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Netanyahu's Speeches to Congress, 2015 and 2024, and the UN in 2026

Few foreign leaders have ever addressed a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress more than once. Benjamin Netanyahu has done it four times. Two of those speeches, in 2015 and 2024, were aimed squarely at Iran and at American policy toward it. The first went over the head of a sitting American President to lawmakers. The second told Congress that Israel's wars were America's wars. After both Iran wars were under way, he stood at the United Nations in September 2026 and called destroying Iran's nuclear sites "one of the easiest decisions" he had made.

A joint meeting or joint session is when both the House and the Senate gather in one chamber to hear a speaker. Being invited is an honor normally reserved for Presidents and close allies.

March 3, 2015: against a President's deal​

In 2015 the Obama administration was finishing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal in which Iran accepted strict limits and inspections in exchange for relief from sanctions. Netanyahu came to Congress to kill it. His words:

"This is a bad deal. It's a very bad deal. We're better off without it."

Source: Time, full transcript, March 3, 2015.

The lobby that backs him went all in behind him. Senator Ted Cruz, who says he came to Congress "with the stated intention of being the leading defender of Israel in the United States Senate," told Tucker Carlson in June 2025: "the Iran nuclear deal, I think, was catastrophic. And AIPAC went all in lobbying against it. ... And they failed. And I was the leading opponent of the Iran nuclear deal" (Podscripts transcript of The Tucker Carlson Show, June 18, 2025). A July 2026 essay put AIPAC's spending against the deal at "$40 million" (Pierre Lherisson on X, July 4, 2026; that figure is the essay's).

Journalist Michael Tracey, writing in June 2025, pointed out what the 2015 fight shows: "Netanyahu launched a personal jihad against a US President's signature foreign policy initiative." Obama held firm and the deal was signed. Tracey's point was that it took a different President to give Netanyahu what he wanted: "Trump campaigned in 2016 on withdrawing from the JCPOA. He then withdrew in 2018" (Tracey on X, June 16, 2025). The request was the same; the answer changed. That pattern is laid out on Four Presidents Said No.

July 24, 2024: "Our battle is your battle"​

Netanyahu's fourth address to Congress came nine months after the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. The news account Sprinter Press, summarizing it the same day, said the speech "was meaningfully aimed at the need for the US and Israel to strike Iran together, and the ovation was stormy." He was interrupted by applause "at least 70 times" (Sprinter Press on X, July 24, 2024, video).

His words, as transcribed in that post:

"For Iran, Israel comes first, America comes second. So when Israel fights Hamas, we fight Iran. When we fight Hezbollah, we are fighting Iran. When we fight the Houthis, we are fighting Iran."

"We don't just defend Israel, we defend the United States. Our enemies are your enemies. Our battle is your battle. Our victory is your victory."

He called protesters outside the Capitol "the useful idiots of Iran," said "Iran brazenly threatened to kill President Trump," and closed by asking the United States for more weapons and shells. The news service NEXTA reported that he also proposed that the United States build "a NATO analog in the Middle East," which he said was needed "to counter the growing threat from Iran" (NEXTA on X, July 25, 2024, video).

Read the core sentence again: "Our battle is your battle." That is the thesis of this entire section in the words of the man who drove the war. Eleven months later, American B-2 bombers struck Iran.

2026: at AIPAC and at the United Nations​

AIPAC's own YouTube playlist from its 2026 Congressional Summit includes a 10-minute address by Netanyahu, next to clips of members of Congress praising "U.S.-Israel Cooperation in Operation 'Midnight Hammer' against Iran" (AIPAC Congressional Summit 2026 playlist; Netanyahu's address). The transcripts were not captured.

On September 24, 2026, he spoke at the 81st UN General Assembly. According to a summary of the official text circulated on X, he recalled that 14 years earlier he had drawn his red line at the same podium, and said destroying Iran's nuclear facilities was "one of the easiest decisions" he had made as prime minister, because "if we hadn't done it, we'd all be dead." He predicted the fall of the government in Tehran and left a Starlink satellite-internet device on the podium for the Iranian delegation (summary by @MarekS997 on X, September 26, 2026; the full text is published by The Times of Israel and the UN).

"One of the easiest decisions." The decision was easy for him because, in June 2025 and again in 2026, the heaviest bombs came from the United States (see how America joined in June 2025).

ClaimRating
Netanyahu lobbied Congress in 2015 against a sitting President's Iran dealCONFIRMED
He told Congress in 2024 "our battle is your battle," with Iran as the enemyCONFIRMED
His speeches aimed to bring the United States into confrontation with IranSTRONG

Status: Benjamin Netanyahu, Ted Cruz, Michael Tracey, and Barack Obama are alive.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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