Head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization Saeb Erekat on Thursday slammed the Israeli prime minister’s United Nations speech, saying it “blames the victim”. Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday lashed out at the Palestinian leadership at the UN General Assembly for saying the controversial Nation-State law is racist. Erekat: Netanyahu’s Speech Blames the Victim; U.S. Has Closed the Door to Peace https://t.co/UfmpHeZZTD pic.twitter.com/uiUerUkl6A — IMEMC News (@imemcnews) September 28, 2018 After Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel’s nation-state bill will nullify the two-state solution, Netanyahu commented: “President Abbas, you proudly pay Palestinian terrorists who murder Jews. In fact, the more they slay, the more you pay. That’s in their law too. And you condemn Israel’s morality? You call Israel racist?” He added: “This is not the way to peace. This is not the way to achieve the peace we all want and need and to which Israel remains committed. This body should not be applauding the head of a regime that pays terrorists. The UN should condemn such a despicable policy.” Erekat in his response scolded Netanyahu, accusing him of “victimizing the criminal” and denying Palestinians their right to exist. In a forty-minute speech addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the presence of another undeclared Iranian nuclear site, and blasted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for hypocrisy. https://t.co/UOJQ50sZFQ pic.twitter.com/52NbOr22Pk — The Tower (@TheTowerDotOrg) September 27, 2018 According to Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA, Erekat said: “Netanyahu’s speech is a combination of old and well-known talking points that conclude on victimizing the criminal and blaming the victim … His speech further exposes Israel’s systematic denial of our right to exist, to live in freedom and to celebrate our national identity.” He added: “Despite the oppression, racism and daily violence, the proud and resilient people of Palestine will continue to remain steadfast and to believe in the achievement of our inalienable rights, to live in freedom and in dignity. For the Israeli government, not only are the issues of Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugees off the table, but also Palestine’s very existence.” Israeli defence chief says Palestinian state 'simply doesn't interest' him ahead of Abbas, Netanyahu speeches at United Nations General Assembly https://t.co/rsnBWy0RP0 pic.twitter.com/T7BNAMITzP — Al Jazeera News (@AJENews) September 27, 2018 The nation-state law passed in July declared Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, provoking fears it could lead to blatant discrimination against Arab citizens. (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, PC, Social Media)<doc-sep>Placard after placard, aerial photo after aerial photo, sensational revelation ahead of dramatic expose – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech Thursday at the United Nations was one of his most professional, persuasive and effective appearances. Well equipped with Israeli intelligence achievements, he formulated a precise and credible indictment against Iran and its proxies in the Middle East. >>FULL TEXT: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 2018 UN General Assembly speech Netanyahu has apparently fallen in love with the effect he had with his document and CD show in the Prime Minister’s Office in May. He makes public use of the Mossad’s achievements more than any other prime minister in recent history. This has political significance, of course: in the collective imagination, the prime minister is seen as the person without which this would not have happened. And indeed, Israeli intelligence has chalked up considerable achievements in the past. Previous prime ministers did not run to the UN General Assembly waving these secret materials like a cheerleader waving pompoms. >> Abbas' UN address: A speech laced with helplessness and lack of strategy | Analysis ■ The two words Netanyahu is afraid to repeat out loud | Analysis ■ Netanyahu backs future Palestinian state, reigniting the leftist’s dilemma | Analysis Israelis watching Netanyahu certainly did so with mixed feelings. On the one hand, they appreciated his phenomenal skills as a presenter on an international level of the Israeli case. On the other, fear crept into the hearts of some: Where is all this good, in the bad sense, leading us, if not to all-out war in the north? Netanyahu could not have been clearer in his threats against Hezbollah, which is hiding facilities to upgrade precision missiles within spitting distance of Beirut International Airport. “We won’t let them get away with it.” He will have to make good on the check he waved publicly. An attack on these facilities will certainly lead to a response that could develop into an all-out conflict. Netanyahu’s speech was 40 minutes long. Most of it was devoted to Iran. The evidence that indicates the presence of a nuclear storage facility in downtown Tehran, not far from the storage facility from which hundreds of CDs and notebooks were taken by the Mossad in February, will have to be checked. It may be assumed that the Mossad operatives will get fed up with the many emails that will be circulated in the coming days and weeks among European capitals in an attempt to persuade their leaders who are still holding fast to the nuclear agreement to wake up and listen to the music Netanyahu is playing for them. This will be the push that comes after the revelation. Netanyahu has appeared many times before the UN General Assembly over the past decade. His speeches are usually about Iran. As long as a Democratic president was in the White House, leading a different policy, Netanyahu looked and sounded like a stubborn child, a rejected nudnik, repeating his frightening apocalyptic messages like a broken record. Open gallery view Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Prime addresses the General Assembly at the United Nations in New York September 27, 2018. Credit: AFP Over the past two years, and more so over the past year, the world has changed. President Donald Trump has taken his country out of the nuclear agreement, imposed paralyzing sanctions on the Iranian government and transferred the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Netanyahu could appear this time self-assured and arrogant, like a rooster atop the mud of his poultry run. Trump is behind him, one hundred percent. He gave the American president the reward of his sustained applause during Trump’s speech. In the visitors’ gallery, the prime minister’s entourage gave a standing ovation to their “Donald.” This embarrassing show of Israeli provincial sycophancy, with the notable absence of Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, the casino owners, for whom Netanyahu’s charm has faded in the shadow of Case 2000. Anyone expecting a statement heralding even the slightest hope of renewed negotiations with the Palestinians was disappointed. The right wing declared business as usual. The all-clear was sounded in the settlements. It could be seen that peace-shmeace with the Palestinians was of interest to him like his speech interested the American TV channels on Thursday, riveted as they were to the hearing on Capitol Hill. For a moment, the day before yesterday, it looked as though something good was threatening to move on the Israeli-Palestinian front. The American president expressed his love for the idea of two states (and afterwards did a reversal in a typical act of shallow trickery). The Israeli prime minister uttered the word “state” for the first time in a while spiced with a thousand reservations and conditions. Suspicious minds immediately accused him of moving to the left in order to buy the hearts of the legal elites soon deciding about his three bribery cases. The schedules definitely match: the investigations will near completion around the beginning of 2019. Trump’s peace plan is supposed to be presented at around the same time. Elections will be held either before or after or in tandem. But this train, the investigations train, cannot be stopped, even if Netanyahu disguises himself as Shimon Peres.<doc-sep>cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); }); if(window.location.pathname.indexOf("656089") != -1){console.log("hedva connatix");document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none";} Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,When I spoke here, three years ago, Israel stood alone among the nations. Of the nearly 200 countries that sit in this hall, only Israel openly opposed the nuclear deal with Iran. We oppose it because it threatens our future, even our very survival. We oppose it because the deal paved Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal. And by lifting the sanctions, it’s fueled Iran’s campaign of carnage and conquest throughout the Middle East.We oppose it, we oppose it because the deal was based on a fundamental lie—that Iran is not seeking to develop nuclear weapons.Now, Israel exposed that lie earlier this year. Last February, Israeli conducted a daring raid on Iran’s secret atomic archive. We obtained over 100,000 documents and videos that had been stashed in vaults in an innocent looking building in the heart of Tehran.In May, I presented a short summary of what we obtained to the international media. I provided hard evidence of Iran’s plans to build nuclear weapons and its plans to deceive the international community. Israel shared this information and even more damning evidence that we found with members of the P5+1, and with the International Atomic Energy Agency.Months have passed. The IAEA has still not taken any action. It has not posed a single question to Iran. It has not demanded to inspect a single new site discovered in that secret archive.So, given this inaction, I decided to reveal today something else that we have shared with the IAEA and with a few intelligence agencies.What I’m about to say has not been shared publically before.Today, I am disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran—a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and materiel from Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program.In May, we exposed the site of Iran’s secret atomic archive, right here, in the Shor-abad District of Tehran. Today I’m revealing the site of a second facility— Iran’s secret atomic warehouse. It’s right here, in the Turquz-abad District of Tehran, just there miles away.Let me show you exactly what the secret atomic warehouse looks like.Here it is. You see, like the atomic archive, it’s another innocent looking compound. Now for those of you at home using Google Earth, this no-longer-secret atomic warehouse is on Maher Alley, Maher Street. You have the coordinates, you can try to get there. And for those of you who try to get there, it’s 100 meters from the Kalishoi, the rug cleaning operation. By the way, I hear they do a fantastic job cleaning rugs there. But by now they may be radioactive rugs.This is the second secret site.Now, countries with satellite capabilities may notice some increased activity on Maher Alley in the days and weeks ahead. The people they’ll see scurrying back and forth are Iranian officials desperately trying to finish the job of cleaning up that site. Because, you see, since we raided the atomic archive, they’ve been busy cleaning out the atomic warehouse.Just last month, they removed 15 kilograms of radioactive material. You know what they did with it? They had 15 kilograms of radioactive material, they had to get it out of the site, so they took it out and they spread it around Tehran in an effort to hide the evidence. The endangered residents of Tehran may want to know that they can get a Geiger counter on Amazon for only $29.99. As of today that’s just 4 million Iranian rials, but we’ll get to that later. I’ll talk about the Iranian economy in a minute. They took this radioactive material and spread it around Tehran.Now, the Iranian officials cleaning out that site still have a lot of work to do because they’ve had at least, at least 15 ship containers, they’re gigantic, 15 ship containers full of nuclear related equipment and material stored there. Now, since each of those containers can hold 20 tons of material, this means that this site contains as much as 300 tons, 300 tons of nuclear related equipment and material.Right here.So, Distinguished Delegates,You have to ask yourself a question. Why did Iran keep a secret atomic archive and a secret atomic warehouse? Because, after all, when South Africa and Libya, when they gave up their nuclear programs, the first thing they did was to destroy both the archives and the material and equipment.And the answer to the question is simple. The reason Iran didn’t destroy its atomic archive and its atomic warehouse is because it hasn’t abandoned its goal to develop nuclear weapons. In fact, it planned to use both of these sites in a few years when the time would be right to break out to the atom bomb.But, Ladies and Gentlemen, rest assured, that won’t happen. It won’t happen because what Iran hides, Israel will find.Ladies and Gentlemen,I have a message to the head of the IAEA, Mr. Yukiya Amano.I believe he’s a good man. I believe he wants to do the right thing.Well, Mr. Amano, do the right thing. Go inspect this atomic warehouse, immediately, before the Iranians finish clearing it out.Distinguished Delegates,Do you remember when we were promised that inspections could take place anytime, anywhere? Remember that? Anytime, anywhere?Well, how about inspections right here, right now.And Mr. Amano, while you’re at it, inspect the other secret sites we told you about. Once and for all, tell the world the truth about Iran.Now, I also have a message today for the Tyrants of Tehran:Israel knows what you’re doing, and Israel knows where you’re doing it. Israel will never let a regime that calls for our destruction to develop nuclear weapons. Not now, not in ten years, not ever.And Israel will do whatever it must do to defend itself against Iran’s aggression. We will continue to act against you in Syria. We will act against you in Lebanon. We will act against you in Iraq.<doc-sep>The speech delivered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly on Thursday was perhaps the best he has ever given outside of Israel’s borders. Not only because of his eloquent English and exceptional talents of rhetoric, but also because of his almost perfect ability to communicate practical and ideological messages to different target audiences in such a way that his messages bring about practical results and have the desired psychological impact that he is seeking. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The most striking example was his claim about the warehouse storing nuclear equipment and material in Tehran. Netanyahu took the intelligence material and used it to challenge the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and portrayed it as a toothless and untrustworthy organization that is unable to fulfill its mandate. PM Netanyahu speaking at the UN (Photo: Reuters) Netanyahu said that he had conveyed the information about the atomic warehouse to the IAEA and its director, Yukiya Amano. In principle, his message was unambiguous: Our speaking quietly and transferring information to you has not encouraged you to take action. He was saying that he wants to see the IAEA face the international community and the world media when the Western world at least knows that they have the authority to carry out inspections of nuclear sites whenever they want, according to the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Netanyahu talking about Hezbollah weapons warehouses (Photo: AFP) But Netanyahu was not content with merely challenging the IAEA in the hope that it would act. He also told the world about the 50 kg of radioactive material that the Iranian regime spread throughout Tehran in a bid to cover up its plans, stressing that any of the capital’s residents could be harmed. In doing so, he added fuel to the fire of resentment towards the regime which is burning in the hearts of many Iranians. Netanyahu was also not content with exposing the atomic warehouse in Tehran. He also issued a red card to the civilians of Lebanon, emphasizing that Hezbollah has facilities in the vicinity of Shi’ite neighborhoods for upgrading the accuracy of missiles and rockets. He showed exactly where these facilities were situated and warned that anybody living near them is in harm’s way. In highlighting his points, Netanyahu laid out before the international community an important aim. Israel does not want to bomb from the air or openly sabotage these facilities in order to avoid sparking a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. The exposure of these facilities, nevertheless, obliges Hezbollah to make a decision: either move them elsewhere or endanger the civilians in the area. In any event, it will certainly interrupt the activities of the facilities and will force Hezbollah to move them to less populated areas where they are easier to hit. Netanyahu talking about Iran (Photo: AFP) In order to ensure that these goals are achieved, Netanyahu coordinated in advance a statement from the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, which provided Lebanese citizens with the information they lacked in order to humiliate Hezbollah and instill fear into the civilian population. Netanyahu’s clever use of the sensitive intelligence information for diplomatic purposes and in the war for public opinion can be considered groundbreaking in the current era and it will likely prove to be efficient. At the same time, Netanyahu managed to shame Europe for their stance of appeasement toward Iran. In doing so, he helped Trump and perhaps even complicated European efforts to sabotage the US sanctions against Iran. Netanyahu did this by drawing a clear parallel between the EU’s appeasing of Iran today and the policy of appeasement by UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain towards Hitler in 1938. This shaming has a goal and there is no doubt that some leaders in Europe were shuffling uncomfortably in their seats when the content of Netanyahu’s speech was brought to their attention. PM with UN Gen. Sec. Antonio Guterres (Photo: AP) The rest of the speech was a debate about the Palestinian, and liberal and leftist circles in the West accusations, accusing Israel of racism and apartheid for passing the Nation-State Law. Netanyahu skillfully raised argument after argument while strengthening his political support base from his own party and others. The other target audience for his speech was President Trump, who Netanyahu praised and furnished with compliments. Netanyahu meeting Trump (Photo: Avi Ohayon/GPO) He did not only say the things he said as a price to be paid for Trump’s pro-Israel stance, but also to cajole him by applauding the continuance of his unequivocal pro-Israel policies, designating him as worthy of praise and honoring him with applause from the UN podium. The Evangelicals supporting Trump also received their own message, meant to remind them, by quoting from the bible, that Israel is still the one worthy of their support. Every message was thoroughly calculated to present two or three goals and when Netanyahu aimed his remarks at the Evangelicals, he also adopted the style of language employed by Evangelical preachers. There is no doubt that this speech was a work of art that few leaders in the world could pull off; experience teaches us that we cannot overstate the importance of speeches delivered at the annual UN General Assembly.<doc-sep>
Overshadowed by the high-scale drama that was taking place in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room in Washington, D.C., last Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was delivering a powerful and effective condemnation of the Iran regime at the United Nations, one that should not be lost on us as we focus on the Supreme Court crisis. It’s not the first time the Israeli leader has used his annual U.N. Security Council appearance to warn of the danger Iran represents to Israel, the region and the world. He has done so consistently over the last decade. But this speech was different for two primary reasons. First, Netanyahu was no longer speaking as the weary whiner, out of sync with Washington regarding Iran. While the Obama administration sought from the outset to engage Iran in diplomacy rather than confrontation, most notably through the 2015 nuclear deal, the Israeli leader was always the odd man out, insisting that Iran could not be trusted to play by the rules. Netanyahu’s speech before Congress in March 2015, openly castigating Obama as being duped by the mullahs, did not sway the president. Instead it angered him and deepened the rift between many Democrats and the Netanyahu government, which continues. But as Netanyahu spoke at the U.N. last week, he knew he had the full and vocal support of President Trump, who, heeding the prime minister’s advice, withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear deal with Iran earlier this year. The move further isolated Israel and the U.S. in the world community, but it appears to have weakened the Iran regime financially. The other key difference in Netanyahu’s U.N. speech last week is that he offered proof that Iran lies when it insists it is no longer seeking to develop nuclear weapons. He asserted that Iran has “a secret facility in Tehran — a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and material from Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program.” Don't miss our top stories. Get The Jewish Week in your inbox. FREE SIGN UP In May, Israel exposed another site of Iran’s secret atomic archive, also in Tehran. The information about both sites is believed to have come from a bold raid Israel conducted in Tehran in February, making off with more than 100,000 documents and videos hidden in a secret atomic archive. A confident Netanyahu told the U.N. audience that “what Iran hides, Israel will find,” and he called on the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog organization monitoring Iran’s compliance with the deal, to “go inspect this atomic warehouse, immediately, before the Iranians finish clearing it out.” A few days later, the IAEA issued a statement saying that it does its own independent reviews and doesn’t rely on information presented to it from third parties. The IAEA says Iran has been in compliance with the restrictions placed on it through the nuclear deal and that the agency “sends inspectors to sites and locations only when needed.” The response from Netanyahu’s office was that “there is no reason to wait. The IAEA should check the site immediately and send inspectors with a radiation detector, and the prime minister’s statement will be found to be the truth.” The incident was a reminder that Iran cannot be trusted and that the stakes are highest for Israel. The confrontational aspect of Netanyahu’s speech, and response to the IAEA, makes many pro-Israel supporters proud of Israeli ingenuity and a leader willing to call out the world’s weakness in responding to a perceived threat. Others feel the prime minister is increasing the chances of war, as in his warning to Hezbollah that Israel will not tolerate its stockpiling of precision missiles. Over the years, Netanyahu has been admirably cautious about pulling the trigger. Even with a brutal civil war to the north in Syria, and with Iran and Russia an increasing presence there, he has not taken his country to war. In the end, Israel’s government must do all it can to protect its citizens and let the world know that it will not tolerate situations that put the Jewish state in danger.