Iran “Curse” or Israel “Blessing” Is Netanyahu U.N. Message

Plus, an anti-Israel Harvard professor’s course is canceled

Prime Minister Netanyahu addresses the UN General Assembly in New York City, Friday, September 27, 2024.

In addition to the military battles Israel is fighting on multiple fronts—Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, Yemen, Iran—it faces a diplomatic and public relations battle.

Prime Minister Netanyahu went on offense in that fight today in the United Nations, echoing Moses’s biblical speech to the Israelites in describing a choice that the world faces between the blessing of peace and regional cooperation between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other neighbors, and “the curse of Iran’s unremitting aggression.”

“Nations of the world should support the brave people of Iran who want to rid themselves of this evil regime,” Netanyahu said. “For too long the world has appeased Iran.”

Netanyahu said Israel had eliminated 23 of 24 Hamas battalions in Gaza, killed or captured “more than half” of the 40,000 Hamas terrorists, and eliminated 90 percent of the Hamas rockets. He said Israel is now in the “mopping up” stage in Gaza.

“We are winning,” he said.

He said Hamas retains some power in Gaza by looting humanitarian aid. “Hamas steals the food and then they hike the prices…They sell the stolen food at exorbitant prices,” he said.

He said Hamas should have no role in postwar Gaza. “Imagine allowing the defeated Nazis in 1945 to rebuild Germany,” he said. Instead he said he wanted “a demilitarized and a deradicalized Gaza” with a local civilian administration.

He said the war in Gaza could end immediately if Hamas surrenders, lays down its arms, and releases all the hostages. “Let them go, all of them,” Netanyahu said about the hostages.

He described the conflict between Iran and the rest of the civilized world, including Israel, as a “battle between good and evil.”

He decried “moral confusion,” by which “good is portrayed as evil, and evil is portrayed as good.”

He faulted the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, for perpetuating a “pay for slay” policy that rewards murderers. 

Netanyahu noted that he had first spoken at the U.N. in 1984, 40 years ago, and said the U.N.’s “singling out of the one and only jewish state” amounted to “a moral stain on the U.N.” He called the international organization a “swamp of antisemitic bile.”

He called the war crimes case against him and the Israeli defense minister a “farce.”

“The real war criminals aren’t in Israel, they are in Iran, they are in Gaza,” Netanyahu said.

“Israel seeks peace. Israel yearns for peace. Yet we face enemies who seek our annihilation,” he said. He said those enemies “seek to destroy our common civilization.”

He concluded with two quotes from the Bible, one from I Samuel: נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר

“The eternity of Israel will not falter.”

And another from Deuteronomy 31:6, which he left untranslated:

חִזְק֣וּ וְאִמְצ֔וּ אַל־תִּֽירְא֥וּ וְאַל־תַּעַרְצ֖וּ מִפְּנֵיהֶ֑ם כִּ֣י

ה’ אֱלֹקיךָ ה֚וּא הַהֹלֵ֣ךְ עִמָּ֔ךְ לֹ֥א יַרְפְּךָ֖ וְלֹ֥א יַעַזְבֶֽךּ”

Be strong and resolute, be not in fear or in dread of them; for it is indeed your God who marches with you: [God] will not fail you or forsake you.