‘We’re going to win,’ Netanyahu tells UN summit – and voters back home

Jerusalem; and New York | Sept. 24, 2026, 5:52 p.m. ET | 3 min read Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defiant speech to a largely empty U.N. General Assembly Thursday, dismissing accusations of genocide against the Palestinians, trumpeting Israel’s success in defeating Iran and its allies, and vowing that Israel “will continue to win” against those who seek its destruction.Most of the delegates in the U.N. chamber got up and walked out as Mr. Netanyahu took his place on the gold and green marble podium to scattered jeers. Israel’s longest-serving prime minister spurned those who departed the hall as “moral cowards,” before launching into an address that appeared directed at voters in Israel, who are gearing up for next month’s general election, rather than at world leaders gathered in New York.Mr. Netanyahu downplayed the vigilante violence by Jewish settlers in the West Bank against Palestinians, which has been widely condemned, as the actions of “a handful of young juvenile delinquents.” He rejected charges of Israeli colonialism in the occupied territory and east Jerusalem – an accusation leveled earlier in the day by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who addressed the U.N. virtually after being denied a visa by the Trump administration. Mr. Netanyahu called that “another lie.” The Israeli prime minister also repudiated charges of genocide against Palestinians during the war in Gaza as “the greatest lie of the century.”“What genocidal regime gives a million polio vaccinations to the enemy’s population? What genocidal regime enables the distribution of two million tons of food into Gaza?” Mr. Netanyahu said.Outside the U.N. building, around 50 pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered and waved Palestinian flags. “Gaza, Gaza, you will rise,” one man chanted, before switching to “Netanyahu, you cannot hide with your Jewish genocide.” Tamara Gayer, an activist with American Friends of Standing Together, a Jewish-Arab grassroots group, led another protest group.“There is a difference between this Israeli government and the Israeli majority, which does not want these policies,” she told the Monitor. “He is literally destroying everyone’s future, the future of Israelis and of Palestinians.”Mr. Netanyahu, for his part, referred to the crowd as “phony human rights protesters,” accusing them of hypocritical silence on Iran’s human rights abuses. He turned his indignation toward Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whom he called “a super spreader of antisemitic lies.” And he called Zohran Mamdani “the antisemitic mayor of New York.”He mentioned U.S. President Donald Trump, saying there is “no greater partner” in Israel’s “battle against the barbarians,” and, in a wink to a recent social media post from the White House, referred to artificial intelligence as “superior intelligence” as he touted the Israeli tech industry’s prowess. Deepen your worldviewwith Monitor Highlights.Politics with respectGet political stories with respectful analysis.There‘s a world of new ideas in everyBooks newsletter.There‘s more to life, enrich yours withCulture & Learning weekly.Follow humanity‘s discoveries withScience & Nature stories in your inbox.Gain a spiritual perspectivefrom the stories in your inbox.Want to understand the deeper impact of critical events? Learn the Monitor‘s insight.Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads. Throughout his address, the Israeli leader returned to one overarching message for listeners back home. Despite three years of war on multiple fronts, a pervasive sense of national insecurity, soaring cost of living, growing international isolation, and domestic political polarization, Mr. Netanyahu said, “We will continue to win, because we have no other choice.”“Tyrants the world over seek to threaten us. They seek to undermine our resolve with their campaign of lies. But ultimately, as on the military battlefield, the Jewish people will prevail,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “But in critical moments, those moments that shape our destiny, we stand together because what unites us is so much stronger.” ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? LoginReal news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.The Christian Science Monitor was founded in 1908 to lift the standard of journalism and uplift humanity. We aim to “speak the truth in love.” Our goal is not to tell you what to think, but to give you the essential knowledge and understanding to come to your own intelligent conclusions. Join us in this mission by subscribing.