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In his fourth speech to Congress, a record for a foreign leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel attempted to change the narrative about the fallout from the war in Gaza. Patrick Kingsley, the Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times, explains how Netanyahu used the speech to shift the focus to Iran and the threat it poses to Israel.
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Just hours before Friday's opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics, a series of apparently coordinated arson attacks were reported on France's high-speed rail network. No one has claimed responsibility yet. Before the games, protests highlighted the displacement of thousands of migrants, unhoused people and other vulnerable communities as "social cleansing." We go to Paris for an update with Jules Boykoff, former professional soccer player, author and scholar focusing on the Olympic Games, and Paul Alauzy, Paris-based activist with the collective Revers de la Médaille (Other Side of the Medal). "We are not anti-Olympics," says Alauzy. "You can support the games, but you need to know that they have a big social impact and they come with a cost. And they come with a cost of the lives of hundreds, thousands of people being mistreated." We also discuss how Palestinian athletes are taking part in this year's Olympics amid the Israeli war on Gaza, the health risks of competing during rising heat and COVID, the environmental impact of major sporting events and more.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress on Wednesday to defend the ongoing war on Gaza as thousands of people outside protested his appearance. The speech came two months after Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced he was seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for committing war crimes in Gaza. Over 100 Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, skipped the speech, but those in attendance gave Netanyahu numerous standing ovations as he painted a distorted picture of what's happening in Gaza, making no mention of efforts to reach a ceasefire or the more than 16,000 Palestinian children killed in Israel's assault. Foreign policy analyst Phyllis Bennis says the speech was "horrifying," but says it showed that "support for Israel has become a thoroughly partisan issue." Bennis adds that peace activists in the U.S. have built a broad consensus against the war on Gaza and military support for Israel, and says Vice President Kamala Harris has an opportunity to chart a new path on Middle East policy as she runs for president.
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Journalist Mehdi Hasan joins us to respond to President Joe Biden's announcement Sunday he is ending his campaign to seek reelection just four months before Election Day. In a letter posted on social media, Biden wrote he was stepping aside "in the best interest of my party and the country," and then endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris. She quickly received the backing of many powerful Democrats, but Harris could still face a challenge for the party's nomination in the four weeks before the Democratic National Convention. Questions about Biden's candidacy had been growing since at least last year. The activist group RootsAction launched a campaign called Don't Run Joe 20 months ago, and during the primary more than a half-million voters chose "uncommitted" instead of Biden to protest his support for Israel's war on Gaza. Hasan says that this is a "big, big moment for American democracy," and when it comes to Harris, we need to "pressure her in a way that we failed to pressure Joe Biden."
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