As stern as a father who sees his son losing his way and tries to bring him back to reason and to what is right—without concealing his faults or shielding him from reality—that was how Benjamin Netanyahu spoke yesterday.
Israel, he said, is the first target in a war against the entire West. The abandonment, betrayal and antisemitism we are witnessing today are a disgrace and, above all, a condemnation of those democracies that, out of opportunism, fear or ignorance, turn against Israel.
Without Israel, the fate of the West would be sealed. But Israel will prevail anyway, Netanyahu declared, “because we have no other choice.”
It was a forceful declaration of awareness of the immense danger the Jewish people have faced throughout the centuries, but also an expression of absolute confidence. The Israeli prime minister called on the Jewish people, and on all those who stand for democracy and freedom, to understand that the times have changed.
Israel is strong, and it will fight without holding back.
That was his message, together with an appeal to the world to examine its conscience and tear itself away from the lies that have become conventional wisdom.
Netanyahu was speaking, too, to the hostile audience that abandoned the U.N. General Assembly chamber when he took the podium. He tried to tell them the truth about a war shrouded in lies.
On one side stands Iran, leader of the radical Shi’ite forces. On the other stands Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, an antisemitic autocrat and champion of the Muslim Brotherhood. Their ambitions will increasingly threaten Western countries as well.
Netanyahu confronted the fundamental distortion of Israel’s long war of self-defense, a struggle that has continued for decades but has been recast as colonialism. An army that has saved Israel from annihilation is instead criminalized for doing so.
He laid out, in a matter of minutes, the pillars of the case Israel has struggled to make to the world: the manipulation of the media; the role of Qatar, Hamas’s closest patron, through Al Jazeera and its enormous financial influence in American and European institutions; Hamas’s use of civilians as human shields; and Israel’s efforts to warn civilians and move them out of danger.
He spoke of the food and vaccinations provided in Gaza—facts that contradict the accusation that Israel is committing genocide.
It was a j’accuse directed at the world.
But it was also a celebration of Jewish resilience: 3,000 years of attachment to the same land and the same faith, a civilization that gave the world monotheism and the sanctification of life.
Netanyahu spoke of the heroism of Israeli soldiers and their understanding of the magnitude of the task before them. He cited Neryiah Leiter, the son of Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, and his words of complete dedication to serving his country.
They echoed the spirit of Netanyahu’s own brother, Yoni, who was killed leading the mission to rescue Israeli and Jewish hostages at Entebbe in 1976.
We will prevail because we have no choice.
Netanyahu finally turned to Iran. He promised that the murderous regime that persecutes and kills its own people will ultimately disappear, even as the West has too often failed to raise its voice forcefully against it.
Netanyahu’s speech was not simply a defense of Israel. It was an indictment of a world that has turned reality upside down, treating those defending themselves as aggressors and too often excusing those who openly seek their destruction.
It was his j’accuse.
And his warning was directed far beyond Israel: The battle Israel is fighting today will not end at Israel’s borders.
