Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted the prospect of a peace deal with Saudi Arabia and the advent of a “new Middle East” in his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday morning.
Citing the book of Deuteronomy, in which Moses offered a choice between a “blessing” and a “curse,” Netanyahu said that the Iranian regime had proved to be a “curse to their own people, to our region, to the entire world.”
At the same time, however, he noted that Iran had driven the Arab states toward an alliance with Israel, which had led to a flourishing of peace agreements, diplomacy, and trade in the years since the Abraham Accords of 2020.
He wanted to make peace with the Palestinians, Netanyahu said, but had long argued that the Palestinians should not have a veto over peace agreements with other Arab states. The breakthrough, he said, came when the region finally abandoned the idea that an Israeli-Palestinian deal had to come first. He urged the Palestinians to learn from other Arab states, and abandon “the fantasy of destroying Israel, and finally embrace a path of genuine peace.”
Netanyahu spoke a day after Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas railed against Israel at the same podium, blaming the U.S. and the U.K. for Israel’s existence, and denying Jews the right to pray at the Western Wall.
The Israeli leader said, in contrast, that the flourishing of peace bringing about a reconciliation “between Judaism and Islam, between Jerusalem and Mecca, between the descendants of Isaac and the descendants of Ishmael.”
Watch my speech today before the UN General Assembly >> pic.twitter.com/WKCPEVXHtQ
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 22, 2023
Holding up several maps, showing Israel’s location at the crossroads of three continents, Netanyahu spoke of a a future in which Israel would be at the center of a corridor linking Asia, via the Arabian peninsula, with Africa and Europe.
He used a large red marker, which he had used as a prop several years before to highlight the dangers of Iran, to draw a line from the United Arab Emirates, across the region, to Israel and then to Europe beyond.
“We’ll build a new corridor of peace and prosperity that connects Asia through the U.A.E, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, to Europe. This is an extraordinary change, a monumental change, another pivot of history,” Netanyahu said.
Peace with Palestinians he said, would “only be achieved if it is based on truth. It cannot be based on lies. It cannot be based on endless vilification of the Jewish people.” He said that Abbas, who recently blamed Jews for their own murders by the Nazi regime, had to stop inciting hatred. He added that the Palestinian Authority must stop its “pay-to-slay” policy of subsidizing terrorists and their families.
“For peace to prevail, the Palestinians must stop spewing Jew-hatred, finally reconcile themselves to the Jewish state — by that I mean, not only the existence of the Jewish state, but the right of the Jewish people to have a state of their own in their historic homeland, the land of Israel.”
The Israeli Prime Minister also praised President Joe Biden’s leadership in negotiations with Saudi Arabia, and also thanked Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, saying the Jewish state is “at the cusp” of a breakthrough leading to a peace deal with the Arab country.
He warned that Iran’s terror activities, its missile program, and its nuclear ambitions threatened the region, and noted that its drones were being used in attacks on Ukraine. He called for the UN to “snap back” sanctions against the regime, and warned that “must face a credible nuclear threat” if it achieved nuclear weapons. He said that it was equally important to side with the people of Iran against the theocratic regime that has suppressed their freedom.
Netanyahu also spoke optimistically of his country’s role in artificial intelligence (AI), which he said should be pursued worldwide “in a responsible and ethical way.” He added that he believed AI could benefit the world: “I know this sounds like a John Lennon song,” he said, “but imagine that we could achieve the end of scarcity.”
Netanyahu’s trip to the U.S., which began with an appearance with Twitter owner Elon Musk to discuss AI safety, has been judged a surprising success, given that he was met with protests in California and New York.
As Breitbart News reported, some of the protests had likely been coordinated with a Democrat Party-linked PR firm that has been hired by an Israeli opposition group.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.