‘War for truth’: At UN, Netanyahu defends Israel against false allegations, attacks Iranian regime & ‘liars’ in Qatar, Turkey
'We’re going to win. We have no other choice,' declares PM
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the Jewish state against numerous allegations in a combative speech at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Thursday, once again using visual aids to underline his arguments.
Netanyahu later met with Argentine President Javier Milei and held a joint meeting with the presidents of Paraguay, Panama, and Bolivia, before heading home without meeting any senior U.S. officials.
In the UNGA chamber, Netanyahu was met with a walkout by dozens of diplomats. “If there are any other moral cowards who haven’t yet left this hall – please do so now,” he said before beginning. Representatives from over 100 countries remained in the hall, including major Western nations as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Terrible to see all these ambassadors to the UN walk out on Israel. Not nearly as many walked out on Iran yesterday — even after they machine gunned 40,000 of their own people. pic.twitter.com/3xBN3v2fbF
— Ambassador Mike Waltz (@USAmbUN) September 25, 2026
Contrary to reports ahead of his speech, Netanyahu did not reveal any new intelligence regarding the Iranian regime’s efforts to restore its nuclear capabilities. Instead, he situated Israel’s fight against its enemies as part of a larger war. He also didn't mention the Abraham Accords, which he had often praised in previous speeches.
“In this battle against the barbarians, we’ve had no greater partner than President Trump… he understood that if left unchallenged, the fanatic ayatollahs who chant ‘Death to America! Death to Israel!’ would eventually carry out their mad fantasies. So Israel and America acted together not only to protect ourselves, but to save civilization.”
Netanyahu highlighted the irony that “Israel is also defending many of the countries whose delegates just left this hall! In fact, I want you to know that many of their leaders even thank us privately for taking out Iran’s nukes.”
Starting his speech by recounting previous attempts to destroy the country, Netanyahu emphasized that before the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel was not present in any of the regions its enemies accuse it of “occupying.”
“We weren’t then in Judea [and] Samaria, the heart of the historic homeland of the Jewish people. We weren’t in Gaza,” he said. Using the opportunity to hit back at Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who recently claimed Syria’s right to the Golan Heights, Netanyahu stressed that “The Jews have been on the Golan Heights since the days of Moses,” before criticizing those accusing Israel of “colonialism.”
They accuse Israel – little Israel – of colonialism. And who is doing the accusing?
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 24, 2026
Among others, people in Britain and France.
For goodness sake, they are the ones who invented this concept – their colonies stretched across the entire world.
Colonialism? Please, give us a… pic.twitter.com/dGCDcoZier
“Among them are people in Britain and in France. For God’s sake, they invented the term. Their colonies embraced the entire globe,“ the prime minister said.
Recounting a conversation with his brother Yoni, who fell during the rescue operation in Entebbe in 1976, Netanyahu said, “We’re going to win. We have no other choice.“
He noted, “At no time was this demonstrated more clearly than on October 7, 2023... I want you to know there wasn’t a single Israeli in Gaza at the time.”
Over the next three years, Israel’s “heroic soldiers” had to fight on seven fronts, Netanyahu said: “Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, militias in Iraq, militias in Syria, Palestinian terrorists in Judea Samaria… instead of collapsing, we delivered crippling blows to all of them.”
In this context, he brandished a beeper, in a reference to the Mossad operation that detonated thousands of beepers rigged with explosives in 2024, killing and injuring thousands of Hezbollah operatives. “I can tell you this, Hezbollah certainly remembers them,” he quipped.
Speaking now at the UN.
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 24, 2026
Remember the pagers?
Hezbollah sure does. pic.twitter.com/rZ0HjWkQyu
Netanyahu then pivoted toward defending the country against false allegations, particularly those of "genocide," as part of what he called the “eighth front to this war. It’s the war for truth.”
He singled out Qatar and Turkey in particular, accusing them of malign influence and of hosting Hamas terrorists.
Qatar, the Israeli prime minister said, has been “massively funding American universities and toxic media outlets like Al-Jazeera” for decades, aiming to “brainwash young minds to hate Israel, hate America and hate the West.”
“The latest country to become a super-spreader of antisemitic lies is Turkey,” he continued, attacking its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who he said “calls for Israel’s destruction almost every single day. He says he’s going to be the ruler of Jerusalem. No, Sir. You won’t.“
“Accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century,” Netanyahu charged. “So to all those spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the antisemitic mayor of New York City, I say this: Shame on you.“
What genocidal regime gives a million polio vaccinations to the enemy's population?
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 24, 2026
What genocidal regime enables the distribution of 2 million tons of food into Gaza? That's a tonne for every person.
Accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century! pic.twitter.com/qNg5zuc94R
Ahead of his U.S. visit, Netanyahu sparred with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, vowing to expose “the truth” about him, though he only cited several already known instances in which Mamdani refused to condemn people in his circle, including his wife, who expressed support for Hamas or the massacre of Oct. 7.
Netanyahu then turned to the leaders of European countries that have sharply criticized Israel in recent months, accusing them of choosing “to succumb to the antisemitic mobs." He said, “They have chosen weakness. They have chosen appeasement.”
Criticizing what he described as the European nations’ “moral slumber,” he stressed that Israel would not wait for them to “wake up” but is instead “forging ahead.”
“We seize the future. We pioneer incredible developments in health, agriculture, artificial intelligence,” Netanyahu said. “We are not afraid, but I’ll tell you who is afraid. The Tyrants of Tehran… You know what they’re most afraid of? Their own people.”
Netanyahu then introduced his second visual aid, holding up a Starlink router, which he said “allows people to access truth, to exercise choice and to exercise freedom of thought and freedom of speech. That’s why the Iranian regime spends billions of dollars censoring the Internet.”
The Iranian representative didn’t want the starlink :( pic.twitter.com/wpElxvrrr4
— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) September 24, 2026
“This evil regime will fall, and we will all celebrate that day,” Netanyahu declared.
“Over the centuries, the tyrannies that tried to destroy us failed time and again. God willing, they’ll continue to fail,” Netanyahu said at the conclusion of his speech.
“If we muster our courage, if we steel our resolve, we will continue to win. As the Bible says, 'netsakh israel lo yeshaker,' the eternity of Israel will not falter. And the reason is simple. We have no other choice.”
