A speech sometimes applauded, sometimes whistled. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, from the podium of the United Nations, on Friday threatened Iran to “hit” it in the event of an attack on his country, while committing to continue to strike Hezbollah in Lebanon, and to continue the war in Gaza against Hamas “until victory”. Thus rejecting calls to silence the guns to avoid a regional conflagration.
“I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran: if you hit us, we will hit you”, launched the Israeli leader in the direction of Tehran, the bête noire of Israel, support of the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah, in a hawkish speech to the UN. A number of delegates and diplomats, notably from Arab and Muslim countries, such as the Lebanese and Palestinian delegations, had left the room upon his arrival.
“There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach,” he insisted before the General Assembly gathered for this “high-level week” in New York during which Israel been the target of numerous speeches strongly denouncing his military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon. “My country is at war, fighting for its survival. But after hearing the lies and slander against my country from many speakers at this podium, I decided to come and set the record straight. »
Criticism of the UN
After almost a year of war in the Gaza Strip against the Palestinian Islamist movement, the head of the Israeli government urged “Hamas (to) leave”. He called on him to “lay down his arms” in the small Palestinian territory ravaged by the Israeli offensive and the fighting, in order to “end the war”. “This war can end. All Hamas has to do is surrender, lay down their weapons and free the hostages,” he said. “If they (Hamas fighters) do not do it, if they do not do it, we will fight until we obtain a victory, a total victory. There is no alternative,” he warned.
As for Lebanon, where Israel is bombing the south and the strongholds of the pro-Iranian Shiite group Hezbollah, the Jewish state will continue until “all” war aims are met, Netanyahu said. However, he did not say a word about the international proposal led by the United States and France for a 21-day ceasefire. “As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no other choice, and Israel has the right to end this threat and return its citizens home in safety,” he said. declared.
The Prime Minister also presented to the assembly two maps supposed to represent the different future scenarios in the Middle East, between “blessing” and “curse”, marking in particular the allies and enemies of Israel in the region. Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran are depicted as adversaries, unlike Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt and Sudan, which form a “bridge connecting Asia and Europe”. The Gaza Strip and the West Bank are not mentioned.
Finally, at the end of a 35-minute speech, the Israeli Prime Minister, who does not have much support on the international scene apart from his American military and diplomatic ally, attacked the United Nations with whose relationships are execrable. “I tell you, until Israel, until the Jewish State, is treated like other nations, until an anti-Semitic swamp is drained, the UN will be considered by righteous people as nothing more than a contemptuous joke,” he said.
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