In the end, Binyamin Netanyahu’s brief appearance in New York City amounted to a hollow and dispirited charade in which the Israeli leader cut a lonely figure after a UN speech defined by his customary defiance and bombast.
Shortly after his introduction at 2pm local time on Thursday, he surveyed a mass evacuation by the majority of delegates in the assembly hall. Ireland, though, were represented for the Israeli prime minister’s speech. It meant Ireland were in the minority.
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson last night confirmed that representation had been maintained during Netanyahu’s address. “Ireland has been represented in the UN General Assembly for all national statements during High-Level Week, even when these are being delivered by representatives of governments with which we vehemently disagree.”
For 45 minutes, Netanyahu trawled through decades-old history and personal reminiscence as he positioned Israel as a defender of international communities. He not only rejected the chorus of accusations that Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian community in Gaza were tantamount to genocide, but scornfully flipped the narrative to portray his government as “having prevented genocide”.
Delegates from several countries leave the room as Binyamin Netanyahu arrives to speak at the UN General Assembly in New York. Photograph: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images 
A member of the Palestinian delegation looks at Binyamin Netanyahu as she leaves the assembly hall in New York. Photograph: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
“What genocidal regime dispenses a million polio vaccinations?” he asked.
“Accusing Israel of genocide is the biggest lie of the century.”
Netanyahu wore a suit that was a homage to US president Donald Trump’s favourite wardrobe choices – navy, with white shirt and red tie. But Trump was down in Washington hosting Chinese leader Xi Jingping. And although Netanyahu held aloft a Starlink device through which, he said, Iranian civilians could “access truth and choice”, a proposed visit to Elon Musk in Texas had been scrapped earlier in the week.
When Netanyahu attacked the Iranian regime, the UN camera flashed to its delegate’s table. It was empty and adorned with a framed photograph of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian Quds force commander, assassinated in 2020 by a US drone strike in Baghdad on the orders of Trump.
Netanyahu continued his war of words with New York mayor Zohran Mamdani. He brought up Mamdani’s association with Hasan Piker, the podcaster who has made virulently anti-Semitic remarks.
“Mr Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. This isn’t the city we remember. It changes so quickly . . . You are friends with Hasan Piker. You invited into your home a Palestinian journalist who filmed the torture of Israeli hostages. You tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me. You can’t silence the truth.”
Binyamin Netanyahu did not acknowledge the huge death toll in Gaza perpetrated by Israel. Photograph: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
The mayor spent Thursday afternoon hosting Dutch delegates at an event and essentially ignored Netanyahu’s visit. Ruth Messinger, the former city council member who is a supporter of Mamdani’s and chief executive of the American Jewish World Service, spoke to The New York Times. She noted that the mayor “has made his feelings on Mid East issues clear”, adding that he “doesn’t need to stir up enmity in and among New Yorkers on issues that may be really important to him, but are not central to the governing of New York City”.
On the intersections on Second Avenue, pro-Israeli groups held aloft banners reading: “Netanyahu, Your Time Is Up.”
A protest against Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu near the United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday. Photograph: Vincent Alban/The New York Times
Netanyahu’s defiant message was aimed at them, and at Israel’s UN colleagues, including a scornful rebuke of the series of condemnatory speeches on Israel’s Gaza actions which began with the opening address by UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.
But it was also designed for the 9pm audience in Israel, where predictive platforms suggest that the Yashar party led by Gadi Eisenkot has made significant gains on Netanyahu’s Likud party. Whenever Trump sees or hears Netanyahu now, it is to be reminded of the Iran war imbroglio which has seen the personal popularity of the US president plummet towards historically low numbers.
In the hall, Netanyahu railed against Qatar and Erdogan in Turkey. Both tables were empty.
With controlled but obvious anger, Netanyahu returned to the atrocities committed against Israeli people by Hamas on October 7th 2023 as “the darkest day” in the history of his country. He reminded delegates that Gaza was not occupied by any Israeli citizens on that date. He portrayed his government as a saviour of many of the “moral cowards” who had just walked out of the room in defending their nations from Iranian ballistic capabilities through its attacks on Tehran.
“For me, it was one of the easiest decisions I have ever had to take as prime minister because if I didn’t, we would all be dead. We were also defending the nations of many of the delegates who just left this hall. It is hard to imagine more mind-blowing hypocrisy but that is what it is. Yet they accused Israel, tiny Israel, of colonialism. Britain, France – for God’s sake, they invented the term. Colonialism. Give us a break. Another lie.”
He deviated into a personal story of meeting his late brother Yoni, killed in an Israeli hostage rescue operation in 1976, under an orange grove. His brother told him: “We are going to win. Because we have no choice.” Netanyahu adapted his older brother’s words as a mantra in front of the remaining delegations in the hall.
Throughout his lengthy address, he failed to once refer to or acknowledge the mass Palestinian deaths, estimated at more than 70,000, nor the ongoing food and nutrition crises reported by numerous organisations. On he went, presenting a version of historical events, both distant and recent, that at times sounded delusional and out of step from the conclusions drawn by an increasing number of UN member nations and international watchdog bodies.
His voice carried clear and strong around the hall from beginning until the end. But when Netanyahu collected his speech papers and took a last look at the assembly hall, he was confronted with the sight of a largely empty room.