Netanyahu condemns support for Palestinian state at UN after scores walk out

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By Doyinsola Oladipo and Matt Spetalnick

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply denounced Western countries on Friday for embracing Palestinian statehood, accusing them of sending the message that “murdering Jews pays off.”

Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly, the Israeli leader pushed back in his harshest terms yet against a flurry of diplomatic moves by leading U.S. allies that deepened Israel’s international isolation over its conduct of a nearly two-year-old war in Gaza.

“This week, the leaders of France, Britain, Australia, Canada and other countries unconditionally recognized a Palestinian state,” he said. “They did so after the horrors committed by Hamas on October 7 — horrors praised on that day by nearly 90% of the Palestinian population.”

Calling it a “mark of shame,” Netanyahu said: “You know what message the leaders who recognize the Palestinian state this week sent to the Palestinians? It’s a very clear message: murdering Jews pays off.”

With more countries joining the list of those endorsing Palestinian independence, the most right-wing government in Israeli history has made its strongest declaration in years that there will be no Palestinian state as it pushes on with its fight against Hamas following the militants’ October 7, 2023, rampage in Israel. Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s military response has killed more than 65,000 people in Gaza, according to local health officials, and left much of the territory in ruins.   

SCORES OF DELEGATES WALK OUT AHEAD OF SPEECH

Scores of delegates exited the hall as Netanyahu took the stage while some attendees in the balcony gave him a standing ovation. At the same time, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters blocked traffic near Times Square in New York.

“Over time, many world leaders buckled. They buckled under the pressure of a biased media, radical Islamist constituencies and antisemitic mobs. There’s a familiar saying, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Well, for many countries here, when the going got tough, you caved,” Netanyahu said.

“Behind closed doors, many of the leaders who publicly condemn us privately thank us. They tell me how much they value Israel’s superb intelligence services that have prevented, time and again, terrorist attacks in their capitals.”

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said in a statement that Netanyahu’s speech was “filled with lies and blatant contradictions” and condemned it as a “desperate attempt to justify the war crimes and acts of genocide.”

Frustration over Israel’s military siege and U.S. President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to rein Netanyahu in has spilled into the open at the annual New York gathering where, in a dramatic shift, Australia, Britain, Canada and France and several other nations embraced a Palestinian state.

They said such action was needed to preserve the prospect for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and help bring the war to a close.

Netanyahu followed to the rostrum Arab and Muslim leaders who, one after another, strongly condemned Israel’s military assault in Gaza.

Addressing the U.N. shortly after Netanyahu, Prime Minister Micheal Martin of Ireland, which recognized Palestine last year, called Israel’s actions in Gaza “an abandonment of all norms, all international rules and law.”

The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in the Gaza war. Israel rejects the court’s jurisdiction and denies committing war crimes. Netanyahu rebutted on Friday what he called “the false charge of genocide.”

Hamas has offered to release all remaining hostages – only about 20 of whom are said to be alive out of a total of 48 — in exchange for Israel agreeing to end the war and withdrawing from Gaza.

NETANYAHU ADDRESSES HOSTAGES FROM ROSTRUM

“Much of the world no longer remembers October 7. But we remember,” Netanyahu said. Speaking in Hebrew, the Israeli leader directed his remarks to the hostages still held in Gaza: “We’ve not forgotten you — not even for a second.”

Netanyahu said he had loudspeakers placed at the Israeli side of the Gaza border to broadcast the address into the Palestinian enclave in hopes that hostages would hear his vow that his government will not rest until they are free.

On Friday, Trump told reporters for the second straight day that a deal to end the war and bring the remaining hostages home was close – though he offered no explanation for his optimism about overcoming months of impasse in negotiations.

A senior White House official told Reuters that Trump will meet Netanyahu on Monday in Washington with the aim of reaching a framework for a deal.

The right-wing Israeli leader is under mounting pressure from the hostages’ families and, according to public opinion polls, a war-weary Israeli public. 

Netanyahu, who has insisted the fight must go on until Hamas is completely dismantled, said the group’s “final remnants” are holed up in Gaza City and vowed to “finish the job” as quickly as possible. Israel’s army chief, Eyal Zamir, told troops: “We have collapsed its governing capacity.”

Netanyahu is wary at the same time of losing the backing of far-right members in his fragile governing coalition if he softens his approach.

He has retained the staunch support of the U.S., Israel’s most important ally and main arms supplier. Trump told the U.N. on Tuesday that moves to recognize a Palestinian state risked rewarding Hamas for “horrible atrocities” and could encourage continued conflict.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a posting on X that “instead of stopping the diplomatic tsunami – Netanyahu worsened Israel’s situation today.”

Still, no matter how many countries recognize Palestine, full U.N. membership would require approval by the Security Council, where the United States has a veto.

Speaking by video after the U.S. denied him a visa, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza as “a war of genocide.” He thanked countries that recognized Palestinian statehood, pledged that his Palestinian Authority would be ready to govern post-war Gaza and called for Hamas to be disarmed and have no role.

Some of Netanyahu’s hardline ministers have said the government should respond to growing recognition of Palestinian statehood by formally extending Israeli sovereignty over all or parts of the occupied West Bank to snuff out hopes for Palestinian independence.

On Thursday, however, Trump said he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, which the Palestinians want for their state, along with Gaza and East Jerusalem. “It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump’s pronouncement could create tensions when he meets Netanyahu at the White House, their fourth time face-to-face since the president returned to office in January.

Analysts say Israeli annexation of the West Bank could unravel the landmark Abraham Accords, a signature foreign policy achievement brokered by Trump’s first administration in which several Arab countries forged diplomatic ties with Israel.

In his speech, Netanyahu made no mention of the annexation issue but went out of his way to praise Trump’s self-described crackdown on what he sees as antisemitism in the U.S.

The Trump administration has withheld billions of dollars in funding from major universities it accuses of failing to protect Jewish students from pro-Palestinian protesters.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, Doyinsola Oladipo and Matt Spetalnick; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Alexander Cornwell, Steve Holland, Jarrett Renshaw, Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Don Durfee and Howard Goller)