Israel will press ahead with its wars until victory is achieved, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly in heated remarks directed equally at Western critics, enemies in the Middle East and voters at home.
Netanyahu, who faces an election next month that amounts to a referendum on his failure to prevent the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, made an unusually short trip to New York to deliver Thursday’s address. As he prepared to speak, many delegates walked out of the chamber, reflecting international censure of Israel’s campaign in Gaza and Lebanon following the attack.
“We will continue to defend our state,” he said to cheers from supporters in the gallery in the mostly empty General Assembly hall. “We will continue to win, because we have no other choice.”
As in previous speeches, Netanyahu focused his warnings on Iran — against which Israel and its US ally launched a costly and so-far inconclusive military campaign in February. He predicted that Iran’s people would one day rise up and overthrow their government.
He also lashed out at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who Netanyahu said “calls for Israel’s destruction every single day.”
Back in 2012, the Israeli leader held up a cartoon bomb with a red line to mark Iran’s potential progress toward nuclear weaponry. This time he brought a Starlink device to highlight Tehran’s clampdowns on domestic media and dissent, and asked the chair of the session to give it to the Iranian delegation — “so when they inevitably defect, they too will be able to freely tell their story.”
Unlike on previous trips, Netanyahu took no reporters with him to the UN and didn’t tell the press where he’d be landing. Israeli media attributed the measures to security concerns fueled by expectations of major demonstrations in New York, whose mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has called for the prime minister’s arrest under a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes.
“You falsely, repeatedly accuse Israel of genocide, Mr. Mamdani. You tried to stop me from coming here,” Netanyahu said in his speech. “Well, you can’t silence me. You can’t silence the truth.”
A UN-backed monitor earlier declared a famine in parts of Gaza, while another panel supported by the world body has said Israel was committing genocide.
Mamdani acknowledged he doesn’t have the authority to arrest Netanyahu in New York. Mamdani said Netanyahu used the speech “to repeat baseless lies.”
This report is auto generated from the Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
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