Netanyahu vows to continue Hezbollah war, defying U.S. cease-fire plan
By: John Hudson (The Washington Post)
Hasn't everyone gotten the message by now? There will never be another Holocaust -- ever. Jews will not be herded into cattle cars and exterminated. Israel is God's land for God's people. An inviolate sanctuary.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
NEW YORK — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed during a fiery address to the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that his country would continue its military operation in Lebanon in defiance of a U.S. cease-fire proposal demanding a temporary halt in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
His swaggering, bellicose remarks included a warning to all of Israel’s enemies, namely Iran, that there is no place to hide from Israel’s might.
“If you strike us, we will strike you,” Netanyahu said. “There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that’s true of the entire Middle East.”
Netanyahu spoke as Israel sharply escalated its campaign in Lebanon. It has taken out key leaders of the militant group in airstrikes, and it mounted apparent sabotage operation that killed hundreds of people, Lebanese health officials say. Shortly after his remarks ended, the Israeli military announced it had struck Hezbollah’s main headquarters outside Beirut. The prime minister’s office published a photo of Netanyahu signing off on the attack.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss Friday’s operation, said Israel did not alert the United States beforehand.
Netanyahu declared in his address that Israel is “winning,” and he pledged to “continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met.” Hezbollah has returned fire with scores of rockets and missiles and has rallied governments across the world to urge restraint.
Friday’s speech at the United Nations is the latest in a series of remarks from the Israeli leader that have embarrassed U.S. officials, who earlier this week touted a “breakthrough” in negotiating a proposal for a 21-day truce that they insisted was done in full coordination with the Israeli government.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was asked repeatedly Thursday why Netanyahu kept contradicting a proposal that the United States claimed had his support. But Kirby was unable to offer an answer other than to say that the prime minister’s remarks were out of step with what his aides had told U.S. officials privately.
“What prompted the prime minister’s comments, only he can say,” Kirby said. “We wouldn’t have issued the statement we did if it wasn’t supportive of conversations we had with top Israeli officials yesterday.”
Inside the U.N. assembly hall in Manhattan, scores of diplomats walked out on Netanyahu’s speech, an indication of the Israeli leader’s worsening unpopularity as he rebuffs international efforts to halt the fighting in Lebanon and secure a separate cease-fire with Hamas militants in Gaza. He made clear that the feeling was mutual, calling the world body an “antisemitic swamp” that needed to be “drained.”
Outside the U.N. headquarters, thousands of demonstrators rallied in Manhattan to protest Israel’s escalation in Lebanon and ongoing bombardment of Gaza, where more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to local health authorities. Israel’s offensive there followed the Hamas-led Oct. 7 cross-border attack into Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage.
“Our enemies seek not only to destroy us, they seek to destroy our common civilization and return all of us to a dark age of tyranny and terror,” Netanyahu said.
Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert at the International Crisis Group, said Netanyahu’s remarks were directed at the Israeli public, including his far-right cabinet, which has threatened to implode his government if he agrees to silence Israel’s guns.
“Netanyahu, like Trump, has always understood that these U.N. speeches are opportunities to generate catchphrases and memes. He is not that bothered by what the diplomatic audience thinks. He is doing this for domestic media and his U.S. audience,” said Gowan, referencing former president Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in November’s election.
The Israeli leader’s dismissal of a temporary cease-fire in Gaza is another setback for the United States, which has been pushing for months for a deal there alongside Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
“We will fight until we achieve victory, total victory. There is no substitute for it,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu’s speech was laden with religious language and the specter of an Iranian “curse” in the Middle East. He sought to underscore that point by holding up a map marked in black over the territory of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, the countries that encompass Tehran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance.”
In solidarity with Hamas, Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8, leading to an increasingly deadly military escalation between the two warring sides over the last year.
President Joe Biden had tapped his top aides to broker a temporary cease-fire during the annual gathering of diplomats at the U.N. General Assembly, prompting a flurry of meetings by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan with Israeli, European and Middle Eastern diplomats.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told The Washington Post that “partnership” between the United States and Europe on preventing a “wide escalation” in Lebanon is critical. But the proposal, endorsed by a wide range of allies including the European Union, France, Australia, Canada, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Japan, appeared destined to languish without more pressure on both sides to de-escalate.
Karen DeYoung, Adam Taylor and Sammy Westfall in Washington contributed to this report.
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Netanyahu is not trying to influence public opinion. Netanyahu is not playing politics. Netanyahu seems to be guided by the story of Daniel in the Nevi'im.
Perhaps he is thinking more of another prophet, Deborah, who led the Israelites to defeat the army of the Canaanites at Mount Tabor. A reference that Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman) spoke of in the movie Exodus.
The only way peace will come is through the destruction of Hezbollah and Hamas.
The HAMAS wing of the democrat party thinks there is a second way.
Yes, and Israel will do the job notwithstanding the resistance from the rest of the world INCLUDING the USA.
The total destruction of Hezbollah and Hamas is the solution to the problem.
And Israel will do so, just as David beat Goliath.
If the reports are true and Israel killed nasrallah, it’s the accomplishment over the last two weeks can’t be overstated. It’s degraded hezbollah to the point where its leaders, to the extent they exist, will be made up of people not senior enough to be trusted with a pager.
A massive triumph.
I just read the word-for-word text of his speech and I agree with EVERY WORD Netanyahu spoke at the UN. In fact, he said many of the things I have already posted on NT myself. The survival and fate of the State of Israel depends on every word he said. The survival and fate of every Jew in Israel depends on every word he said. The fate and survival of every Jew around the world depends on every word he said, and even MY fate and survival and that of my children and grandchildren, and that of my brother whose emails I post here that many of you enjoy, and his son depend on every word he said. You need not agree with his character, or such illegal or negligent acts he has been accused of, but for those of you who agree with what he said to the UN, you are my friend, and for those who don't, I no longer have any respect for you, even though I know that there are some of you here on NT who may have little or no respect for me for my unbreakable support of Israel or some other reason but I can and will survive that. SHAME on those who support terrorists, the individuals and the nations who refused to listen and learn from what Netanyahu said. What he said to Congress was also important to hear, and you already know my feelings about those who refused to be there.
Although it is inevitable that Hamas will be defeated, nobody is calling for or demanding that Hamas surrender, notwithstanding Israel will not stop until Hamas is eradicated. That is because their psychological propaganda war has worked and is still working. The Nazis surrendered, because they knew their days were numbered, Japan surrendered because it realized it would be destroyed, and whether it meant anything to them or not, their surrender stopped the casualties of war. Hamas does not give a shit about the people who are their responsibility, proven by their using them as human shields, and they will not surrender, because if they do they will not be entitled to their 72 virgins to pleasure them forever in the Garden of Allah. They don't give a shit about the civilian casualties.
There are a couple of lines in the song, First We Take Manhattan, by Leonard Cohen, that I will use to tell you that "THE END" is NOT going to end with just the destruction of Israel. Take these two lines from the song...: