Netanyahu Stares Down UN Members Over ‘Utter Silence’ on Iran

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu told the General Assembly that Abbas should stop “spreading lies about Israel’s alleged intentions on the Temple Mount”, and return to negotiations to secure peace between the Israeli’s and the Palestinians.

The Palestinians say that Netanyahu’s assertion that peace talks should be “unconditional” is so that Israel can continue to expand settlements in the West Bank and effectively annex land under the cover of talks.

But despite public disagreements with the US regarding the Iran deal, Netanyahu said, “The alliance between Israel and the United States is unshakable”.

Dore Gold, Israel’s Foreign Ministry director, said in an interview reported in the New York Times, “Israel does uphold its agreements”.

Then there’s the side note that it took the Israeli prime minister over 30 minutes to mention the Palestinians or the peace process.

But Netanyahu spent much of his speech re-fighting the lost battle over the US-led nuclear deal with Iran.

Netanyahu said Iran is financing dozens of terrorist cells around the world and that the deal will not turn a “rapacious tiger into a kitten”. But once in the beginning, and again in the middle – Netanyahu pointed his cross-hairs at the General Assembly itself.

In his address, Netanyahu has revealed the involvement of Iran in regional wars, transportation of weapons used to threaten Israel, and acts of plotted global terrorism which was uncovered in recent months.

“This deal doesn’t make peace more likely”, he said. If Iran’s terror proxies were flying thousands of rockets at your cities, perhaps you’d be more measured in your praise.

And yet “the response from this body”, Netanyahu said “has been absolutely nothing”.

His remarks come with Netanyahu scheduled to speak with US President Barack Obama at the White House in November – their first meeting after a deep row about the Iranian nuclear row.

Later, he explained that not just Israel is at risk from Iran’s “aggression but so is the rest of the world…”

“In every generation there were those who rose up to destroy our people, in antiquity we faced destruction, from the ancient empires of Babylon and Rome”. He urged the U.N.to support direct negotiations between the two parties and refrain from imposing solutions. The silence was deafening as well as defining.

According to the paper, the American officials understand that the prime minister is “ready to move on” and start discussing deeper cooperation on bolstering Israel’s security and efforts to thwart Iran’s aggressive behavior in the region.

On Iran’s nuclear program, Netanyahu cautioned United Nations member states “to curb their enthusiasm” about embracing the P5+1 deal with Iran.