Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday defended his government’s actions against Palestinians and Iranians, telling delegates to the U.N. General Assembly that Israel would not stop fighting.
“Devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was hard. It was very hard to do. But for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister, because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead,” he said, striking a defiant tone.
“We will continue to defend our state. We will continue to win because we have no other choice,” he said.
He dismissed accusations that Israel’s war in Gaza amounts to genocide against Palestinian civilians. “Accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century,” Netanyahu said.
As some people booed him and walked out of the hall where he addressed U.N. member nations, Netanyahu said, “If there are any other moral cowards who haven’t yet left this hall, please do so now.”
He addressed his critics directly, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“Mr. Mamdani, since you are elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. They talk to me. They tell me this isn’t the city we remember. It changed so quickly. Now it’s no wonder. You praise criminals convicted of supporting Hamas. You count as friends people like Hassan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11. America deserved 9/11. Some friends you have.”
Netanyahu came to the United Nations with high stakes, a tight timeline and few friends. Not even his close ally President Donald Trump, who has yet to endorse him for re-election, stuck around. (Trump left New York before Netanyahu’s arrival to lavish Chinese President Xi Jinping with a three-day state visit.)
Still, he praised his friend and partner in the war against Iran.
“In this battle against the barbarians, we’ve had no greater partner than President Trump. I thank him,” Netanyahu said. “I thank him for his bold leadership. He boldly confronted an enormous danger to America, Israel and the world.”
Expected to spend less than 12 hours on the ground in the United States, the beleaguered Israeli leader faced a lion’s den in the U.N. General Assembly hall, where, one after another, world leaders sharply criticized his government from the same podium during their own speeches this week.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas earlier on Thursday condemned what he called Israel’s “malicious colonial scheme” in Gaza and the West Bank. Abbas, who spoke by video after the U.S. again denied visas to the Palestinian delegation, mentioned Trump by name twice: once when welcoming the president’s proposed “20-point plan” for peace, and again when calling on Trump to “fulfill the commitments he made to the leaders of the Arab and Islamic states last September to prevent the annexation of Palestinian land and to reject displacement.”
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday called Israel’s response to the “abhorrent terror attacks by Hamas” on Oct. 7, 2023, “an onslaught on Palestinians in Gaza, with a scale of killing and destruction unlike anything I have witnessed in all my years as secretary-general.” He accused Israel of “bulldozing the path to peace and raising the specter of ethnic cleansing.”
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham echoed the criticism, saying the threat posed to Israel by Hamas “does not justify the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza or the West Bank.” French President Emmanuel Macron piled on, saying, “All those who claim that Israel’s security requires the violation of the sovereignty of all of its neighboring states are making a very fateful error.”
Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said Israeli aggression was “marked by arrogance and hubris.” Jordanian King Abdullah II explicitly called Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank a war crime.
More than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.
Responding to his critics, Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel represented about “1% of the land mass of the entire Arab world, yet they accuse Israel, tiny Israel, of colonialism.”
Singling out Britain and France, he said, “For God’s sakes, they vetted the term. Their colonies braced the entire globe. Colonialism gave us a break.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spent much of his General Assembly speech attacking Israel’s killing of civilians and accusing the world of holding double standards.
“The nuclear weapon is in Israel, but the inspectors in Iran,” he said. “Israel kills, but Iran is subject to sanctions.”
In recent weeks, Israeli settler violence in the West Bank has escalated, with 275 Palestinian communities affected by settler attacks and more than 1,500 Palestinians displaced in total so far this year.
Netanyahu’s speech to the U.N. came at a pivotal moment as he faces a tough re-election next month and Americans’ support for Israel has soured. Recent polling showed one-third of U.S. adults believe Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
More than 100 people protesting the Israeli prime minister’s arrival in Manhattan were taken into custody Thursday after they blocked a street about five blocks from U.N. headquarters, according to the New York Police Department.
Demonstrating outside the United Nations on Wednesday, Rabbi Dovid Feldman said he believed Netanyahu’s actions were a violation of Judaism and international law. “This has to stop,” Feldman, 53, told MS NOW. “People are becoming aware, and this will have to end.”
Anticipating anti-Netanyahu protests, the Israeli government’s advertising agency launched a massive campaign on digital signs and billboards throughout midtown Manhattan focused on “the threat that the Iranian terrorist regime poses to the free world, and the joint efforts of the US and Israel against it.”
Josh Einiger, Alex Tabet, Ale Basalo and Nour Longi contributed to this report.
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