Netanyahu’s UN speech
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Per a request for a thread on this:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel defended his country’s attacks on its enemies and vowed to continue its campaign to “finish the job” against Hamas in a defiant address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday morning.
Representatives from dozens of countries walked out of the hall just before Mr. Netanyahu began his address to the General Assembly, the latest public protest of Israel from an audience of world leaders who are demanding an end to the war in Gaza. Mr. Netanyahu said Israelis “will not commit national suicide” by allowing the creation of a Palestinian state, and sharply criticized nations that have recognized such a prospect in recent days. “It will be a mark of shame on all of you,” he said.
As voices repeatedly shouted from the audience, Mr. Netanyahu began his speech by detailing his country’s attacks on opponents and Middle East neighbors, which he said had eliminated threats to Israel, and read a list of names of hostages held in Gaza. Israel positioned loudspeakers in Gaza on Thursday morning to broadcast his speech, which he used to send a message in English and Hebrew. “We have not forgotten you,” he said.
Mr. Netanyahu also turned the blame back on Israel’s critics, accusing world leaders of buckling and caving “when the going got tough” for Israel. He says Israel is fighting a seven-front war with little support.
Mr. Netanyahu, who has been accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court, faces intense pressures at home and abroad. On Friday, he denied that Israel was committing genocide, citing as proof its repeated issuance of evacuation orders for civilians in Gaza.
This week, about 10 countries, including Israel’s longtime allies France, Britain and Canada, recognized Palestinian statehood as part of an effort to advance a two-state solution to the conflict.
In response, some members of Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing governing coalition have called for the annexation of all or part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. That could put the Israeli leader at odds with his strongest ally, President Trump, who this week assured world leaders that he would not allow it.
I’m so old I remember when Even the Liberal New Republic, under the editorship of lavender reactionary Andrew Sullivan, spent much of the 1990s attacking the UN in terms that were basically identical to those used by WFB’s National Review in the 1960s. That was a harbinger of a number of things.