Netanyahu defies UN calls for ceasefire as Israel attacks Lebanon: NPR

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu holds signs as he addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.

Pamela Smith/AP

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Pamela Smith/AP

In a fiery speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that his country is “winning” on multiple fronts and would attack Iran and its allies anywhere in the Middle East. even while Israeli air force planes would do so. They are preparing to storm a complex of buildings in central Beirut that Israel says serves as the headquarters for the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Many of the delegates in the UN chamber stood up and quickly left in a public insult at the start of his speech – in which he called the UN a “swamp of anti-Semitic bile”.

For days, Arab leaders, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, have attacked the behavior of the Israeli army in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.

Abbas told delegates that Israel did not deserve its UN membership as his government, in his words, “exploited” the October 7 Hamas-led attack in Israel to “launch an all-out genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, and continues to commit war crimes crimes recognized by the international community.” Israel has denied committing genocide or other war crimes, arguing it is fighting to defeat militant groups and defend itself from further attacks.

Netanyahu insisted he traveled to New York after hearing “the lies and slanders expressed against my country by many of the speakers on this stage.”

But his trip had been planned well in advance, and although his arrival in New York for the annual General Assembly was slightly delayed due to domestic considerations, he told the audience of dignitaries and world leaders that he had “decided to come here and sit there.” . set the record straight.”

“Israel longs for peace,” Netanyahu continued during his speech on Friday. “Israel has made peace and will make peace again.”

Shortly after his speech, his office said he would return early to Israel from New York.

But almost a year after the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli leader’s behavior during many months of on-off ceasefire negotiations has not only enraged its own citizens, but also many world leaders.

Critics have often said in recent months that Netanyahu — whose political savvy has repeatedly helped him survive and become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister in history — will agree to show negotiating flexibility in private meetings before making public statements that will mark progress during block peace talks.

Such contradictions have arisen repeatedly during negotiations between the United States, Egypt and Qatar on a ceasefire in Gaza. And now – according to the Israeli media – this form of apparent obstruction has appeared again in the recent ceasefire proposal developed by the US and France.

Danny Danon, Israel’s UN ambassador, said the government would insist on certain conditions in any deal. “If we can achieve the objectives of the war through diplomacy, we prefer that,” he said outside the UN Security Council on Friday. “And the goals are to move the citizens of Israel, 70,000 refugees, back to their homes. And to drive Hezbollah out of the area of ​​southern Lebanon.”

Meanwhile, Israel has continued its military campaign. Danon said Israeli forces carried out a “precise attack on Hezbollah’s central headquarters” in Beirut on Friday.

As the Israeli army draws up further reserves close to its northern border and responds to Hezbollah rockets with dozens of airstrikes in Lebanon, Netanyahu also remains the focus of a high-profile demand for an arrest warrant against him issued by the chief prosecutor. at the International Criminal Court, located in The Hague, Netherlands.

The Israeli Prime Minister met with his Dutch counterpart this week during one of the many meetings in New York and raised the issue of the proceedings currently underway in court. According to Netanyahu’s office, he emphasized during the bilateral call that the prosecutor’s actions “constituted a political procedure, based on false slander, that endangers any democracy that defends itself against terrorism.”

Michele Kelemen contributed to the United Nations reporting.