Accounts of Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to the US this week were couched in uncomfortably similar language to that used when describing Vladimir Putin’s trips abroad.

“The visit was seen as giving him a chance to show himself as a global statesman, welcomed by the… leaders of [his country’s] closest all[ies],” the AP wrote, of Netanyahu.

Again, that sounds a lot like accounts of Putin’s visits to China and India.

The subtext is that Netanyahu’s a pariah and maybe a war criminal too. At least in the eyes of many governments, the US not among them. Or not officially, anyway. Netanyahu has plenty of critics on Capitol Hill, where he was set to address a joint session of Congress.

In May, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan sought arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. The US reportedly asked the UK’s new government to press a legal challenge to the ICI’s jurisdiction over the war in Gaza, where Netanyahu was accused by Khan of engineering a famine, intentionally targeting a civilian population and “other inhumane acts.” An arrest warrant would put Netanyahu in bad company. The ICI’s defendants list is a rough cast of characters which includes, of course, Putin.

The Biden administration’s strategy for dealing with Netanyahu post-October 7 was an abysmal failure. Hug-a-Bibi (figuratively and literally) was paradoxically seen as the best way to preempt genocide in Gaza. A full-on embrace of Israel — including the no-questions-asked provision of arms — in the wake of the atrocities committed by Hamas could foster an open dialogue between friends, who’d share intelligence, collaborate on strategy and just generally stay on the same page. Or so Biden imagined.

Needless to say, things didn’t turn out that way. Netanyahu, under pressure from the far-right firebrands he relies on to stay in power, ran roughshod over Biden, ignoring US red lines and demanding unflinching American support for Israel’s “righteous” war, no matter how high the civilian body count. Biden, an unapologetically pro-Israel president, finally pushed back when the IDF was poised to invade Rafah earlier this year, but it was far, far too late.

In hindsight, it would’ve been better — albeit politically unpopular at the outset — to take a harder line with Netanyahu in the days after October 7 in recognition of the domestic political environment in Israel, where his favorability was flagging amid a wildly unpopular, overtly anti-democratic push to limit the power and discretion of the country’s top court. Netanyahu’s authoritarian metamorphosis was nearly complete, and it didn’t take a leap of logic to conclude that he might leverage the war to stay in power. Neither did you need to be any kind of expert to suggest that the outsized influence of Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich had the potential to turn the war against Hamas into a genocidal bloodbath.

The nature of the war has sown deep divisions among an already riven US electorate, and those divisions are readily exploited by Iranian and Russian propaganda campaigns, which amplify both sides of the debate over the war (and over Palestine more generally) in a bid to further inflame America’s combustible politics.

It’s under those circumstances that Netanyahu’s being allowed to address a joint session of Congress. It’s a bad idea. We’ve seen this movie before. Three times, actually. It’s no fun. In 2015, for example, Netanyahu used a flagrantly abrasive speech at the Capitol to deride Barack Obama’s nuclear deal, a tactless display even if you agreed with Netanyahu’s position. On Wednesday, he was sure to paint the war in Gaza as a virtuous effort that all Americans should wholeheartedly support. The implication will be that Democrats — even Jewish Democrats — are anti-Semites.

Jerry Nadler, the most senior Jewish member of the House, was having none of it. “Benjamin Netanyahu is the worst leader in Jewish history since the Maccabean king who invited the Romans into Jerusalem over 2,100 years ago,” he said, in a statement, on the way to reminding Americans that, perhaps more than anyone else, Netanyahu “championed the policies that led to Hamas’s increase in funds, power and military capability.” That’s something a lot of Americans who support Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza are ignorant of and refuse to internalize.

Nadler wasn’t done. “Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress is not in service of furthering the deep ties that bind the United States and Israel together, but rather is a stunt aimed at aiding his own desperate political standing at home and meddling in domestic American politics only months before a highly consequential election,” he went on.

Again, we’ve seen this movie before. Netanyahu has a history of interfering with US politics, and this week Congress gave him an opportunity to do it again. In a characteristically cynical statement ahead of his trip, Netanyahu said, “In this time of war and uncertainty, it’s important that Israel’s enemies know that America and Israel stand together today, tomorrow and always.” He also said his goal in addressing Congress is to “anchor bipartisan support.” That’s a lie. Or if it’s not, he’s oblivious. When it comes to fostering bipartisan support for Israel on Capitol Hill, I can scarcely conjure a more counterproductive idea than inviting Netanyahu to speak.

At least a dozen Democrats are boycotting Netanyahu’s address, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who called him a war criminal. Rashida Tlaib, a lightning rod for controversy and the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, was characteristically blunt. “It is a sad day for our democracy when my colleagues will smile for a photo op with a man who is actively committing genocide,” she sighed. Ilhan Omar said she planned to give her guest tickets to the families of hostages. It’s not just “The Squad.” Dick Durbin’s boycotting Netanyahu too. So’s Patty Murray. And Jeff Merkley. And Chris Van Hollen. And on and on.

Bottom line: Netanyahu shouldn’t be in the US right now. And maybe not ever, frankly. He’s an authoritarian and even if you want to argue he’s not perpetrating genocide, he’s almost surely perpetuating the war in order to stay in power. His address to Congress this week is, as Van Hollen put it, “a political prop.” Netanyahu’s in America, at America’s invitation, to interfere with America’s democracy. Sorry, but no thanks.

After meeting with Biden (and Kamala Harris), Netanyahu planned to travel to Mar-a-Lago for a chat with Donald Trump. Back in Israel, Ben Gvir endorsed Trump for president. In an interview Bloomberg shouldn’t have entertained, Ben Gvir ludicrously accused the Biden administration of “trying to prevent” Israel from winning the war against Hamas.