Amid escalating tensions in the Middle east over the possibility of an all-out regional war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday addressed the 79th United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York. In his opening remarks, he stated that he did not want to come to the UN this year, but felt compelled to defend his country against the “lies and slander” and came to “set the record straight.”
Dashing hopes for an internationally backed ceasefire, he told the world leaders that Israel would “continue degrading Hezbollah” until it achieves its goals along Lebanon border. “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,” Associated Press quoted Netanyahu as saying.
As Netanyahu took the podium, a large number of delegates left the hall. “I didn’t intend to come here this year. 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.” he said in his opening remarks.
‘Israel Has Killed Or Captured Half Of Hamas’ Forces’
The Israeli PM claimed that his military forces had already killed or captured over half of Hamas’ 40,000 fighters. He also claimed to have destroyed 90 percent of the rocket arsenal and eliminated “key segments” of the Hamas’ militants’ tunnel network since the war began.
He added that Israel is now focused on “mopping up Hamas’s remaining fighting capabilities” which include its remaining infrastructure and senior commanders. He praised the role played by Israeli soldiers in the war with Gaza, saying that they “fought back with incredible courage and with heroic sacrifice”.
“And I have another message for this assembly and for the world outside this hall: We are winning!” he said.
Netanyahu asked how the US would react if its towns would be turned into ghost towns due to attacks as he further stated how Israel had been trying to deal with a similar situation for over a year.
“Just imagine if terrorists turned El Paso and San Diego into ghost towns … How long would the American government tolerate that?…Yet Israel has been tolerating this intolerable situation for almost a year. Well, I’ve come here today to say: Enough is enough,” he said.
‘World Must Stop Appeasing Iran’
The Israeli PM expressed that his country wanted peace but stressed that if Iran continued to strike it then it would strike back. Blaming Iran for being the reason of several problems in the region, he added: “For too long, the world has appeased Iran. That appeasement must end.”
Netanyahu has, since the October 7 last year, defended the military operation Israel started in response to the attack by Hamas. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and wounded more than 96,000 others, according to the latest figures released by the Health Ministry, AP reported. Israel has maintained that these operations were necessary and were carried out in its defence.
Netanyahu also said that the only way this war could come to an end was if Hamas surrendered, failing which Israel would continue to fight to achieve “total victory”.
“This war can come to an end now. All that has to happen is for Hamas to surrender, lay down its arms, and release all the hostages. But if they don’t – if they don’t – we will fight until we achieve total victory. Total victory. There is no substitute for it,” Netanyahu said.
The Blessing & The Curse
Netanyahu had brought props with him to his speech to present his view on the issue. He held two maps in his hand which read “The Blessing” and “The Curse”. He asked the world to choose between them and said that Iran was at the center of this choice.
The blessing, he said, “shows Israel and its Arab partners forming a land bridge connecting Asia and Europe.”
Asking the delegates to look at the map which read “curse” he said, “It’s a map of a curse. It’s a map of an arc of terror that Iran has created and imposed from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean.”
“Which of these two maps that I showed you will shape our future? Will it be the blessings of peace and prosperity for Israel, our Arab partners, and the rest of the world? Or will it be the curse in which Iran and its proxies spread carnage and chaos everywhere?” he asked the leaders present at the UNGA.
Netanyahu stated that there was “no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach,” adding that it was true for the entire Middle East.
Netanyahu’s Post-War Plan For Gaza
During his speech, Netanyahu also shed light on who might govern Gaza after the war concludes. He said Israel has decided to reject any role for Hamas in post-war Gaza.
“We don’t seek to resettle Gaza, we seek to demilitarize and deradicalize Gaza. Only then can we ensure that this round of fighting will be the last round of fighting,” he said.
However, he said Israel was “ready to work with regional and local partners to support a civilian administration in Gaza committed to peaceful coexistence.”
Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob in his closing remarks pounded the podium and urged Netanyahu to “stop this war now”. Pakistani PM Shebaz Sharif, who also preceded the Israeli PM in the UN said that the war between Israel and Gaza was not just a conflict, but a “systematic slaughter of innocent people of Palestine”.