NEW YORK -- Armed with unfiltered criticism for the United Nations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an aggressive speech to the international body's annual gathering in New York on Thursday, charging its members with hypocrisy in their treatment of Israel and with failure to contain extremism across the wider Middle East.
With defensive rhetoric, he targeted the assembly for passing more resolutions against Israel for its handling of the Palestinians last year than against the government of Syria, which has presided over a war claiming the lives of over 300,000 people. He criticized member states for "encouraging Palestinian rejectionism" instead of direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions, one day after a Palestinian flag was raised at UN headquarters.
And yet the most poignant moment of the speech involved no remarks at all, as Netanyahu, in his seventh UN General Assembly address, asked the body if it had forgotten the lessons of the Holocaust just seventy years since its founding.
He quoted from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, from its president and its military commanders, all reiterating a familiar pledge: Israel, a state where six million Jews reside, must be annihilated, sooner rather than later.
"Seventy years after the murder of six million Jews, Iran's rulers promise to destroy my country, murder my people," Netanyahu said. "And the response from this body— the response from nearly every one of the governments represented here— has been absolutely nothing. Utter silence. Deafening silence."
Silence followed the charge as the prime minister surveyed the room with a stoic stare. None spoke or moved in the audience as Netanyahu, at the lectern, remained quiet for nearly a minute.
"As someone who knows that history, I refuse to be silent," he finally said to applause from the hall. Repeating a line he has delivered in Washington, he added: "The days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies— those days are over."
The speech was Netanyahu's first major address since the Iran nuclear deal survived a debate over its merits in the US Congress. Its architects from the United States, Europe, Russia and China met to discuss implementation of the deal earlier in the week.
"Ladies and gentlemen, check your enthusiasm at the door," he said of the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. "It makes war more likely.​"
He warned that international investors were preparing to flood a "radical theocracy with weapons and cash" and warned that, "when bad behavior is rewarded, it only gets worse." The deal, he said, amounts to a marriage between radical Islam and nuclear power.
"Under this deal, If Iran doesn’t change its behavior— in fact, if it becomes even more dangerous in the years to come— the most important constraints will still be automatically lifted by year 10 and by year 15. That would place a militant Islamic terror regime weeks away from having the fissile material for an entire arsenal of nuclear bombs," he said. "That just doesn't make any sense."
And the JCPOA, he continued, has already led Iran to rapidly expand its network of terrorist proxies worldwide and spend "billions of dollars on weapons and satellites." As an example of that network, Netanyahu detailed a well-armed cell of Hezbollah that has been identified in Cyprus, and warned that the organization— listed by the United States and European Union as a terrorist organization— was setting up similar cells in the Western hemisphere.
"We will continue to act to stop the transfer of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon through Syrian territory," he said. Israel has periodically struck convoys traversing Syrian territory, but future missions have been complicated by a growing presence of Russian forces in the region.
While acknowledging that the deal is proceeding toward implementation— he asked the UN to enforce the JCPOA with "more rigor" than the six past Security Council resolutions on the nuclear issue that Iran had "systematically violated"— Netanyahu retained Israel's option to defend itself against Iranian aggression.
"We have, we are and we will" defend ourselves, Netanyahu said, once again earning some applause.
Netanyahu personally engaged in a bruising battle on Capitol Hill over the deal, pitted against US President Barack Obama, who lobbied for its survival. The support of only one third of one house in Congress was required to preserve the agreement, and 42 senators ultimately chose to endorse it.
In Thursday's address, he thanked Congress for debating the deal on its merits and characterized the rift with Obama as a "disagreement within the family." And he underscored that, in spite of the public battle, the US remains Israel's most valuable ally.
Netanyahu is scheduled to visit the White House next month.
After spending the majority of his speech condemning Iran and the deal over its nuclear work, he turned to the Palestinian issue, responding largely to a speech delivered the day before by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In that address, Abbas appeared to disavow commitments made between Israel and the Palestinian Authority since the Oslo Accords were first signed in 1993.
"I am prepared to immediately resume direct negotiations with the Palestinian Authority without any preconditions whatsoever," Netanyahu said.

Eyes itching!

Ion know wah to comment joooorrrr...

I made FTC thou

This one na UN matter,,e no too concern 9ja

Shame on Benjamin Netanyahu
Shame on his fellow Jews
Shame on their allies.
having killed Millions of Palestinians over the years and rendered countless homeless on their own land.

Shame, Shame, and Shame on him.

lanrehamd:
Shame on Benjamin Netanyahu
Shame on his fellow Jews
Shame on their allies.
having killed Millions of Palestinians over the years and rendered countless homeless on their own land.

Shame, Shame, and Shame on him.

So you prefer they do nothing about the threats posed by their enemies. if it were you in that situation what would you do?

das my man...

Acjohn:


So you prefer they do nothing about the threats posed by their enemies. if it were you in that situation what would you do?

Leave the diabolical hypocrites. ..they are to fetish and ritualistic about everything. ..

Sai Benjamin

I enjoyed his speech at the UN yesterday ...after our amiable President's speech

a good leader with guts,same with Putin...i love them

Even the world leaders were dumbfounded!

lanrehamd:
Shame on Benjamin Netanyahu
Shame on his fellow Jews
Shame on their allies.
having killed Millions of Palestinians over the years and rendered countless homeless on their own land.

Shame, Shame, and Shame on him.

"what will you say about assad that killed thousands of Syrians, what about Saudis killing yemenis, what about isis(Islamic terrorist group) that is killing millions of people in the middle east, what about those the Iranians are killing in yemeni and other part of Islamic nations. You better open your eyes and see beyond your brain(that's if you have any). President sisi of Egypt said, that the only way this world can have peace is if the Koran(islam) is reformed, those are the words of a Muslim. I doubt if you more 'islam' than sisi himself". Quote me anywhere

Powerful!

The guy Netanyahu makes Obama to look like a primary school speech presenter. He is so passionate about his people, he understands how their problems can be resolved, unlike our dullardin.ho, who was saying inaudible words. I feel so ashamed to be represented by that thin...

"Wouldn't you rather make love as opposed to war, like you know you should"------- Margin Gaye

Sadly, there are powerful people who want this chaos to continue for some "prophecy" to be fulfilled

It was a good speech but the histrionics were excessive!

This is what happens when you have a true president.
The passion and patriotism is just contagious.
The only person i can liken to him in africa is the rwandan president.

Volcani kini? What was volcanic about his speech?

The only volcanic event was the Palestinian flag flying over the UN which his speech and rhetoric couldn't change or stop.

''The days when the jews remain passive in the face of genocide is over''.
''We have, we are , we will defend ourselves''
I like this man.

or is it not the same speech where that morafuccccker called netanyahu was looking, staring at the general assembly like an idiot,the man was so foooolish ,he was even mocked on social media yesterday.as far as people are concerned he gave one of the most stuupid speech of the general assembly, even his closest ally the united states un ambassador boycotted his speech cos he was very stuupid

CSTR2:
This is what happens when you have a true president.
The passion and patriotism is just contagious.
The only person i can liken to him in africa is the rwandan president.

Smh!

mojeer678:


Smh!

syh? Are you a muslim?

lanrehamd:
Shame on Benjamin Netanyahu
Shame on his fellow Jews
Shame on their allies.
having killed Millions of Palestinians over the years and rendered countless homeless on their own land.

Shame, Shame, and Shame on him.

wise up,you still live in the 50s

He was loud and Clear!

Powerful speech

CSTR2:
This is what happens when you have a true president.
The passion and patriotism is just contagious.
The only person i can liken to him in africa is the rwandan president.

well i wuld say zimbabwe's mugabe is more lyk it except of course his excesses

lanrehamd:
Shame on Gowon, Buhari and Obasanjo
Shame on his fellow Hausa/Fulani and Yorubas
Shame on their allies.
having killed Millions of Igbos in three years and rendered countless homeless on their own land.

Shame, Shame, and Shame on him.

Just listen to yourself

Acjohn:


So you prefer they do nothing about the threats posed by their enemies. if it were you in that situation what would you do?

The years of killings and injustice is wat caused d threat!

ALISMILE:
The years of killings and injustice is wat caused d threat!

Who killed who?

SalC:
Who killed who?

Since 1948 Isreal have been killing the defenceless palestinians! Hamas sprang up as a result of the too many killins!

ALISMILE:
Since 1948 Isreal have been killing the defenceless palestinians! Hamas sprang up as a result of the too many killins!

why did you start from 1948?