‘We have no other choice’: At UN, Netanyahu says Israel will ‘continue to win’

Netanyahu said Israel’s war over the past three years is part of a continuing struggle for the survival of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Israel’s military campaigns against Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah before the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, rejecting accusations of genocide in Gaza and accusing Western governments, Turkey, Qatar and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani of spreading lies about Israel.

Netanyahu said Israel’s war over the past three years is part of a continuing struggle for the survival of the Jewish people and the Jewish state, repeatedly returning to the phrase, “We have no other choice.”

He said striking Iran’s nuclear facilities was “one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister,” arguing that Israel had prevented a nuclear threat to itself and other countries. He praised President Donald Trump for his partnership against Iran, noting that American and Israeli pilots had flown joint missions over the country.

Netanyahu linked the current conflict to the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1976 Entebbe rescue mission, recalling his hero brother Yoni Netanyahu’s words before the 1967 war: “We’re going to win. We have no other choice.”

Turning to Oct. 7, 2023, Netanyahu described the Hamas-led attack as “the darkest day in Israel’s history” and said Israel subsequently fought a seven-front war against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, armed groups in Iraq, terrorists in Syria and Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria.

He also rejected international criticism over settler violence, while condemning vigilantism on the part of a small minority of Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, and highlighted recent Palestinian attacks that killed Nathaniel Shakron and critically wounded Neria Leiter, who is now fighting for his life in a Jerusalem hospital.

Netanyahu called international accusations of genocide in Gaza “the greatest lie of the century,” saying Israel had warned civilians to leave combat zones and facilitated food and polio vaccinations while Hamas used civilians as human shields.

He described mainstream media and social media as the “eighth front” in the war, accusing Qatar and Turkey of spreading anti-Israel messages.

Netanyahu also attacked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, accusing the latter of contributing to an atmosphere in which Jews feel unsafe.

Turning again to Iran, Netanyahu predicted its government will eventually fall.

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

Netanyahu closed by invoking more than 3,000 years of Jewish history and again declaring that Israel would continue fighting  and “continue to win” because “we have no other choice.”