House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be welcomed at the U.S. Capitol for a joint session of Congress.

Israel has been waging a war to wipe out Hamas in response to the heinous October 7 attacks in which terrorists committed atrocities including slaughter, rape, and kidnapping.

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said he will not attend the joint session. During an appearance on CNN, Sanders said Netanyahu "created the worst humanitarian disaster in modern history."

Netanyahu has firmly rejected the idea of a Palestinian state, asserting that it "would be a terrorist state."

"The intention of several European countries to recognize a Palestinian state is a reward for terrorism," Netanyahu said in a post on X. "80% of the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria support the terrible massacre of October 7. This evil cannot be given a state. This would be a terrorist state. It will try to repeat the massacre of October 7 again and again; we will not consent to this. Rewarding terrorism will not bring peace and neither will it stop us from defeating Hamas."

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Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan has accused Israel of perpetrating a "genocide."

"It's no coincidence that immediately after our government sent the Israeli apartheid regime over $14 billion with absolutely no conditions on upholding human rights, Netanyahu began a ground invasion of Rafah to continue the genocide of Palestinians — with ammunition and bombs paid for by our tax dollars," Tlaib said in a statement earlier this month.

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