Netanyahu fires in all directions at UN, rebuking critics for ‘lies about my country’ as scores of delegates walk out

By the time Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived on the floor of the United Nations, his country had been on the receiving end of scores of condemnations from the podium for two days.As he prepared to speak at the 81st General Assembly on Thursday, a massive protest was underway outside the building in solidarity with Palestinians. Actress Susan Sarandon was among those arrested.Before boarding the plane to New York, Netanyahu told Israeli media that he would “fight for the truth” against the “terrible lies being spread” among the world leaders. And when the Israeli leader took the stage, the crowd erupted into a mix of cheers and boos. Dozens of representatives began filing out of the venue, and his scattershot “attack” against the “eighth front” of Israel’s conflict began: “If there are any other moral cowards who haven’t left this hall, please do so now!”Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a device as he speaks speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) It was the most divisive and accusatory speech yet at the assembly, beginning with a victory lap for his nation’s role in the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities last year.“It was very hard to do, but for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister — because if we hadn’t done it, we would all be dead,” Netanyahu told the crowd. He called criticism of these strikes the “ultimate irony” because his country is “also defending many of the countries whose delegates just left this hall.”“Many of their leaders thank us privately for taking out Iran’s nukes,” he continued. “It’s hard to imagine more mind-blowing hypocrisy, but that is what it is.”It was the beginning of a speech that never relented in its outrage as the Israeli leader rhetorically fired in all directions.The countries that have thus far condemned Israeli actions during the 2026 assembly stretched beyond its regional rivals like Jordan, Turkey, Qatar, and Iran. French President Emmanuel Macron denounced Israeli operations in the West Bank, “where there are violations every day.”United Kingdom and France British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that, although the Oct. 7 attacks were “utterly horrific,” the Israeli response has been disproportionate and “far too many people have died — including so many children.”Netanyahu scoffed at Britain and France during his speech, asserting that “Judea-Samaria,” the Israeli government’s term for parts of the Palestinian territories like the West Bank, is the “heart of the historic homeland of the Jewish people,” and accusations of colonialism were unfounded.“And who’s accusing us? Well, among them are people in Britain and France — for God’s sake, they invented the term,” he said. “Colonialism, give us a break.”Delegates leave as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa) Netanyahu directed particular scorn towards Macron, who in his speech said, “Hamas has never operated in the West Bank.” The Israeli prime minister mentioned two recent attacks against Israelis in the West Bank, one of whom was a French citizen.Turkey He claimed that no other country of a similar size could fight a seven-front war for three years, listing conflicts currently playing out in theaters like Gaza and Syria against terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.“Israel hammered Hamas, we pummeled Hezbollah — remember the beepers?” he asked before holding up one of the devices used to remotely bomb thousands of Hezbollah affiliates across Syria in 2024. “I can tell you this. Hezbollah certainly remembers them.”“The first to do so was Qatar… Their goal was clear — brainwash young minds to hate Israel, hate America, hate the West,” he said. “Now the latest country to become a super spreader of antisemitic lies is Turkey. [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is a tyrant. He also hosts the Hamas terror chiefs. He’s murdered thousands of Kurdish civilians. He denies the Armenian genocide. He jails journalists and opposition leaders.”He claimed that “Erdogan calls for Israel’s destruction” and “almost every single day, he says he’s going to be the ruler of Jerusalem,” an apparent reference to one of the Turkish leader’s previous speeches in which he highlighted his nation’s role in the city’s recent history.“In this city that we had to leave in tears during the First World War, it is still possible to come across traces of the Ottoman resistance,” Erdogan said in 2020. “So Jerusalem is our city, a city from us.”Netanyahu recently resurrected this comment in a speech this month at the City of David archeological park in Jerusalem, saying, “It’s not your city. It’s our city.”Erdogan shot back in a speech in Ankara: “I know the resentment of these Hitler imitators will perhaps never fade. Let them continue their fits of rage. We, as Muslims, will not take a single step back from our rights over East Jerusalem.”Zohran Mamdani Netanyahu’s speech also had one eye on the state of domestic U.S. politics, singling out “the antisemitic mayor of New York” Zohran Mamdani and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker.“Many Jews no longer feel safe in New York […] This isn’t the city we remember. It changed so quickly,” he said. “It’s no wonder — you praise criminals convicted of supporting Hamas, you count as friends people like Hasan Piker who said America deserved 9/11!”Protesters block a road outside United Nations headquarters during a Jewish Voice for Peace sit-in against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki) Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, has been a vocal critic of Netanyahu, calling him a “war criminal” and “the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people.” Piker, for his part, has become a regular target for Republicans who are doing their best to make sure his inflammatory comments are tied to Democrats, in particular Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul el Sayed.Israeli settler violence Netanyahu also denied worldwide condemnations against Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, handwaving the violence as a “handful of juvenile delinquents” while acknowledging “occasionally they lit some fires.”“That’s what they call ‘settler violence,'” he complained, admitting that “maybe two or three” Palestinians have been killed by settler violence. He defended the expanding encroachment into the West Bank as “peaceful settlers” who are “honorable people, law-abiding people.”It was an eyebrow-raising denial considering the problem has become so prominent that even Zionist allies of Israel, such as U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, have condemned the trends of violence that the United Nations claims have killed at least 23 Palestinian civilians this year.“If there are squatters that come in and put up their own flags and take possession of something that does not belong to them, if they burn a car, if they torch a mosque, if they go into someone’s home and vandalize it, paint graffiti on the walls, that’s a criminal act,” Huckabee said earlier this month in reference to the settler attacks. “But it extends beyond a criminal act. It’s an act of terror.”Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas summarized the collective complaints against Israel in his own address earlier Thursday, which was delivered as a pre-recorded video.“How much longer will some states continue to remain silent against Israel or supply it with the weapons it uses against our people? The world has witnessed the tremendous cost in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” Abbas pleaded. “What is the international community waiting for in order to protect the Palestinian people?”Abbas paid some lip service to Trump’s peace plan for Gaza under the authority of the Board of Peace, as well as the accompanying Security Council resolution. But the Palestinian leader lamented that the second phase of this plan has not materialized, blaming the lack of progress on his Israeli counterparts.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speas via pre-recorded video after being denied a visa to attend in person during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) “The Israeli killing and aggression continue to claim the lives of men, women, and children in Gaza,” he said. “Nearly a year has passed since the adoption of Resolution 2803, and the establishment of the Board of Peace, and only one year remains of the designated transitional period before the end of 2027.”But Abbas criticized the Trump administration for having “denied the entry visas required to reach New York and participate in the meetings of the United Nations General Assembly in person.”“We reject these unlawful punitive measures, and we reject the accusations and justifications on which they were based,” the Palestinian leader told the assembly.ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO US SAYS SON INJURED IN WEST BANK ATTACK NEEDS ‘MIRACLE’ TO SURVIVEThe most aggressive attacks against the U.S. came from the Iranian delegation. President Masoud Pezeshkian opened his address on Wednesday with a series of photos showing children killed by bombings in Operation Epic Fury. He declared his nation a “victim of terrorism” that has “committed no crimes.”The single U.S. diplomat in attendance for the speech got up and left during Pezeshkian’s remarks, mirroring Iran’s walkout during Trump’s address on Tuesday. Israel did not bother to attend the Iranian speech.