Netanyahu Against the ‘Moral Cowards’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in what could be his last speech from the rostrum at the United Nations General Assembly, today offered a reminder of why he has been a defining statesman of the last half-century. The Jewish premier, a lion in winter, strode into the lion’s den and declared that “accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century.” After a walkout of some 70 countries, he urged any remaining “moral cowards” to be gone.Those who stayed were treated to a catechism of clarity. Mr. Netanyahu’s 16th such speech asked “Do you know any other country the size of New Jersey capable of fighting a seven-front war, and for three years? Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, militias in Iraq, militias in Syria, Palestinian terrorists in Judea, Samaria.” He asked — rhetorically — “What genocidal regime gives one million polio vaccinations to the enemy’s population?” Mr. Netanyahu, the son of the preeminent historian of the Spanish Inquisition, dinged Britain and France for hurling the calumny of “colonialism” at the country he calls “little Israel.” Among the accusers he thundered, “are people in Britain and in France. For God’s sake, they invented the term. Their colonies braced the entire globe.” Now, though, Paris and London —and many other capitals besides — have “chosen to succumb to the mobs.”Mr. Netanyahu knows his way around Manhattan. He served as Israel’s envoy to the United Nations in the 1980s. That was a different New York, though. Mr. Netanyahu told Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who had threatened to arrest him, that “you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me. You can’t silence the truth.” Many Jews, Mr. Netanyahu reckons, “no longer feel safe in New York.”Mr. Netanyahu, who has long had his finger on the pulse of American politics, denounced Mr. Mamdani for counting “as friends people like Hasan Piker.” The premier told Hizzoner that “Your wife liked the post praising the October 7th massacre. She liked another post saying Tel Aviv shouldn’t exist. You refuse to condemn them.” Mr. Mamdani calls those “baseless lies.” The truth is with the Israeli.Our Benny Avni reports that Mr. Netanyahu’s performance was relatively restrained, at least in terms of visual aids, in comparison to past years. This year’s edition included only a Starlink device held aloft by the prime minister — to illustrate a point about the Iranian regime’s brutal clampdown on speech — and a beeper, to remind of the surprise attack unleashed two years ago on Hezbollah’s militants. Mr. Netanyahu’s speech capped a weeklong assault on Israel unlike any others in the United Nations’ long history of denigrating the Jewish state. Prior to Mr. Netanyahu’s address, Britain’s foreign minister, Ed Miliband, posted a selfie video on X, roaming the UN halls while touting his government’s move to boycott Israeli goods. Mr. Netanyahu offered another bit of history. Judea, he explained, is “where the word Jew comes from. That’s our land.”

Netanyahu Against the ‘Moral Cowards’

Netanyahu Against the ‘Moral Cowards’

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