Netanyahu ignores U.N. peace calls as Israel attacks Lebanon: NPR | News, Politics, Travel

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu maintain indicators as he addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.

Pamela Smith/AP

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Pamela Smith/AP

In a fiery speech on the United Nations General Assembly in New York Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned his nation is “winning” on a number of fronts and would assault Iran and its proxies wherever within the Middle East, even as Israeli air pressure jets had been getting ready to pound a posh of buildings in central Beirut that Israel says serve as a headquarters for the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Many of the delegates within the U.N. corridor stood up and swiftly left in a public snub at first of his address — through which he known as the U.N. a “swamp of antisemitic bile.”

For days, Arab leaders together with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had been assailing the conduct of the Israeli navy in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.

Abbas informed delegates that Israel didn't deserve its U.N. membership, provided that its authorities has, in his phrases, “exploited” the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault in Israel to “launch a comprehensive war of genocide on the Gaza Strip, and committed and continues to commit war crimes recognized by the international community.” Israel has denied committing genocide or different conflict crimes, arguing that it's preventing to defeat militant teams and defend itself from additional attacks.

Netanyahu insisted he traveled to New York after he “heard the lies and slanders leveled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium.”

But his journey had been deliberate effectively upfront, and although his arrival in New York for the annual General Assembly had been barely delayed on account of home issues, he informed the viewers of dignitaries and world leaders that he had “decided to come here and set the record straight.”

“Israel yearns for peace,” Netanyahu continued throughout his deal with Friday. “Israel has made peace and will make peace again.”

Soon after his speech, his workplace mentioned was returning to Israel early from New York.

But almost a 12 months into Israel's conflict in opposition to Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli chief's conduct throughout many months of on-again-off-again cease-fire negotiations has not solely infuriated his political opponents and a large chunk of his personal residents, however has confounded many world leaders too.

Critics have usually in current months mentioned that Netanyahu — whose political savvy has helped him survive repeatedly to turn into Israel's longest-serving prime minister in historical past — will agree to point out negotiating flexibility throughout personal conferences, earlier than issuing public statements that block progress throughout peace talks.

Such contradictions have repeatedly occurred throughout negotiations brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar over a cease-fire in Gaza. And now — in response to Israeli media outlets — this type of dissembling obstruction has reoccurred within the current cease-fire proposal developed by the U.S. and France.

Danny Danon, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, mentioned the federal government is pushing for sure phrases in any deal. “If we can achieve the goals of the war through diplomacy, we prefer that,” he mentioned exterior the U.N. Security Council on Friday. “And the goals are to allow the citizens of Israel, 70,000 refugees to move back to their homes. And to push Hezbollah from the southern Lebanon area.”

In the meantime, Israel has continued its navy marketing campaign. Danon mentioned Israeli forces carried out a “precise attack on Hezbollah's central headquarters” in Beirut Friday.

As the Israeli navy calls up additional reserves near the northern border and responds to Hezbollah rocket fireplace with dozens of airstrikes in Lebanon, Netanyahu additionally stays on the heart of a high-profile demand for an arrest warrant in opposition to him, issued by the chief prosecutor on the International Criminal Court, which is predicated in The Hague, Netherlands.

The Israeli premier met along with his Dutch counterpart throughout one in every of a number of conferences in New York this week, and raised the proceedings at the moment underway on the court docket. According to Netanyahu's workplace, he insisted through the bilateral dialog that the prosecutor's actions constituted “a political proceeding based on false libels that endanger every democracy defending itself against terrorism.”

Michele Kelemen contributed reporting from the United Nations.