{"id":88069,"date":"2025-09-27T03:46:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T03:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/88069\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T03:46:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T03:46:13","slug":"netanyahus-fiery-defiance-meets-wall-of-global-condemnation-over-gaza-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/88069\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu\u2019s fiery defiance meets wall of global condemnation over Gaza \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Nations<\/a> week in New York<\/a> concluded just as it began. Friday brought blazing sunshine and a fiery, wrathful and contemptuous speech by Israeli prime minister Binyamin <\/a>Netanyahu<\/a>. It was in stark contrast to the growing international opposition against the horrors being carried out by his regime in Gaza. Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> expressed how those very horrors have become the unconscionable atrocity of our time.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu spoke first at the General Assembly on Friday morning. Martin was sixth up and as he was preparing for his speech, he was not in the room to participate in the staged walk-out which awaited the Israeli leader when he took to the podium. The big auditorium was full for neither man, but the Taoiseach\u2019s speech drew a round of applause early on as he spoke about Gaza.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe will act to prevent those members of the government of Israel who have been instrumental in fomenting the unfolding disaster in Gaza from entering our country<\/a>. We will continue to work with like-minded partners across the world to bring this human catastrophe to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TaoiseachTaoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday. Photograph: Dave Sanders\/The New York Times <\/p>\n

The address was measured and strongly delivered. But an hour earlier, Netanyahu, complete with placards and a QR code for props, delivered a blistering critique rejecting the massing world opinion that his treatment of Palestinians was genocidal in nature. He told the hall that Israel had already persuaded 750,000 Palestinians to leave Gaza.<\/p>\n

Delegates exit the hall of the United Nations General Assembly as Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu prepares to speak. Video: Reuters <\/p>\n

The Israeli leader said: \u201cWould a country committing genocide plead with a population it is supposedly targeting to get out of harm\u2019s way? Would we tell them get out if we were committing genocide? We\u2019re trying to get them out. Hamas is trying to keep them in. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis charge is so baseless; the comparison to genocide \u2013 wholesale slaughter of populations. Did the Nazis ask the Jews to leave? \u2018Kindly leave, go out?\u2019 [Did] others? You want me to name all the genocidal leaders of history?\u201d<\/p>\n

He scolded the growing number of countries who have recognised the statehood rights of Palestine, calling them stooges who have \u201ccaved\u201d to the voices of a \u201cbiased media, radical Islamist constituencies and antisemitic mobs\u201d.<\/p>\n

He told those present that he had instructed loud speakers be pointed towards the Hamas strongholds in Gaza in the hope that his UN message would be heard by the remaining living Israeli prisoners. \u201cMuch of the world no longer remembers October 7th. But we remember. Israel remembers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IsraeliIsraeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu criticised countries that recognised a Palestinian state in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday. Photograph: Alexi J. Rosenfeld\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The Taoiseach described the tone and content of Netanyahu\u2019s address as \u201cwhat we expected\u201d. He reiterated once again his condemnation of the events of October 7th.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it seems to me that he is completely blind to the horrors of children who have been burned, bombed, mutilated in Gaza. I don\u2019t understand how a person could go to sleep at night being responsible for such traumas and carnage in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s leader may not have slept soundly on Wednesday night. A large crowd of protesters gathered outside his Upper East side hotel after midnight in the express hope of disrupting his sleep. <\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople take part in a march against Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Photograph: Kena Betancur\/AFP via Getty Images \"AA protester in a march against Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu in New York. Photograph: Kena Betancur\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s contingent had a long flight on the official aircraft, Wing of Zion, detouring outside the flight zones of France and Spain to avoid the arrest warrant as issued by the International Criminal Court. <\/p>\n

On Friday morning, he was at once triumphant about Israel\u2019s recent military successes over Iran and stonily belligerent about his intention to prosecute Hamas into submission. Nor was there an exception made for the Palestinians suffering as he made an audacious comparison to the scar left on New York 24 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly 90 per cent of Palestinians supported the attack on October 7th,\u201d he said. \u201cThey danced on the rooftops, they threw candy. Murdering Jews pays off. Well, I have a message for these leaders: they don\u2019t want a state next to Israel. They want a Palestinian state instead of Israel. <\/p>\n

\u201cGiving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after October 7th is like giving Al Qaeda a state one mile from New York City after September 11th. This is sheer madness. It\u2019s insane. And we won\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a bleak truth in Donald Trump\u2019s harsh assessment of the UN\u2019s effectiveness. The endless procession of speeches count for little. Maybe Trump\u2019s renewed vow<\/a>, in private meetings, to restore some semblance of peace will lead to something. On Monday, he hosts Netanyahu in the White House to reaffirm the friendship of the US.<\/p>\n

In the hot noon sun, a young Israeli journalist asked the Taoiseach if Ireland should not be sympathetic to his country after the carnage of October 7th. <\/p>\n

Martin made it clear that he had visited a kibbutz there and expressed his solidarity. He said that Irish officials had, time and again, offered the example of the Northern Irish peace process as evidence of another path, but Israel never saw the comparison as apt. <\/p>\n

\"TaoiseachTaoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin’s remarks on Gaza were applauded at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Photograph: Dave Sanders\/The New York Times <\/p>\n

Then he told the young man it was time political representatives and international media be allowed in to witness the day-to-day realities for Palestinians. <\/p>\n

The Taoiseach offered a final thought which landed queasily against the glittering Manhattan noises and the city din of taxi horns and voices.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I have a feeling that, please God when this is over, and hopefully it will end, we haven\u2019t seen the full extent of the horrors that have unfolded in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Nations week in New York concluded just as it began. Friday brought blazing sunshine and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,71,11,12,15,16,5765,5,72,7,8,2863],"class_list":{"0":"post-88069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-micheal-martin","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-palestine","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories","26":"tag-united-nations-un"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}