Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in New York on Thursday with several world leaders ahead of a critical address to the 80th United Nations General Assembly on Friday, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
They included Argentine President Javier Milei, Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. Netanyahu landed on Thursday in New York, from where he will travel to Washington, D.C., for a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.
In his meeting with Argentina’s leader, Netanyahu “expressed his deep appreciation for President Milei, a true friend of the State of Israel and the Jewish People, who has stood steadfast against the systematic bias directed at Israel at the U.N. and in other international forums,” the PMO said. “The two leaders discussed ways to expand bilateral cooperation on economic matters and in other areas.”
Netanyahu and Peña discussed the expansion of cooperation between Jerusalem and Asunción in a variety of fields—security, technology, energy and more, the PMO said.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked President Peña for his unwavering support of Israel and his firm stance against antisemitism and against terror, which was expressed also in Paraguay’s designations of the IRGC, Hezbollah and Hamas as terror organizations,” it said. “The prime minister expressed his appreciation for Paraguay’s staunch opposition to anti-Israeli bias at the United Nations, the International Criminal Court and other international bodies.”
In his meeting with Vučić, the Israeli prime minister discussed ways to extend the cooperation between Israel and Serbia, particularly in the fields of security and trade.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed his gratitude to President Vučić for his unwavering support of Israel’s efforts to free all of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, including Alon Ohel, who holds Serbian citizenship,” the PMO said.
Netanyahu shared the details of his recent conversation with Ohel’s parents, following the dissemination by Hamas of a propaganda video showing their son in the terror organization’s captivity.
Before his departure, Netanyahu said, “At the Assembly, I will speak the truth—the truth of Israel’s citizens, the truth of IDF soldiers, the truth of our state. I will denounce those leaders who, instead of condemning the murderers, rapists and child-burners, seek to grant them a state in the heart of the Land of Israel. That will not happen.”
On Wednesday, Netanyahu condemned the recognition of a Palestinian state by several Western countries—including France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco—as a “shameful surrender,” asserting that capitulating to Palestinian terrorism would not obligate Israel in any way.
“A Palestinian state will not be established,” he declared.
Ahead of Netanyahu’s address to the U.N. General Assembly, the Prime Minister’s Office launched a public awareness campaign in New York City highlighting the atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
Netanyahu was slated to address the General Assembly at 9 a.m. local time (4 p.m. in Israel). An Israeli official told JNS that Netanyahu had invited American Jewish leaders and supporters to attend in a bid to counter what is expected to be “a hostile reception” at the world body.
As part of a public diplomacy effort, the PMO said it had directed “civilian elements, in cooperation with the IDF, to place loudspeakers on the backs of trucks on the Israeli side of the Gaza border so that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s historic U.N. General Assembly speech will be heard in the Gaza Strip.”
Netanyahu ordered that the activity be carried out in a way that would not endanger IDF soldiers, the PMO added.
The unusual move reflected Jerusalem’s determination to counter Hamas’s propaganda and deliver its message directly to the remaining hostages and the people of Gaza, even as Israel’s war to dismantle the terror group continues.
