Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu sharply denounced western countries on Friday for embracing Palestinian statehood and accused them of buckling under pressure from activists and others who have accused Israel of war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly, the Israeli leader pushed back in harsh terms against a flurry of diplomatic moves by leading US allies that deepened Israel’s international isolation over its conduct of the nearly two-year-old war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
“This week, the leaders of France, Britain, Australia, Canada and other countries unconditionally recognized a Palestinian state. They did so after the horrors committed by Hamas on October 7th – horrors praised on that day by nearly 90 per cent of the Palestinian population.”
With more countries joining the list of those endorsing Palestinian independence, the most right-wing government in Israeli history has made its strongest declaration yet that there will be no Palestinian state as it pushes on with its fight against Hamas following the militants’ October 7th, 2023, rampage in Israel. Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies.
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Israel’s military response has killed more than 65,000 people in Gaza, according to local health officials, and left much of the territory in ruins.
Scores of delegates exited the hall as Mr Netanyahu took the stage while attendees in the balcony rose to their feet to give him a standing ovation.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who was due to address the assembly later, was not in the hall.
“Over time, many world leaders buckled. They buckled under the pressure of a biased media, radical Islamist constituencies and anti-Semitic mobs. There’s a familiar saying, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Well, for many countries here, when the going got tough, you caved,” Mr Netanyahu said.
“Behind closed doors, many of the leaders who publicly condemn us privately thank us. They tell me how much they value Israel’s superb intelligence services that have prevented, time and again, terrorist attacks in their capitals.”
Frustration over Israel’s military siege and US president Donald Trump’s unwillingness to rein Mr Netanyahu in has spilled into the open at the annual New York gathering where, in a dramatic shift, Australia, Britain, Canada and France and several other nations embraced a Palestinian state.
They said such action was needed to preserve the prospect for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and help bring the war to a close.
Mr Netanyahu followed to the rostrum Arab and Muslim leaders who this week accused Israel of genocide and war crimes in Gaza. The Israeli government has vehemently denied this.
The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Mr Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in the Gaza war. Israel rejects the court’s jurisdiction and denies committing war crimes in Gaza. Mr Netanyahu rebutted on Friday what he called “the false charge of genocide.”
Hamas has offered to release all remaining hostages – only about 20 of whom are believed to be alive out of a total of 48 – in exchange for Israel agreeing to end the war and withdrawing from Gaza.
“Much of the world no longer remembers October 7th. But we remember,” Mr Netanyahu said. Speaking in Hebrew, the Israeli leader directed his remarks to the hostages still held in Gaza: “We’ve not forgotten you – not even for a second.”
On Thursday, Mr Trump told reporters that he thought a deal to end the war and release the remaining hostages held by Hamas was “close” – though he offered no explanation for his optimism about overcoming a months-long impasse in negotiations.
The right-wing Israeli leader, who spoke by phone to Mr Trump on Thursday and will visit the White House on Monday, is under mounting pressure from the hostages’ families and, according to public opinion polls, a war-weary Israeli public.
Mr Netanyahu has insisted that the fight must go on until Hamas is completely dismantled. He is wary at the same time of losing the backing of far-right members in his fragile governing coalition if he softens his approach.
Mr Netanyahu has retained the staunch support of the US, Israel’s most important ally and main arms supplier. Mr Trump told the UN on Tuesday that moves to recognise a Palestinian state risked rewarding Hamas for “horrible atrocities” and could encourage continued conflict.
Still, no matter how many countries recognise Palestine, full UN membership would require approval by the security council, where the United States has a veto.
Ahead of Mr Netanyahu’s speech, his office said loudspeakers were instructed to be placed at the Israeli side of the Gaza border to broadcast the address into the Palestinian enclave.
Speaking by video after the US denied him a visa, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza as “a war of genocide.”
He thanked countries that recently recognised Palestinian statehood, pledged that his Palestinian Authority would be ready to govern postwar Gaza and called for Hamas to be disarmed and have no role.
Some of Mr Netanyahu’s hardline ministers have said the government should respond to growing recognition of the state of Palestine by formally extending Israeli sovereignty over all or parts of the occupied West Bank to snuff out hopes for Palestinian independence.
On Thursday, however, Mr Trump said he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, which the Palestinians want for their state, along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
“It’s not going to happen,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. That followed his discussions on the UN sidelines this week in which multiple Arab leaders expressed alarm over the issue.
Mr Trump’s pronouncement could create tensions when he meets Mr Netanyahu – their fourth time face-to-face since the president returned to office in January. – Reuters
