysis: Netanyahu really is uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between the US and Israel.

UPDATE 3:  Most piquant response yet:

As I listened to the live broadcast of Bibi Netanyahu's speech, I thought to myself that HE's reminding us of who we are. We're NOT the moral relativists and effete European socialists that the current administration wants us to be. Listening to Netanyahu was like listening to our collective conscience trying to remind us of who we really are.

It took an Israeli to remind us of what it means to be Americans.  He did grow up in the US.  It seems that the actual leader of the free world, at least in terms of sheer cojones required to articulate and defend freedom with passionate conviction, is Bibi -- at least today.