Hamas says a mass walkout of delegations before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations on Friday showed Israel’s “isolation” as a result of the Gaza war.
“Boycotting Netanyahu’s speech is one manifestation of Israel’s isolation and the consequences of the war of extermination,” Taher al-Nunu, the media adviser to the head of Hamas’s political bureau, says in a statement.
Smotrich hails Netanyahu UN speech: There will never be a Palestinians state
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hails Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly as “important declarations.”
“He laid down once again necessary and clear principles, both morally and practically: We will not stop until Hamas is defeated and the hostages are returned. And we will never agree to a Palestinian state.
“Even if it is difficult, even if there is a price, and even if it takes time,” says Smotrich, who is one of the principal proponents of the war.
In the final passages of his speech to the UN, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moves away from the Palestinian issue to other regional matters.
He says Israel’s “victories over the Iranian terror axis have opened up possibilities for peace that were unthinkable two years ago.”
On Syria, he says, “the very idea of peace between Israel and Syria seemed unimaginable” for decades. But today, “we have begun serious negotiations with the new Syrian government. I believe an agreement can be reached that respects Syria’s sovereignty and protects both Israeli security and the security of the minorities in the region, including the Druze minority.”
He refers to the Druze as Israeli Jews’ brothers in arms. “That’s why I couldn’t sit idly by, nor could Israel sit idly by, while the Druze were being slaughtered by jihadists [in Syria],” he says. “I instructed our forces to stop the massacre, which they promptly did.”
He says peace between Israel and Lebanon “is possible as well,” and calls on the Lebanese government to also begin direct negotiations with Israel. “I commend it for its declared aim to disarm Hezbollah, but we need more than words. If Lebanon takes genuine and sustained action to disarm Hezbollah, I’m sure we can achieve a sustainable peace,” he says. “Of course, until that happens, we will take whatever action we need to defend ourselves and to maintain the conditions of the ceasefire which was established in Lebanon.”
Further afield, he says, while “victory over Hezbollah has made peace possible with our two Arab neighbors in the north, victory over Hamas will make peace possible with nations throughout the Arab and Muslim world.”
He says it would enable “a dramatic extension and expansion of the historic Abraham Accords, which President Trump brokered between Arab leaders and myself five years ago.”
He notes the “encouraging words spoken here by the president of Indonesia” earlier this week, highlighting the imperative for Israel to have security. “This is the country with the largest Muslim population of all nations, and it’s also a sign of what could come.”
Now he moves on to Iran: “I believe that in the coming years, the Middle East will look dramatically different. Many of those who wage war on Israel today will be gone tomorrow. Brave peacemakers will take their place. And nowhere, nowhere will this be more true than in Iran. The long-suffering Iranian people will regain their freedom. They will make Iran great again. Our two ancient peoples, the people of Israel and the people of Iran, will restore a friendship that will benefit the entire world,” he predicts.
Concluding his address, Netanyahu says horrors such as those perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 had “happened countless times during the centuries of my people’s exile among the nations. Jewish blood was cheap. Jews were killed with impunity. We had to beg others to defend us. The rise of Israel did not mean that the attempts to destroy us would end. It meant that we could fight back against those attempts. And that is exactly what Israel has done,” he says.
“Our sons and daughters fought like lions. Our brave soldiers donned their uniforms and rushed into battle. They were armed with the dreams of the hundred generations of Jews who came before them: The dream of living as a free people in the land of Israel, our beloved homeland for more than 3,000 years. The dreams of living in our own independent state, the dream of having an army to defend ourselves, and the dream of being a light unto the nations, a beacon of progress, ingenuity, innovation, for the benefit of all humanity.
“On October 7,” Netanyahu concludes, “the enemies of Israel tried to extinguish that light. Two years later, the resolve of Israel and the strength of Israel burn brighter than ever. With God’s help, that strength and that resolve will lead us to a speedy victory and to a brilliant future of prosperity and peace.”
Stepping up his criticism of world leaders recognizing Palestine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his UN addresses, charges that “what you’re doing is giving the ultimate reward to intolerant fanatics who perpetrated and supported the October 7 massacre.
“Giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after October 7,” he says, “is like giving Al Qaeda a state one mile from New York City after September 11. This is sheer madness. It’s insane, and we won’t do it.”
With blistering rage, Netanyahu says: “I want to give a message to those Western leaders. Israel will not allow you to shove a terror state down our throats. We will not commit national suicide because you don’t have the guts to face down a hostile media and antisemitic mobs demanding Israel’s blood.”
He also says that this is not only his stance, and that of his coalition, but that it represents the will of the Israeli people. “Last year, there was a vote in the Knesset, our parliament, on whether or not to oppose the imposition of a Palestinian state. You want to guess what the results were? Out of 120 members of our parliament, 99 voted against and only nine supported. That’s over 90%.
“It’s not a fringe. It’s not the prime minister who himself is extreme, or he’s held hostage by extreme parties to his right. It’s over 90% of Israelis. My opposition to a Palestinian state is not simply my policy or my government’s policy. It’s the policy of the state and people of the State of Israel.
“Western leaders may have buckled under the pressure,” he says, concluding this passage of his remarks. “I guarantee you one thing, Israel won’t.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his UN address, denounces the leaders of “France, Britain, Australia, Canada, and other countries” for recognizing Palestinian statehood this week.
“They did so after the horrors committed by Hamas on October 7,” he fumes. “Horrors praised on that day by nearly 90% of the Palestinian population,” he claims. “They celebrated. They danced on the rooftops. They threw candies. That’s both in Gaza and in Judea Samaria, the West Bank, as you call it.” He says the Palestinians did the same on 9/11.
He says leaders who recognized Palestine this week sent the message to the Palestinians that “Murdering Jews pays off. Well, I have a message for these leaders. When the most savage terrorists on Earth are effusively praising your decision, you didn’t do something right. You did something wrong, horribly wrong. Your disgraceful decision will encourage terrorism against Jews and against innocent people everywhere. It will be a mark of shame on all of you.”
He derides the world leaders’ talk of a two-state solution, “where the Jewish state of Israel will live side by side in peace with the Palestinian state. There’s only one problem with that. The Palestinians — they don’t believe in this solution. They never have. They don’t want a state next to Israel. They want a Palestinian state instead of Israel,” he declares.
“Every time they were given territory, they used it to attack us,” Netanyahu charges. “They effectively had a Palestinian state in Gaza. What did they do with that state? Peace? Coexistence? No. They attacked us time and time again. Totally unprovoked. They fired rockets into our cities. They murdered our children. They turned Gaza into a terror base from which they committed the October 7 massacre.”
“Here’s the uncomfortable truth,” he sums up on this issue. “The persistent Palestinian rejection of a Jewish state in any bout is what has driven this conflict for over a century. It is still driving it. It’s not the absence of a Palestinian state. It’s the presence and existence of a Jewish state.”
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