Netanyahu defends the Israeli military campaigns in Iran and Gaza before the United Nations

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly defended the military campaigns launched by his country in Iran, Gaza and other areas of the Middle East, in a speech he delivered Thursday, before the United Nations General Assembly.

After dozens of delegates walked out in protest as he took the stage, Netanyahu vowed to keep fighting, "We will win. We have no other choice."

In response to the delegates' walkout, he said that "if there are other moral cowards who have not yet left the hall, please do so now."

Netanyahu also rejected accusations against Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza.

Hours earlier, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said, in a recorded speech before the United Nations, that Israeli policies, especially the illegal expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, threaten “the lives of the Palestinian people and their existence on the land of their homeland.”

He also said that these policies threaten the two-state solution, a formula that enjoys international support for achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Abbas said that the Palestinians in Gaza are being subjected to "murder, destruction, starvation, and attempts at displacement, in addition to a genocidal war" at the hands of the Israeli army.

The Palestinian President was addressing the annual meeting via video link, after he was refused an entry visa to the United States.

Netanyahu, against whom an arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court on charges of committing war crimes, launched scathing attacks on countries and leaders who criticized him.

He said, "They accuse Israel, little Israel, of colonialism. What colonialism! And who is accusing us? Among them are people in Britain and France. For God's sake, they are the ones who invented this term."

He then described Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a "tyrant", accusing him of supporting the Palestinian armed movement Hamas.

Erdogan told the United Nations on Tuesday that the injustices faced by the residents of Gaza and the West Bank "severely offend the conscience of humanity."

Netanyahu's statements sparked a sharp response from the Turkish Presidency's Communications Director, Burhanuddin Duran.

He said that the Israeli Prime Minister's use of the UN General Assembly platform to make "unfounded accusations" against Turkey and Erdogan contradicts the "principles of peace, law and dialogue" adopted by the United Nations, according to what was published by the official Anatolia News Agency.

Netanyahu also criticized the leftist mayor of New York, Zahran Mamdani - who had previously pledged to arrest Netanyahu before saying later that he did not have the authority to do so - by saying, “Since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York.”

Mamdani's office said in a statement that Netanyahu "used his speech to repeat baseless lies, with the aim of exonerating him of the genocide he is committing against the Palestinians."

For his part, Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump for his “bold leadership,” referring to the air strikes jointly launched by the United States and Israel on Tehran in February.

He said: “Israel and America moved together, not only to protect ourselves, but to save civilization.”

An election campaign is on the horizon

Netanyahu directed a large part of his speech to two audiences he needs to convince: the Israelis, in light of crucial elections he faces at home next month, and the Americans, at a time when Israel faces increasing isolation and cracks in the support it enjoys abroad.

Netanyahu's image in Israel, after he was previously viewed as the "master of security", is under increasing scrutiny, in the first elections held since the attacks of October 7, 2023.

Some of his political opponents believe that he is not qualified to hold the position, following Israeli media reports, which Netanyahu strongly denies, that he did not take seriously warnings about the possibility of a Hamas attack.

Scenes of Netanyahu's usual challenging tone on the United Nations platform are likely to be repeated during an election campaign in which opinion polls indicate a lag in his right-wing religious coalition.

It seemed that Netanyahu had prepared his comments about “moral cowards” in advance, at a time when he faced a mass withdrawal from the hall.

He is likely to use this in his attempt to once again reinforce his image as the only Israeli politician truly capable of confronting the growing number of Israel's critics around the world.

The speech also included clear references directed at the American public, including his talk about the joint American-Israeli strikes on Iran, and his praise of Trump.

Netanyahu, who was born in Israel and spent his formative years in Pennsylvania, has always sought to present himself as having a unique ability to present and defend Israel's point of view in the United States.

Although Washington continues to supply weapons to Israel, Netanyahu faces an increasingly skeptical American public opinion.

Opinion polls indicate a sharp decline in support for Israel among Democrats, as well as cracks in its historically high levels of support among Republicans, extending to the base of the pro-Trump “MAGA” movement.

Detention of celebrities who participated in the protests

A number of people protesting Netanyahu's visit in New York City were detained.

They include Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon and Emmy Award-winning "Hacks" star Hannah Einbinder.

The Israeli army launched a ground attack in the Gaza Strip following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. But during the Israeli military campaign, more than 73,920 people were killed in Gaza, according to the Strip's Ministry of Health.

Israel continues to deny that its actions in Gaza rise to the level of genocide, and says that its operations are justified as a means of self-defense.

On February 28, Israel and the United States began launching large-scale air strikes on Iran, on suspicion that it was secretly working on making a nuclear weapon, an allegation Tehran denies.