Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech was hailed as historic, powerful and moving by his supporters in Israel and derided as absurd and critical by some of his critics.
Much of the nation is focused on the need to end the war in Gaza and bring home the hostages held by Hamas.
Instead, the Israeli prime minister launched a fiery defense of Israel’s military campaign, framing it as a war against Iran that must be won at all costs.
“He has put the truth on the most important stage in the world,” tweeted Aryeh Deri, the head of Shas, which is part of Mr Netanyahu’s coalition government.
“His words represent all Israelis who want to live in security and who believe in Israel’s struggle to live righteously,” was the reaction of Israel Katz, the foreign minister.
“Netanyahu gave a very good speech,” wrote columnist Shai Peron, a self-proclaimed Zionist, on the Ynet news website. “He did not give the country, the academics, to a fake awakening. He explained to the world that this is a battle between light and darkness. He reminded everyone that ‘us first, you later.’
They were captured in Gaza which are the priority of their families and friends.
The former hostage and other family members accompanied Mr Netanyahu and joined the audience in the room, but many protested against him in Washington.
Thousands of kilometers from central Tel Aviv, families and friends of the abductees gathered to watch the speech, delivered in English, shown on a screen with Hebrew subtitles.
Relatives of those who died in Gaza took to the stage and shouted at the prime minister in tears – which is very different from the speeches that have been seen in Congress.
“I have been shocked many times because the level of nonsense and doubt and hypocrisy is unbelievable,” said Noa Golan who was in the crowd.
“It’s amazing to be here, [it’s] it is clear and obvious what must be done, and to see him there. Lying would be a good way to describe it.”
His friend Ruth Bar-Shalom said that he did not really expect the announcement of the agreement to release the hostages, but that he expected the Congress to “be very wise and demand answers from him”.
“He uses everyone and everything, including the American Congress who are too ignorant to tell the difference between lies and truth, between reality and the movie they show them over and over and believe,” he said.
“It’s unbelievable, we’re standing here helpless. We see that, and we can’t believe that this can happen these days.”
Although Mr Netanyahu said Israel was playing a major role in efforts to free the hostages, he did not say anything about the ceasefire being negotiated. He also postponed the departure of the Israeli delegation to the next round of talks in Qatar.
Israeli officials said they first want to coordinate positions with US President Joe Biden. But the move reinforced a widespread belief that the prime minister is delaying a deal to appease the right-wing majority in his government.
The families of the abductees responded by saying that they want an urgent meeting with the negotiators, accusing him of deliberately destroying the chances of bringing their loved ones back home.
Mr. Netanyahu also said nothing about the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in Israeli military operations. And he angrily rejected the accusations of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that he is starving Gaza. He said Israel had released half a million tons of food in the Strip, and accused Hamas of stealing it.
The prime minister was “repeating the defamatory propaganda and lies he spread nine months ago,” Hamas said in response to the speech.
“It would have been better to arrest Netanyahu as a war criminal and hand him over to the International Criminal Court instead of giving him the opportunity to end the mass killings and genocide in the Gaza Strip,” he said in a statement, alleging. Washington to give Mr. Netanyahu cover “to escape punishment”.
Ahmad Majdalani, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s (PLO) executive committee, criticized Mr Netanyahu’s description of the Gaza conflict as a civilizational war, “as if destroying the Gaza Strip … was a matter of civilization”.
In an interview with the Voice of Palestine, he said that the applause in Congress for “every word” that Mr. Netanyahu said showed that the US was a true partner in the war.
“Netanyahu can speak,” wrote Amos Harel in the left-wing Haaretz paper, “especially in English, where his eloquence is more impressive than any of his domestic rivals.”
He said the prime minister was right about the brutality of Hamas and the “inexplicable support for this massacre” on some American campuses.
“But there is little weight in these words as long as the prime minister is neutral about Israel’s failure on October 7, is in no rush to return the hostages home, and has refused for months to move forward with detailed plans for the ‘day after’ the Gaza war.”
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