Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
He spoke less than five miles from Ground Zero.
Dozens of diplomats stood up and walked out as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stage at the UN on Thursday.
The sudden walkout forced the assembly speaker to pound his gavel for order. Unfazed by the commotion, Netanyahu confronted the remaining audience.
“If there are any other moral cowards in the audience, I urge them to walk out,” he said.
He invoked his late brother Yonatan, declaring, “We are going to win. We have no other choice.”
While standard UN guidelines limit leaders to 15 minutes of microphone time, Netanyahu spoke for 40 minutes, and, according to The Guardian, the fiery speech double-functioned as a campaign message for voters back home ahead of Israeli elections.
16 times 9/11
Just before the halfway mark of the speech, Netanyahu compared the October 7 attack to the 9/11 attack on New York 25 years ago, less than five miles from where Netanyahu was speaking.
According to the transcript of his speech, published on the Israeli government website, Netanyahu first stated that 1,200 Israelis were killed on October 7, 2023.
“I want to give you an idea of what this means for a country of 10 million. Proportionately, this is equal to 40,000 innocent Americans slaughtered in less than 24 hours. That’s 16 times 9/11. Sixteen 9/11s that occurred not very far from here,” the Israeli PM said.
Shouting at critics
During his speech, Netanyahu fiercely rejected claims of genocide in Gaza, calling the military action “the opposite of genocide.” He leveled sharp attacks against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
He also defended joint strikes on Iranian nuclear targets from earlier this year. “Devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was … very hard to do,” Netanyahu said. “But for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister. Because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.”
He closed his remarks with a direct jab at critics. “So, to all those spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the antisemitic mayor of New York, I say this: Shame on you!” he said.
Protests in Manhattan
Outside on the streets of Manhattan, hundreds of demonstrators gathered to protest the visit. New York police officers eventually arrested more than 100 people during the demonstrations.
Inside, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the assembly via video from Ramallah. The Trump administration denied visas to the Palestinian delegation for the second year in a row. Abbas called the decision unlawful, warning that Israeli policies threaten the very existence of his people.
Netanyahu departed quickly without meeting senior American officials, citing the upcoming holiday of Sukkot and his campaign schedule.
You can watch Neanyahu’s speech in full on the UN website (opens new link).
