Netanyahu at UN Promised Endless War in Southwest Asia

Oct. 1—From the podium of the United Nations General Assembly Sept. 27, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, the “Butcher of Gaza,” raised his cry of “permanent war,” and attacked the UN as “a swamp of anti-Semitic bile.” He said he hadn’t intended to speak at the General Debate but felt that it was necessary, given all the condemnation during the sessions of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza. He brought his own chorus of supporters who filled the balcony of the Assembly Hall to hoot and holler support for his most egregious statements. It was good for him that he brought his own crowd, as the Arab delegations demonstrably got up and left their seats as Netanyahu walked to the podium. The Assembly Hall remained fairly empty, with many countries’ delegates absent.

Bibi made it clear that he was not going to relent in his war against the Palestinians in Gaza until the “eradication” of Hamas—something his own military and intelligence services say is impossible. He also announced that he was prepared to eliminate Hezbollah (perhaps not to mention some 270,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon), calling on the caretaker government of Lebanon to help in that effort. He then went through all the individual atrocities committed by Hamas during the bloody massacre of Oct. 7, 2023 that he subsequently used as a pretext to drown Gaza in Palestinian blood. He claimed that peace would return to the region as soon as Hamas surrendered and released all the hostages. He wasn’t very clear about how a future Gaza would be governed, and he even launched an attack on Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian National Authority, who has called for Israel to be thrown out of the UN because of its genocidal practices in Gaza.

Bibi’s main target, however, was not Hamas or Gaza, but Iran, with the intent of mobilizing U.S. support for moves against that nation.

Netanyahu presented two “maps” of the region, one which he labeled “The Blessing” and the other, “The Curse.” “The Blessing” had colored in the region from Saudi Arabia through Israel to the Mediterranean, which he described as a possible development corridor from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean, with railroads and highways and fiber optic infrastructure running through the region. “The Curse,” on the other hand, had colored in Iran and Syria, presenting them as the perpetrators of terrorism and chaos.

Playing up to GOP candidate and former President Donald Trump, Netanyahu heaped effusive praise on the Abraham Accords, negotiated by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as an axis against Iran, uniting Israel and its Arab neighbors, most prominently Saudi Arabia, as the road to peace. Besides Israel, none of the Abraham Accord countries, including Saudi Arabia, were in the hall during his tirade.

Netanyahu topped it all off with his attack on the UN itself, which he claimed had allowed all the speeches condemning Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the introduction of almost 200 resolutions condemning the Jewish state. He called the UN a “swamp of anti-Semitic bile.”

On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly Sept. 29, Jordan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ayman Safadi, said that the Arab world would guarantee Israel’s security, were an independent, sovereign, Palestinian state to be established along the 1967 borders.

Safadi said he was responding to Netanyahu’s UN speech which contended that Israel is surrounded by those who want to destroy it, saying: “We’re here—members of the Muslim-Arab committee, mandated by 57 Arab and Muslim countries—and I can tell you very unequivocally: all of us are willing to guarantee the security of Israel in the context of Israel ending the occupation and allowing for the emergence of a Palestinian state.”

He added: “All of us in the Arab world, here—we want a peace in which Israel lives in peace and security, accepted, normalized, with all Arab countries,” and that Netanyahu was escalating the war “because he simply does not want the two-state solution. If he does not want the two-state solution, can you ask Israeli officials what their end-game is—other than just wars and wars and wars?”