As Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the dais to speak at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Friday morning, what looked like two-thirds of the world leaders present got up and left. Some clapped and yelled as they filed out of the room.
The leaders who left included representatives from Iran, Spain, Norway, Ireland, Greece, South Africa, Kyrgyzstan, Chili, Brazil, Botswana, Tunisia, Somalia, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, the state of Palestine and more.
Here is what they missed.
Netanyahu rejects a two-state solution
As of this week, more than 150 of the 193 United Nations country members recognize a Palestinian state, including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Spain and all of South America except for Argentina.
To the leaders who most recently recognized Palestine, Netanyahu said the decision sends the message that “murdering Jews pays off.”
The problem with negotiating for a two-state solution, Netanyahu said, is he doesn’t believe Palestinians want two states. “They never have,” he said. “They don’t want a state next to Israel; they want a Palestinian state instead of Israel.”
“And that’s why every time they were offered a Palestinian state and were required to end the conflict with Israel and recognize the Jewish state — every time over the decades they turned it down."
Netanyahu offered a message to those leaders, especially to the leaders of France, the U.K. and Canada.
“When the most savage terrorists on earth are praising your decision, you didn’t do something right. You did something wrong. Horribly wrong,” he said. “Your disgraceful decision will increase terrorism against Jews and against innocent people everywhere. It will be a mark of shame against all of you.”
Netanyahu said the decision to recognize a Palestinian state after the “horrors committed by Hamas on Oct. 7″ is wrong. Nearly 90% of the Palestinian population supported the attack that day, Netanyahu said. “They not only supported it, they celebrated it. They danced on the rooftops. They threw candies. That’s both in Gaza and in the West Bank.”
Netanyahu: Gaza effectively had a Palestinian state
That there was effectively a Palestinian state in Gaza, Netanyahu said. “What did they do with that state? Peace? Co-existence?” he asked. “No. They attacked us time and time again. Unprovoked, they fired rockets into our cities, they murdered our children. They turned Gaza into a terror base from which they committed the Oct. 7 massacre.”
It’s not the absence of a Palestinian state, it’s the presence and existence of a Jewish state, he said.
“Giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after October 7 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,” Netanyahu said.
Then he addressed western leaders specifically.
“Israel will not allow you to shove a terrorist state down our throats,” he said. “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.”
Last year, Israel’s Parliament voted on whether they supported the imposition of a Palestinian state. Out of 120 members, 99 voted against and only 9 supported.
“That’s over 90%. It’s not a fringe group,” Netanyahu said. “It’s not the prime minister who himself is extreme… it’s over 90% of Israelis. My opposition to a Palestinian state is not simply my policies or my government’s policy, it’s the policy of the people of Israel."
Netanyahu rejected claims that Israel is waging a genocide in Gaza
Netanyahu denied that Israel is targeting civilians in Gaza. He said the ratio of non-combatant to combatant casualties is less than 2 to 1, which is lower than NATO’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Israel sent millions of texts and made “countless” phone calls, urging civilians to leave Gaza City before the Israeli Defense Force went in, he said. At the same time, “Hamas implants itself in Mosques, schools, hospitals, apartment buildings and tries to force those civilians not to leave, to stay in harms way, and it often threatens them at gun point if they try to do so,” Netanyahu said.
So far, 700,000 Gazans have left Gaza, the prime minister said.
“Hamas uses civilians as human shields and as props in its sick propaganda war against Israel: a propaganda war that the western media buys, hook line and sinker.”
Netanyahu compared the war in Gaza to other genocides. “What, did the Nazis ask the Jews to kindly leave?” he asked. “Do you want me to name all of the genocidal leaders of history? Just go one by one. Did anyone do that? Did anyone say get out so we can come in? Of course not. So the truth has been turned on its head,” he said.
Netanyahu rejected claims that Israel is starving the people of Gaza
“Israel is accused of deliberately starving the people of Gaza, when Israel is deliberately feeding the people of Gaza,” Netanyahu said.
Since the beginning of the war, Israel has let in more than 2 million tons of food and aid, which is one ton of aid for every man, woman and child in Gaza, Netanyahu said. “Nearly 3,000 calories for every person, per day.”
He continued, “If there are Gazans that don’t have enough food, it’s because Hamas is stealing it. Hamas steals it, hoards it and sells it at exorbitant prices to fight its war machine.”
“Last month, even the UN, not exactly a supporter of Israel — you’re supposed to laugh, by the way — last month, even the UN admitted that Hamas and other armed groups looted 85% of the trucks. That’s why you have deprivation," he said.
The prime minister then compared accusations of Israel-caused starvation with “those who peddle blood libel against the Jews of the Middle Ages when they falsely accused us of poisoning wells, spreading plague and using the blood of children to bake passover matzahs.”
“Antisemitism dies hard, and in fact, it doesn’t die at all,” he said.
Netanyahu spoke directly to the hostages remaining in Gaza
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas took over 250 Israeli men, women and children as hostages. So far, 207 have been returned home, but 48 still remain in the tunnels under Gaza, including 20 believed to still be alive.
“I have surrounded Gaza with massive loud speakers, connected to this microphone, in the hope that our dear hostages will hear my message,” Netanyahu said.
First, he delivered his message in Hebrew, and then he read it in English.
“Our brave heroes, this is Prime Minister Netanyahu, speaking to you live from the United Nations. We have not forgotten you, not even for a second. The people of Israel are with you. We will not falter, and we will not rest until we bring all of you home,” he said.
Then he addressed the Hamas leaders. “I now say, lay down your arms! Let my people go! Free the hostages. All of them. The whole 48. Free the hostages now. If you do, you will live. If you don’t, Israel will hunt you down,” he said.
Netanyahu describes a proportional Oct. 7 attack on the United States
To have the same proportional attack on the United States as was waged on Israel, a terrorist organization would have had to dispatch thousands of terrorists, murder 40,000 Americans and take 10,000 Americans hostage.
“What do you think America would do?” Netanyahu asked. “Do you think America would leave that regime standing?”
“We are wiping out the terror regime of Hamas. We are ensuring that this savagery will never threaten Israel again. That’s what we’re doing. That’s what any self-respecting government would do,” he said.
On Oct. 7, Hamas waged the largest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. “They slaughtered 1,200 innocent people, including over 40 Americans and foreign nationals represented here. They beheaded men. They raped women. They burnt babies alive. They burnt babies alive in front of their parents,” he said.
“These monsters took more than 250 people hostage. Those included holocaust survivors, grandmothers and their grandchildren. Who takes hostage grandmothers and grandchildren?” Netanyahu asked. “Hamas does.”
The result of nations opposing Israel
For the past two years, Israel “has had to fight a seven-front war against barbarism with many of your nations opposing us,” he said.
“When we fight the terrorists who murdered many of your citizens, you are fighting us,” he said. “You condemn us, you embargo us, and you wage lawfare against us.
This is not an indictment of Israel, Netanyahu said. “It’s an indictment of you.”
“You cannot appease your way out of jihad, and you will not escape the storm by sacrificing Israel. To escape that storm, you have to stand with Israel. But that’s not what you’re doing. As the prophets of Israel told in the Bible, you’ve turned good into evil and evil into good,” he said.
“The final remnants of Hamas are holed up in Gaza City. They vow to repeat the atrocities of Oct. 7 again and again and again,” he said. “No matter how diminished their forces. That is why Israel must finish the job. That is why we want to do so as fast as possible.”
Netanyahu on what will bring an end to the war
Netanyahu asked for Gaza to be de-militarized and for Israel to retain overriding security control.
He said a peaceful civilian authority would be established by Gazans and others committed to peace with Israel.
Though it appears the leaders from Lebanon walked out before Netanyahu began speaking, the prime minister urged them to take action.
“If Lebanon takes genuine and sustained action to disarm Hezbollah, I am sure we can achieve a sustainable peace,” he said.
He continued, “Of course, until that happens, we will take whatever action we need to defend ourselves and maintain the conditions of the ceasefire that was established in Lebanon.”
What does all of this have to do with the West? Netanyahu asks
“I’m sure there are people in New York or London or Melbourne and elsewhere who are probably thinking, what does all of this have to do with me?” Netanyahu said.
“Everything,” he said. “Because our enemies are your enemies.”
On a poster board, Netanyahu had written, “Who shouts ‘Death to America’?” The options listed were Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and “All of the above.”
“All of the above,” he said.
Then he held up another poster board, which asked, “Who has murdered Americans and Europeans in cold blood?” The options listed were Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and “All of the above.” He responded with the same answer.
“Our enemies hate all of us with equal venom,” he said. “They want to drag the modern world to an age of the past to a dark age of violence, fanaticism and terror. I think many of you are already feeling in your own societies that radical Islam has surged. You know deep down that Israel is fighting your fight.”
Netanyahu says behind closed doors leaders have privately thanked Israel
Netanyahu said that when Israel struck Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said, “Israel is doing the dirty work for all of us.”
Netanyahu praised the United States for its support.
“President Trump understands better than any other leader that Israel and America face a common threat,” he said. “He showed the world that when Iran and its proxies murder Americans, take Americans hostage, shout death to America, burn American flags and try to assassinate the president of the Untied States, not once but twice, he showed them there is a price to pay for all that.”
But many world leaders send a very different message, Netanyahu said. The support leaders initially showed immediately following Oct. 7 “quickly evaporated when Israel did what any self-respecting nation would do in the wake of such a savage attack.”