Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the United Nations General Assembly as a “swamp of antisemitic bile” during a fiery address Friday morning — as dozens of diplomats walked out in protest ahead of the speech.
Netanyahu slammed the mounting criticism of Israel’s handling of the nearly year-long war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The UN, he claimed, represented an “anti-Israel flat-earth society.”
He also denounced the International Criminal Court’s allegations that Israel has deliberately targeted civilians in Gaza as the product of “profound moral confusion.”
He scoffed at the “self-described progressives” who marched against Israel’s war effort in the US and beyond, who he claimed had no idea about the reality of life under the “Iranian goons” they supposedly supported.
One of the missing delegations was Iran, to whom Netanyahu spoke directly in his speech.
“If you strike us, we will strike you,” Netanyahu warned.
“There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach. And that is true of the entire Middle East.”
The impassioned speech came nearly one year after the Oct. 7 attack by the Iran-backed terror group Hamas.
Netanyahu recounted the horrors of Oct. 7 for his listeners on Friday, reminding the attendees how the terrorists “burned families alive” and “maimed” women.
The attack set off a domino effect of conflict in the Middle East, as Israel launched an offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and was beset by aggression from Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In April, Iran launched a series of direct attacks against Israel in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike near the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria.
The prime minister reiterated that Israel will not tolerate any possibility that Hamas could rebuild its hold on the Gaza Strip after the war, which he compared to allowing the Nazis to rebuild Germany in the wake of World War II.
He repeatedly referenced his speech at the General Assembly last year, in which he outlined the difference between the “blessing” of reconciliation between Israel and Iran and the “curse of Iran’s unremitting aggression.”
The prime minister called for international support for a renewal of the 2020 Abraham Accords and a peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Such an agreement would be a “boon to the security and economy” of both countries, Netanyahu reasoned.
He ended the address with a firm shout of “Am Yisrael Chai,” a Hebrew rallying cry that means “The people of Israel live.”
