Netanyahu Calls UN 'Moral Farce,' Says Israel Will Not Accept Any Dictates
Netanyahu, at UN address, says Israel welcomes the 'spirit' of the Arab Peace Initiative, thanks Obama for vetoing past Security Council resolution critical of Israel.
Netanyahu speaks at the UN General Assembly in New York on September 22, 2016.Drew Angerer, AFP
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked the UN at his General Assembly address on Thursday. In his speech, Netanyahu said he will resist any attempt by the UN to dictate terms to Israel and said he welcomes "the spirit" of the Arab Peace Initiative and boasted that most of the Arab world was already in talks with Israel, despite the way they vote at the UN.
Netanyahu also invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the Knesset.
Netanyahu was harshly critical of the UN, for what he said was its "obsessive bias against Israel." He described the General Assembly as a "disgrace," the UN Human Rights Council as a "joke" and UNESCO, the UN's cultural organization as a "circus."
"Began as a moral force, the UN has become a moral farce," the prime minister said.
Netanyahu addresses the 71st session of UN General Assembly in New York on September 22, 2016.Jewel Samad, AFP
Despite his criticism, Netanyahu said that things were changing at the UN and predicted that "a decade from now an Israeli prime minister will be applauding the UN. Israel has a bright future at the UN."
More and more nations around the world see Israel as a partner, the prime minister said. "Everything will change and a lot sooner than you think," he said.
"Lay down your arms," Netanyahu told his audience. "The war against Israel at the UN is over." The reason, he explained, was Israel's diplomatic contacts with countries around the world which had previously scorned the Jewish state – most importantly in the Arab world.
"The biggest change is taking place in Arab world. For first time in my lifetime many other states recognize us not as the enemy but as an ally," he said.
Today, he explained, more nations see Israel as potent partner, "fighting terrorism today and developing technologies for tomorrow." Israel currently has relations with over 160 countries and those are getting broader and deeper every day, he said.
"I believe that the day is not far off when Israel will be able to rely on many, many countries to stand with us at the UN," Netanyahu said.
Speaking after Abbas, who in his speech said he intends to present the UN Security Council a resolution against the Israeli settlements, Netanyahu said that Israel will not accept any attempt by the UN to dictate terms.
Netanyahu thanked U.S. President Barack Obama for vetoing a 2011 UN Security Council resolution criticial of Israel.
"You have a choice to make," he said in a public call to Abbas. "You can continue to stoke hatred or you can finally confront hatred and work with me to establish peace between our two peoples."
Proclaiming that he was "ready to begin negotiations today," the prime minister invited Abbas to address the Knesset in Jerusalem and said he would "gladly speak in Ramallah."
That said, he sharply criticized Abbas' speech and described the breadth of what he said was Palestinian incitement in great detail.
The Palestinians, he said, "still refuse to recognize Jewish rights – to a homeland, a state, everything." He described the Palestinians as being "persistent in their refusal to recognize the Jewish state in any boundary" and stressed that the "conflict raged for decades before there were any settlements."
The settlements the Palestinians really want are in "Haifa and Tel Aviv," he said.
Netanyahu deplored what he said was the Palestinian "culture of hate." "How can we expect young Palestinians to support peace when their leaders poison them against peace?" he asked.
The prime minister acknowledged that "like all societies, we have fringe elements," but the profound difference, he said, is that "Israel's leaders condemn Jewish terrorism while the Palestinian leaders celebrate. We jail terrorists, while they pay them."
In keeping with his previous addresses to the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu lambasted both Iran and Islamic terrorism, saying that "peace has no greater enemy than militant Islam." Militant Islam must be fought relentlessly, he said, adding that Israel fights it every day on the border with Syria, in Lebanon and in the West Bank and Gaza.
The greatest threat, he stated, remains the "militant Islamic regime of Iran." He accused Iran of seeking Israel's annihilation, firing ballistic missiles in defiance of the UN and continuing "to build a global terror network on five continents."
Israel, he vowed will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons – "not now, not next decade and not ever."
His usual Schtick
Benjamin Netanyahu is lucky that his competition comes from such an underwhelming orator as Mahmoud Abbas. Besides the fact that the Palestinian president prefers to speak in Arabic in a decidedly, excuse the pun, subdued manner, Abbas always sounds as if he’s more concerned what the guys in Hamas and Islamic Jihad at home will say than how his speech will be received by diplomats and public opinion in Paris or New York. Conventional Israeli wisdom once held that Arab leaders tell their public one thing in Arabic and sound much more moderate when they speak to international audiences in English, but it seems to be the other way around. Palestinians don’t allow their leaders to tailor their words to please foreign ears nor are they willing to make allowances for the sake of hasbara, as most Israelis do.
It’s highly doubtful, after all, if there are many Israelis who actually believe Netanyahu when he says he is full committed to a two-state solution. All but the most delusional of Israelis understand that someone who depicts evacuation of settlers as “ethnic cleansing,” who has no intention of giving the Palestinians an inch in Jerusalem, who insists that the Israeli army will remain responsible for security in every nook and cranny inside the so-called “Palestinian territories” doesn’t really mean “two states for two peoples” in any ordinary sense of the term. But for the sake of hasbara, for the show that Netanyahu puts on every year at the United Nations, for the hope that our winning arguments will melt hearts and break down walls, even right wing parties such as Habayit Hayehudi and its Tekuma faction are willing to turn a blind eye, as long as they can discern that Netanyahu himself is winking.
This time Netanyahu invited Abbas to Jerusalem and himself to Ramallah, as he has in the past, and the novelty, such as it was, lay in his promotion of a regional framework for peace which the Palestinians can join or not, it’s up to them. Everyone knows such a proposal isn’t serious, that Netanyahu’s new friends in Cairo, Riyadh or Amman wouldn’t dare come to talks unless the Palestinians take center stage. But it gives the prime minister’s fans an opportunity to cheer his rhetorical prowess, to admire how he put the bad world in its place, to clap at his exposure of Abbas and the Palestinians for the terrorists that they are. Each and every member of the cheerleader squad that traditionally accompanies Netanyahu to his General Assembly speech - and which had to work extra hard this year to make up for the nearly empty UN auditorium - probably walked up after his address to tell him he was at his best.
In fact, he wasn’t. Without an awesome gimmick such as a caricature of a nuclear bomb or diagrams from Auschwitz or a full minute of silence from the podium, Netanyahu’s speech lacked a tag line or peg or a surprise or an innovation that will etch it in anyone’s memory. It was a polished speech, of course, but one that wandered rather dramatically from high points to low, manic-depressive style, from a strange new dawn about to rise over Israel’s stature at the UN to the familiar complaints that the whole world is against us. Most world leaders use their General Assembly speeches to show solidarity with the persecuted and downtrodden throughout the world or to address some universal challenge, such this year’s blockbuster, global warming, but Netanyahu sticks to Israel and himself. We are alternatively greater and smarter than everyone else, but, concurrently, the helpless nebbish that everyone is ganging up on.
It’s true, however, that Netanyahu had good reason to be smug this year, and the best evidence of that was, in fact, the scores of UN diplomats who abandoned their seats in favor of a lunch at some posh East Side restaurant or solid schmoozing over a sandwich outside in the hall. They didn’t leave because of anti-Semitism, God forbid, but to prevent themselves from falling asleep in their seats. Netanyahu, in a surprising collaborative effort with Abbas, has managed to exhaust just about everyone. After nearly 50 years of occupation, most of the international community is fed up with both leaders, with both nations, with one state or two-states, with direct negotiations, regional conferences, outside mediation and all that peace process mumbo jumbo. Do whatever you want, the world is saying, kill each other if you are so inclined; just leave us alone because we’re dealing with bigger problems.
This was especially true this year, in a twilight zone between a departing U.S. president and the fateful decision by American voters between his two potential successors; because the Iran nuclear issue is effectively off the table for the next few years, despite Netanyahu’s bombastic warnings that “we’ll never allow” etc. and the GOP stirring up trouble in the Senate; because the spate of Palestinian knifing attacks that put Israelis on edge doesn’t cross the threshold of what interests the world; and because there’s a limit to how many times the world can hear the listless speeches of Abbas or the verbal acrobatics of Netanyahu, when nothing on the ground ever changes.
Maybe that’s the reason Netanyahu could extract $38 billion from the U.S. without Washington asking for anything in return: they knew there was no point. The measured smile on Obama’s face as he met Netanyahu on Wednesday said it all: his frustration at failing to change the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was tempered by his relief that he won’t have to deal with Netanyahu’s perennially self-satisfied speeches any more.
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