Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly on Thursday, as dozens of delegates walked out when he took the podium. During the speech, Netanyahu held up a pager, left a Starlink terminal with the president of the General Assembly to pass on to the Iranian delegation, and lashed out at Turkey, Qatar and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Opening his remarks, Netanyahu addressed the delegates who had left the hall. "If there are any more moral cowards left here, please leave now," he said.
Netanyahu devoted a substantial portion of his speech to Iran. "Fourteen years ago, I stood on this podium and drew a red line," he said. "I vowed to prevent Iran's murderous dictatorship from developing atomic bombs, and that is exactly what we did."
He said the decision to strike Iran's nuclear facilities was "one of the easiest decisions I have ever made as prime minister, because if we hadn't done it, we would all be dead."
Netanyahu added that many of the leaders of countries whose delegations walked out of the hall "even thanked us privately for taking out Iran's nukes."
Footage from the hall showed the Iranian delegation's seats empty, with a framed photograph of slain Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani placed on them. "One day, and perhaps that day is not far off, the Iranian people will be free," Netanyahu said. "This evil regime will fall, and all of us will celebrate that day."
Netanyahu also attacked Mamdani, whom he called "the antisemitic mayor of New York." He accused Mamdani of having "praised criminals convicted of supporting Hamas," adding, "You count among your friends people like Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11."
Netanyahu also said Mamdani had invited into his home a Palestinian journalist "who filmed Hamas terrorists beating and torturing Israeli hostages," and alleged that Mamdani's wife had liked a post praising the Oct. 7 massacre. "You tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me," Netanyahu said. "Well, you can't silence me. You can't silence the truth. Israel did not commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide."
Netanyahu also took aim at Turkey and Qatar, accusing Qatar of financing American universities and "toxic media outlets like Al Jazeera" in an effort to "brainwash young minds," while hosting "the Hamas butchers of Oct. 7." Turkey, he said, had become "the newest super-spreader of antisemitic lies."
"Erdogan is a tyrant," Netanyahu said of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "He says he's going to be the ruler of Jerusalem. No, sir, you won't be. It's our country, our city, our eternal capital."
Later in the speech, Netanyahu held up a pager. "Remember the pagers? Remember these things?" he asked. "Hezbollah certainly does."
He also responded to an address delivered Wednesday by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. "Mr. al-Sharaa, you should know that Jews have been in the Golan Heights since the days of Moses," Netanyahu said. "You can read about it in the Bible."
Netanyahu also responded to French President Emmanuel Macron's speech on Tuesday. Macron criticized Israeli actions in Judea and Samaria and said that "Hamas has never struck in the West Bank."
Netanyahu argued that international criticism of "settler violence" was focused on "a handful of young delinquents, about 150," against whom the Shin Bet security agency had taken action.
Addressing Macron directly, Netanyahu cited Netanel Shukrun, a French citizen and father of six who was murdered by a Hamas terrorist while visiting a spring with his 16-year-old son.
He also spoke about IDF reservist Neria Leiter, the son of Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, who was seriously wounded in a car-ramming terrorist attack and was fighting for his life.
Netanyahu also criticized leaders in Western Europe who, he said, had "chosen to surrender to the antisemitic mob." "They chose weakness. They chose appeasement," he said.
By contrast, he thanked US President Donald Trump. "In this fight against the barbarians, we have had no greater partner," Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu rejected accusations that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. "What genocidal regime gives a million polio vaccines to the enemy population?" he asked. "The accusation that Israel is committing genocide is the lie of the century."
Toward the end of the speech, Netanyahu displayed the Starlink terminal. "The Iranian regime is especially afraid when its own people have one of these," he said, before turning to the president of the General Assembly. "I'm leaving this device with you so you can give it to the Iranian delegation. That way, when they defect, as they inevitably will, they too will be able to tell their stories on social media."
Throughout the roughly 37-minute speech, Netanyahu repeatedly declared: "We will win. We have no other choice." He ended on the same theme: "The eternity of Israel will not falter. And the reason is simple: We have no other choice."
Before the speech, a demonstration was held in Manhattan against Netanyahu's visit, and New York police detained dozens of protesters, including actress Susan Sarandon.
Netanyahu landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base, outside New York City's jurisdiction, for a lightning visit lasting only a few hours. He was scheduled to return to Israel before the start of Sukkot.
