Netanyahu at the U.N.: Israel “Prevented Genocide,” Iran Strike Was “Easiest Decision,” Credits Trump

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the 81st U.N. General Assembly on Thursday that accusations Israel committed genocide in Gaza are “the greatest lie of the century,” that striking Iran’s nuclear program was “one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” and that the United States under President Donald Trump has been Israel’s “greatest partner” in the fight. Dozens of delegates walked out as he reached the podium. He called those who left “moral cowards” and invited any remaining to follow. Supporters in the gallery answered with “Am Yisrael Chai.” Street protests formed outside U.N. headquarters. Police detained some who blocked traffic.

Netanyahu opened by recalling the red line he drew from the same podium 14 years ago against an Iranian bomb. Joint U.S.-Israeli operations that began Feb. 28, he said, “crushed Iran’s army, navy, air force and nuclear facilities.” “If we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.” He said many leaders whose delegations walked out thank Israel privately for that work. He held up a Starlink receiver and said the “tyrants of Tehran” fear their own people more than anyone else. He offered to leave the dish for the Iranian delegation “so when they inevitably defect, they too will be able to freely tell their story.” He predicted the regime will fall.

On Gaza, he said Hamas used civilians as shields, turned hospitals, schools, and mosques into command posts, and stole aid. Israel, he said, sent millions of texts and calls and dropped millions of leaflets warning civilians to leave combat zones, delivered about two million tons of food — “a ton for every person” — and administered a million polio vaccinations. He quoted military historian Col. John Spencer that Israel has done more to limit civilian casualties than any other military in history. “What genocidal regime” does that, he asked. “It’s the opposite of genocide.” He said Israel “hammered Hamas” and that Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, Ismail Haniyeh, Hassan Nasrallah, and Iran’s Ali Khamenei are “gone.” He held up a Hezbollah pager from the 2024 device operation and said most of Hezbollah’s roughly 150,000 rockets are gone.

He described Oct. 7, 2023, as the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust: about 1,200 Israelis killed, which he said is proportional to 40,000 Americans in a day, or 16 times Sept. 11. He said Israel and the United States later recovered every remaining hostage. He named New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has called him a war criminal and once floated whether City Hall could arrest him under an International Criminal Court warrant the United States does not recognize. “You tried to stop me from coming here,” Netanyahu said. “You can’t silence the truth.” He said Israel “prevented the genocide Mamdani’s Hamas buddies would have done to us.” Mamdani has denied supporting Hamas. After the speech he called Netanyahu’s charges “baseless lies.”

Netanyahu accused Qatar of funding U.S. universities and Al Jazeera to “brainwash young minds to hate Israel, hate America and hate the West,” and of hosting “the Hamas butchers of October 7.” He called Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a “super-spreader of antisemitic lies,” said Ankara hosts Hamas leaders, and rejected any claim on Jerusalem. Qatar and Turkey rejected the remarks. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, denied a U.S. visa for a second year, addressed the assembly by video from the West Bank. Netanyahu did not meet Trump; the president was hosting China’s Xi Jinping. Israeli elections are about a month away. The speech ran about 40 minutes and was carried live in Israel. He closed: “We will continue to win, because we have no other choice.”