Netanyahu’s Wasted Opportunity at the UN  

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech at the UN on Thursday was well presented, as usual.   Frankly, there is simply no native-born Israeli politician who knows how to deal with an international audience better than Netanyahu.  Having spent his teenage years in high school in suburban Philadelphia, he has command of American English and an impressive stage presence as well.  Thus, regardless, of the content, he is comfortable and capable at the rostrum for which we can all be grateful.  That is all a reliable given.

Having said that I would take exception with his approach on a number of levels.

He spent the bulk of his time trying to prove to the audience that the charges against us regarding genocide, ethnic cleansing, colonialism, and mistreatment of minority populations were false.  In my opinion, this was simply a waste of time.  There is no way to convince the world, in today’s political climate where everyone seems obsessed with pointing the accusatory finger at Israel, that we are not guilty as charged.  To be sure, while we may have some issues here in how we treat minority populations we are certainly not guilty of any of the other charges. Yet I have no doubt that most liely he did not change the opinion of even one listener.

What he should have done instead, was spend that time showing how what his colleagues (i.e. other world leaders), had said in their earlier presentations before the UN were factually incorrect.

He should have zeroed in on French President Emmanuel Macron’s false statement that Hamas has never operated in Judea and Samaria (what some refer to by the name the Jordanian’s coined in 1948…the West Bank).  We have irrefutable proof of thousands of operations in that area over the years that were conceived, supported and carried out by Hamas in that area.  They even bragged about those themselves.

He should have zeroed in on Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian who, on Wednesday made the spurious claim that Iran has not started a war in centuries. While it may be somewhat true that rockets were not fired at Israel in the first two years of the Hamas war in Gaza from Iran, it is and was Iran that sponsored, supplied and encouraged Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis as well as their allies in Iraq to incessantly attack Israel.  To then claim that they never lifted a finger to fire a weapon is false on its surface.

I could continue but the point is clear.  It is the leaders of other nations who blatantly lie in an effort to play to their local constituencies who should have been attacked.

And then there is Zohar Mamdani, the Mayor of the City of New York.  Netanyahu went on a rant about why he will not be silenced by Mamdani’s threats.  Why should the Prime Minister of the State of Israel sink to the level and parry with an anti-Israel municipal official of an American city, regardless of how many Jews live there?  By doing so he gave the mayor an increased level of credibility Mamdani neither earned nor deserved.

Rather, it would seem to me that Netanyahu’s responsibility is to make sure he and his government do not do or say anything that might put diaspora Jews in danger.  That’s their job.  There is no need for him to get into the ring for a boxing fight with the head of any local government in the US, even if that government operates from New York’s City Hall.

Finally, with his extended references to his hero brother, Yoni, of blessed memory, the miraculous Entebbe rescue, etc., it was clear to many of us that the speech was more of a campaign speech prior to elections here on October 27^th than it was a reply to our accusers. His message would have been stronger if he has stayed away from that.

Frankly the Prime Minister’s best line was his opener when he said, after a large number of people had walked out of the hall, “If there are any more moral cowards who have not left this hall, please do so now.”  Good for him on that one as that is the best way to describe those who took such action.

Let us hope that if new leadership is elected here on October 27^th that they will understand these nuances and act accordingly.