Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of the United States Congress on Wednesday was one of the most powerful and significant speeches given by any national government leader in an important forum in some years. It was a forcefully delivered vaporization of the cant and bigotry and (literally) the philistinism of much of the current debate about the war in Gaza and the Middle East generally. The prime minister was only stating the obvious for anyone who thinks clearheadedly about it for a few moments, but he effortlessly and eloquently swept away a great deal of fatuous and malicious nonsense that enshrouds much of the current conflict.