THE WASHINGTON POST: Benjamin Netanyahu’s explosive UN speech stuns as he issues Iran warning

Standing before the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chastised world leaders who criticised US-Israeli attacks on Iran for their “mind-blowing hypocrisy.”

He railed against European governments for “succumbing to anti-Semitic mobs”. He called the leader of Turkey a “tyrant” — and dubbed Zohran Mamdani the “anti-Semitic mayor of New York” with “Hamas buddies”.

And, he vowed, Iran’s “evil regime” would soon fall.

With Israel facing deepening international isolation and widening sanctions, Mr Netanyahu delivered on Thursday not just a fiery defence of his country on the world stage but a rallying cry to voters back home ahead of next month’s Israeli elections.

Mr Netanyahu struck a defiant note as he lashed out, one by one, at a litany of adversaries: Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Mr Mamdani, a critical international media and Western governments that rebuke Israel over its campaign in Gaza and its support for settlers in the West Bank, amid a rise in settler-perpetrated violence.

“Israel didn’t commit genocide, Israel prevented genocide — that’s exactly what Mr Mamdani’s Hamas buddies would’ve done to us,” Mr Netanyahu said.

He also promised that “something incredible” would soon happen in Iran and doubled down on a war that has proved to be deeply unpopular in the United States and a political albatross for his ally, President Donald Trump.

Many world leaders were privately supportive of the attack that he launched with Mr Trump in late February even as they publicly condemn the war, Mr Netanyahu said.

“One day, and it may not be far away, the Iranian people will be free,” he said.

“Their murderous regime will be toppled by its lies, by its corruption, by its cruelty. This evil regime will fall.”

Even before he spoke, protesters gathered outside the UN headquarters. As Mr Netanyahu took the podium, he was jeered by diplomats. Scores of delegates from other U.N. member nations walked out in protest, as they did last year, leaving the Israeli leader to speak before many empty seats.

The assembly offered Mr Netanyahu his biggest international platform just weeks before the Israeli election on October 27, and his speech repeated campaign lines from back home.

He repeatedly tore into Mr Mamdani, accusing the New York mayor, who has often been depicted as a bogeyman in Mr Netanyahu’s election materials, of anti-Semitism.

Mr Mamdani, in turn, has accused Mr Netanyahu of war crimes. Shortly before the Prime Minister spoke, the mayor shared a video of himself planting olive trees with Palestinian families from Gaza at Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence.

With his domestic opponents frequently accusing him of failing to prevent the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas that left 1200 Israelis dead, Mr Netanyahu used the speech on Thursday to tout his battlefield achievements, including the list of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian leaders he has successfully assassinated.

He pulled out a pager to remind the audience of the Israeli covert operation that decimated Hezbollah’s ranks. And he held up a Starlink device and offered it to any members of the Iranian delegation who wanted to defect.

At times, Mr Netanyahu appeared to be directly addressing Israeli voters as he spoke of Jewish perseverance, ingenuity and unity.

“This is Israel, one nation fighting for one future, left and right, young and old, religious and secular. Do we have our differences? Of course we do,” he said. “But in critical moments, those that shape our destiny, we stand together because what we unites us is so much stronger: our history, our values, our courage.”

At other times, he made appeals to the international world along religious lines. Christians were persecuted in Iran and being “shoved out” of the Middle East, yet Christians said “nothing, nada,” Mr Netanyahu said. Liberal democracies in Western Europe were “appeasing” anti-Semitic “mobs” and showing weakness in front of “fanatic jihadists,” he warned.

Mr Netanyahu and leaders in his Likud party have sought in recent years to strengthen ties with some far-right European political parties while voicing support for their tougher stance against Muslim immigration.

What will the world hold for you: the brotherhood of democracies, or the Muslim Brotherhood?” he asked.