Benjamin Netanyahu claims Iran paid gay people to protest against Israel

In a speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, the embattled Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu invoked Hamas’ and Iran’s treatment of LGBTQ+ people to make his case for full support of Israel’s objectives in the war in Gaza.

Standing before a packed House chamber, Netanyahu was adamant Israel’s continuing prosecution of the war was an existential battle of good against evil in the fight against “radical Islam” spread by Iran, whom he blamed for funding Hamas and Israel’s other enemies and for stoking protests in the U.S. against Isreal’s continuing war in Gaza.

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“For all we know, Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests going on right now outside this building — not that many, but they’re there and throughout the city,” Netanyahu told the assembled lawmakers.

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“Well, I have a message for these protesters: When the tyrants of Tehran — who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, —are praising, promoting, and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.”

Republicans leapt to their feet in agreement.

Throughout the speech, Netanyahu’s reception was audibly more rapturous on the GOP side of the aisle, as Republicans rose repeatedly while most Democrats offered a respectful but more reserved reaction.

There were several notable absences during Netanyahu’s address, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Vice President Kamala Harris who cited a previously scheduled campaign event. As president of the Senate, Harris would normally preside over a joint session of Congress. She’ll meet with Netanyahu at the White House on Thursday.

Gay Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), one of Israel’s most vocal supporters since the October 7 attack, was in attendance, while out Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI), Mark Takano (D-CA), and Becca Balint (D-VT) all declined to make an appearance.

In his speech, Netanyahu “saluted” the fraternity brothers at the University of North Carolina who protected an American flag against whom the prime minister described as “anti-Israel” protesters, inspiring the most jingoistic moment of the event, with full-throated chants of “USA! USA!’ from the Republican side of the aisle.

“That’s amazing,” Netanyahu continued while speaking about the college demonstrators. “Absolutely amazing. Some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming gays for Gaza,” Netanyahu added, earning some laughs from the right side of the aisle. “They might as well hold up signs saying ‘Chickens for KFC.'” His comment referenced the fast-food chain known for serving fried chicken.

Protests since the start of the war in October have roiled college campuses, resulting in thousands of arrests as school administrators struggled to cope with the fallout. The presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania were forced to resign when their responses to perceived antisemitism among protesters were viewed as insufficient.

Netanyahu’s address occurred the same day that the Israeli military newly recovered five bodies of people killed amid Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7. Two were soldiers killed in the attack, while three were civilians whose bodies were brought back to Gaza as hostage bargaining chips, according to Israeli authorities and The New York Times.

Over 1,200 Israelis and others, including 39 Americans, were killed in the early morning October 7 assault and nearly 200 hostages were taken. More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

Iran, Netanyahu claimed in his address, wants to impose “radical Islam” on the world and sees the United States as its greatest threat because it is “the guardian of Western civilization and the world’s greatest power.”

“Israel is merely a tool,” Netanyahu said. “The main war, the real war, is with America.”

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