“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," Netanyahu said to a gallery that — at least from the crowd noise — appeared replete with his supporters.
“Just imagine if terrorists turned El Paso and San Diego into ghost towns ... How long would the American government tolerate that?" he said, shaking his fist in emphasis. “Yet Israel has been tolerating this intolerable situation for almost a year. Well, I’ve come here today to say: Enough is enough.”
Netanyahu defended his nation's response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Gaza's Hamas terrorists on Israel that resulted in the massacre of more than 1200 Israeli men, women and children. He said he traveled to the United Nations to refute the untruths he had heard from other leaders on the same rostrum earlier in the week.
“I didn’t intend to come here this year. My country is at war fighting for its life," Netanyahu said. "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 insisted that Israel wanted peace but said of Iran: “If you strike us, we will strike you.” He once again blamed Iran for being behind many of the problems in the region.
“For too long, the world has appeased Iran," Netanyahu said. “That appeasement must end.”
Netanyahu was also unapologetic in his assessment of how the United Nations has treated the Jewish state. "In this swamp of anti-Semitic bile, there's an automatic majority willing to demonize the Jewish state on anything. In this anti-Israel Flat Earth Society, any false charge, any outlandish allegation can muster a majority." "Since 2014 this body condemned Israel 174 times. It condemned all the other countries in the world 73 times. What hypocrisy. What a double standard. What a joke."
Israel has maintained its military operations are justified and are necessary to defend itself.
“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," Netanyahu said. "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. “
He said Israeli forces have destroyed “90%” of Hamas’ rockets and killed or captured half of its forces. But he insisted nonetheless that he was pursuing peace. “Israel has made peace and will make peace again,” he said.
In recent days, Israel has turned its attention to the border with Lebanon, where it is has stepped up strikes targeting Hezbollah terrorists who began firing rockets into Israel the day after the Hamas massacre last October. That triggered Israeli counterfire and the two sides have traded fire almost daily for the 11 months since, driving tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes in northern Israel.
