When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped up to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly this week, he was met with a cascade of boos and a mass walkout of delegates, a striking public demonstration of Israel’s deepening international isolation over its ongoing military campaign in Gaza and occupation of Palestinian territory. Undeterred by the protest, Netanyahu opened his address with a sharp jab at the departing delegates, quipping, “If there are any other moral cowards who haven’t left this hall, please do so now,” as General Assembly President repeatedly called for order to quiet the disruptive chamber.
The pugnacious speech saw Netanyahu target a wide range of critics, from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and major European powers, framing his aggressive tone as a defense of Israel’s right to exist amid mounting global condemnation. A large share of his opening criticism was reserved for Mamdani, whom he accused of capitulating to what he called “antisemitic mobs” and eroding safety for Jewish New Yorkers. Netanyahu also pushed back against Mamdani’s efforts to block his UN appearance, declaring “You can’t silence me. You can’t silence the truth.” Even before Netanyahu entered the UN compound, hundreds of anti-Israel, pro-Palestine protesters gathered outside the building, continuing their demonstration through the duration of his address.
Political analysts have noted that much of the speech was tailored to two key audiences: American voters and domestic Israeli constituents ahead of the country’s scheduled October national elections, with Netanyahu leaning into partisan rhetoric targeting progressive American politics and courting pro-Israel conservative supporters.
On foreign policy, Netanyahu framed the recent joint US-Israeli military strikes against Iranian targets as a clear victory, claiming credit for devastating Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. He defended his decision to greenlight the attacks, saying “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.” He added that he had made a public promise to block Iran’s Islamist government from developing nuclear weapons that he claimed would target Israel and threaten global security. In a provocative symbolic gesture, Netanyahu held up a Starlink satellite internet receiver during the address, announcing he would leave the device for Iran’s UN delegation. Western intelligence sources have confirmed that the US and Israel have worked to supply Starlink terminals to Iranian anti-government dissidents to help them evade state internet censorship during anti-regime protests, and Netanyahu stated the device would allow dissidents to “freely tell their story on social media” if they flee the country. As of yet, the joint strikes have failed to topple the Iranian government, and Iran has responded by reasserting its military control over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, while its allied Houthi movement in Yemen has consolidated control over key territory along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Netanyahu opened his address on the ongoing Gaza conflict by reaffirming his condemnation of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack that killed roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel, which he called the darkest day in Israeli history. However, he repeated multiple graphic accusations about the attack that have been repeatedly debunked by independent investigators, academic researchers, and even Israeli eyewitnesses. In his remarks, he claimed Hamas “slaughtered Holocaust survivors, they burned babies alive in front of their parents. They beheaded our men, they brutally raped our women, and then they murdered them.”
In response to the October 7 attack, Israel launched a large-scale military invasion and bombardment of Gaza that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians to date, the vast majority of them civilians, and injured nearly 175,000 more. The United Nations and dozens of leading global human rights organizations have formally designated Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as a genocide, and the International Criminal Court has issued active arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Netanyahu described Israel as fighting a “seven-front war” across the region, praising Israeli soldiers as fighting “like lions,” and pushed back against the countries whose delegates walked out, claiming many of their leaders privately thank Israel for its strikes on Iranian nuclear targets. He doubled down on criticism of European powers that have imposed new trade sanctions on goods from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, calling out Britain and France for what he labeled hypocrisy over colonialism. “They accuse Israel, tiny Israel, of colonialism – some colonialism. And who’s accusing us? Among them are people in Britain and in France. For God’s sake, they invented the term,” he said. Later, he revised his count upward to an “eight-front war,” adding critical global media coverage of Israel’s actions to his list of active adversaries.
The Israeli leader went after a string of regional leaders, responding to recent comments by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa condemning Israel’s illegal occupation of the Golan Heights by claiming “Jews have been on the Golan Heights since the days of Moses.” He also launched a blistering attack on Qatar and the Al Jazeera media network, and labeled Turkey a “super-spreader of antisemitic lies,” calling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “a tyrant” who “calls for Israel’s destruction almost every single day.”
The only foreign leader Netanyahu singled out for praise during his address was former US President Donald Trump, declaring “We have no greater partner than President Trump. I thank him.”
On the issue of growing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu dismissed the scale of the unrest, downplaying attacks that have drawn widespread global condemnation. Earlier this week, Jordanian King Abdullah II accused Israel of carrying out de facto annexation of the West Bank and committing war crimes against Palestinian civilians there. In response, Netanyahu claimed only “a handful of young juvenile delinquents, about 150 in number, who throw stones, who chop down olive trees” were responsible for unrest in the territory. He also rebranded the West Bank by its biblical name Judea and Samaria, and claimed Hamas maintains a strong active presence there, in remarks widely interpreted as laying political groundwork for future large-scale military escalation in the occupied territory.