New York, September 27, 2024 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address to the UN General Assembly that his country has the right to wage war against its enemies. Dozens of diplomats walked out of the assembly hall just before he spoke.
“I didn’t intend to come here this year,” Netanyahu told the assembly with rows of empty seats. “My country is at war fighting for its life. But after I heard the lies and slanders leveled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight.”
“I decided to come here to speak for my people, to speak for my country and speak for the truth,” he said, adding that Israel also wants peace.
New York police said large demonstrations near the UN Headquarters were held to protest the war in the Middle East and the Israeli prime minister on the eve of his UN address. Police said protesters were met by pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters near Grand Central Thursday evening and multiple arrests were made.
“We face savage enemies who seek our annihilation, and we must defend ourselves against these savage murderers, [who] seek not only to destroy us but also destroy our common civilization and return all of us to a dark age of tyranny and terror,” Netanyahu said.
He warned Iran: “If you strike us, we will strike you. For too long, the world has appeased Iran. That appeasement must end.”
Netanyahu showed two maps of the Middle East region, one carries the word “blessing” and the other “curse,” and said that his country is still facing the same choice that Moses predicted thousands of years ago, “that our actions will determine whether we bequeath future generations a blessing or a curse.”
He showed the map with “curse” saying that it is the choice Israel is facing today, which is “the curse of Iran’s unremitting aggression or the blessing of a historic reconciliation between Arab and Jew.” He said “blessing” represented normalization efforts between Saudi Arabia and Israel while “curse” was the attacks launched by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Netanyahu said his country will continue to fight Hezbollah. “Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their home safely. And that’s exactly what we’re doing … we’ll continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met/
“Just imagine if terrorists turned El Paso and San Diego into ghost towns. How long would the American government tolerate that?” he said. “Yet Israel has been tolerating this intolerable situation for almost a year. Well, I’ve come here today to say: Enough is enough.”
UN Security Council meeting on Gaza – The council held a meeting on the nearly one year-old war in Gaza. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the UN has condemned the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and also condemned the “relentless” Israeli bombardment and hostilities have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza – including many women and children.
“Countless others have been injured, maimed, and traumatized for life.The speed and scale of the killing and destruction in Gaza are unlike anything in my years as Secretary-General.,” he said. “Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Over the past year, virtually the entire population of Gaza has been displaced – many of them several times – with nowhere safe to go. Half of the homeless are children.”
Guterres said Gaza has become the most dangerous place in the world for humanitarian activities and the humanitarian system is “hanging by a threat.” He said 225 UN humanitarian workers have been killed in the war, many of them with their families.
“I urge the Israeli authorities to do everything in their power to end attacks on UN personnel and property; to stop spreading disinformation against UN officials and entities; and to speed up the approval of visas and procurement requests,” he said. “All parties must abide by their obligations to protect humanitarian personnel and ensure that civilian sites are not used for military purposes.”
The UN said more than 1,000 people were killed in Israel by the Hamas attacks and 250 taken hostage on October 7. The Israeli military response has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and about 80 per cent of its 2.3 million people in Gaza have been displaced while only a fraction of the humanitarian aid needed has reached them.(By J. Tuyet Nguyen)
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