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As you might expect from a wanted war criminal presiding over a genocide, Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2026 UN speech was full of bullshit that wouldn’t have been out of place in a fascist speech from the 1930s or 40s. But we’ll save you the excruciating experience of hearing it all, and just focus on five of his most absurd comments.
Before the list, though, here’s a video of the massive UN walkout of people disgusted at the fact that Netanyahu is not yet in jail.
www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/…/Israel.mp4
These are the five moments from Netanyahu’s speech that we found the most ridiculous:
- We invaded Iran for global wellbeing. You’re welcome, says Netanyahu.
Amid the immense ongoing disruption that the unprovoked US-Israeli war on Iran has forced onto the world, Netanyahu said attacking the country was the “easiest decision” he’s made. He claimed this was because:
If we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.
As with most of his claims, there’s little evidence to justify that. In fact, Iran had been exercising significant restraint in response to Netanyahu’s regular provocations. And while the US killed 290 Iranian civilians in just one 1988 attack, Iran has killed roughly 290 fewer US civilians than that in the four following decades.
Israel, meanwhile, has killed almost 74,000 people in Gaza alone since 2023 while murdering thousands more in other countries.
Iranian civilians, of course, have legitimate criticisms of their government’s actions. But Israel’s main reason for hating Iran is that it has been one of the key nations supporting regional resistance to the apartheid state‘s illegal occupation of Palestine.
- Being tiny means you can’t be colonialist!
Netanyahu said:
[In 1967] we were in a tiny sliver of land – we still are – that is equal to about one-third of 1% of the landmass of the entire Arab world. Yet they accuse Israel, tiny Israel, of colonialism. Some colonialism! And who’s accusing us? Well, among them are people in Britain and in France… Colonialism?! Give us a break. Another lie!
Size, of course, has nothing to do with whether you can colonise other lands. Just think of Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, or the UK. When you come from one country and take control of another country, that’s basically the definition of colonialism. And it’s very much the history of the Israeli state.
Netanyahu’s own dad – Benzion Mileikowsky – was born in Poland, before his family and many others from Europe (and elsewhere) colonised historic Palestine.
In 2024, UN expert Francesca Albanese released a report explaining why Israel’s actions in Gaza constituted a “settler-colonial genocide“.
- If you multiply the death toll from 7 October, it’s almost as shocking as the numbers we’ve killed in Gaza
One strange tactic of pro-Israeli propagandists has been to transform the number of people who died on 7 October 2023 into US proportions. That means transforming 1,200 people into 40,000 people, as Netanyahu repeated in his UN speech.
The problem with this, however, is that if you do exactly the same for the number of Palestinians that Israel has killed in Gaza, the number would transform from around 74,000 into 10,508,000. If Netanyahu really wanted to shock a US public that has failed to stop 74,000 deaths in Gaza, maybe 10 million would have more of an impact.
- We love laws. Honest!
Netanyahu also insisted:
We’re a country of law.
And yes, Israel does have laws. But that’s where its love of laws stops. Because the apartheid state’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories is very much against international law. And rather than respecting that, Netanyahu used his speech to praise illegal colonisers there as:
peaceful settlers – honest people – law-abiding people
He also added, referring to the occupied West Bank:
that’s our land
International law says it isn’t, of course. But that’s not the type of law this wanted war criminal is talking about. He prefers the racist Israeli laws that perpetuate apartheid.
- This isn’t genocide. It’s the opposite… whatever that is.
International experts overwhelmingly agree that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. But Netanyahu claimed his regime has done so much ‘preventing of genocide’, like allowing very limited aid and vaccines into Gaza, that it’s actually done:
the opposite of genocide
That would presumably mean actively cultivating Palestinian existence, something Israel has clearly never done as a colonial project consciously seeking to displace and replace local inhabitants. Today, there are still millions of Palestinian refugees, with almost a million living in limbo in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem alone.
Trying to paint Israel as a very non-genocidey place, Netanyahu added that “the Christian community” in Israel is “growing, thriving, and succeeding“. In reality, however, the Israeli regime and its extremist settlers have been actively making life increasingly impossible for Palestinian Christians living under the colonial occupation.
Netanyahu: propaganda for the genocidal faithful
Netanyahu’s speech tried hard to:
- Paint Israel as an innocent victim that had “no other choice” but to engage in mass murder and a regional military rampage that has caused widespread global disruption.
- Treat some violence as annoying but acceptable, and other violence as “fiendish”, “sadistic”, ‘monstrous’, ‘barbaric’, and “evil” – words that would very effectively describe many of Israel’s actions since 2023.
- Repeat the word terrorist as often as possible.
- Smear opponents of genocide as antisemitic.
It was brash propaganda that was a tough listen for anyone aware of the things Netanyahu has done or said in the last three years. But it only seemed to land for the cheerleaders who were present, largely from Israeli and US delegations but also from Ethiopia’s, which was representing another war criminal regime accused of genocide.
Most other delegations had either left the room or sat silently through Netanyahu’s speech, showing that most of the world doesn’t buy his propaganda. But the fact that he was able to get up and speak on a global platform, instead of rotting in a jail cell, is a real stain on the international community.
Featured image via the Canary
By Ed Sykes
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