Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his address to the United Nations General Assembly to launch a combative attack on critics of Israel, branding many of them antisemitic. Dozens of delegates walked out as he spoke, leaving him addressing a hall that was visibly emptier than usual for a head of government’s address, a scene that has become a recurring feature of his recent UN appearances. At one point Netanyahu told those still seated who disagreed with him to leave as well, referring to remaining critics in the chamber as moral cowards. He singled out New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, claiming that under his leadership many Jewish residents of the city no longer feel safe.
On Iran, Netanyahu defended the joint American-Israeli military campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities earlier in the year, describing the decision to strike as one of the easiest calls of his career. He referred to Israel as fighting on what he called an eight-front war and reserved some of his sharpest language for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, calling him a tyrant and accusing him of spreading antisemitic rhetoric. On Gaza, Netanyahu condemned the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, but did not address the scale of Palestinian deaths in the military campaign Israel has waged in Gaza since. Independent tallies cited by international media put the Palestinian death toll from the war at roughly 74,000, a figure that went unmentioned in his remarks.
Among world leaders, Netanyahu reserved his warmest words for US President Donald Trump, praising his support for Israel through the recent conflicts in the region. Outside the UN headquarters in New York, hundreds of protesters gathered during the speech to demonstrate against Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza. Netanyahu’s address came during a General Assembly session that has seen the war in the Middle East dominate proceedings, with other leaders including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas separately using their own remarks to warn against the displacement of Palestinians. The speech underscored Israel’s deepening diplomatic isolation at the UN even as its government shows no sign of softening its rhetoric toward critics abroad.