00:00Despite growing international outcry over the war in Gaza, the recognition of a Palestinian state by several Western nations for the first time,
00:08and even despite those warnings from Donald Trump against annexing the West Bank,
00:12Benjamin Netanyahu was more defiant than ever in his remarks to the U.N. General Assembly this Friday.
00:19Things getting off to quite a dramatic start with dozens of world leaders theatrically walking out of the Assembly
00:25to the sound of visibly audible boos and rapturous applause, presumably for those who did decide to walk out.
00:34The Israeli prime minister still starting his remarks with the expected.
00:38He blasted not only Hamas, but also Iran, Hezbollah, militants in Syria and Yemen,
00:43and also gloated about Israel's military victories.
00:46For more, we are going to cross now to our correspondent in New York, Jessica LeMazurier.
00:51Hi, Jessica. So can you take us through those remarks then, Netanyahu?
00:55Netanyahu arguably in many ways went even further than he did in the past,
00:59especially given this context of international outcry at the situation in Gaza.
01:07Yes, this was Netanyahu, the tough guy on the world stage.
01:13He stood there absolutely defiant at the podium, even as there was this mass walkout.
01:20He seemed unfazed and it appeared afterwards that somehow the Israeli delegation had brought in a lot of supporters
01:27because there were rapturous rounds of applause to many of the things that were said by Netanyahu in his speech,
01:34especially when he talked about how he's reshaping the Middle East and how he's beaten Hezbollah,
01:40he's beaten Iran and how he is going to make sure that he beats Hamas.
01:48He said that we must finish the job. Israel must finish the job in Gaza.
01:54So absolutely defiant.
01:57What he did not say was how he's going to respond to Trump's 21-point peace plan.
02:03But he did go to great pains to flatter Trump repeatedly throughout this speech,
02:10presenting him as another tough guy on the world stage,
02:13praising the way that Trump responded to Iran, the bombing of Iran,
02:19and praising the way that Trump is dealing with what he called anti-Semitism in the United States,
02:25thanking him.
02:26Those who he did not thank were those world states who have recognized a Palestinian state.
02:32And he sort of portrayed them as hypocritical, saying, well, they're doing this publicly.
02:36But then behind closed doors, they're thanking us.
02:38They're thanking us for protecting the world against these what he called barbarians.
02:43And so he had some very harsh comments for those world powers,
02:47saying that, you know, when they always come to Israel when they want great intelligence,
02:50they don't understand how our intelligence services managed to do the job of at one point,
02:55he said, five CIAs or something like that.
02:58He also talked about the two-state solution, because that's obviously been a huge topic
03:02here at the United Nations this week.
03:05And he started by saying, we don't oppose a two-state solution.
03:09They oppose it, meaning the Palestinians.
03:11And he berated the Palestinians, saying they've had plenty of chances to have a state,
03:15but they keep on attacking us.
03:17And that's why we can't afford to give them a state.
03:20He also was at pains to say, well, it's not just me.
03:23I'm not the only one against a two-state solution.
03:26It's almost the entirety of the Israeli government.
03:30So he was very forceful on that.
03:33He praised on the Abraham Accords and said, again, you know, he's planning to reshape the Middle East.
03:39This is the process that is underway.
03:42He also talked about allegations of genocide.
03:46He said, this is not, we're not committing a genocide.
03:49This is completely false and that Israel has gone to great lengths to protect the civilian population.
03:55But we know here at the United Nations that that's just simply not true,
03:59because there have been independent studies that really show that that's not the case,
04:05that so many civilians have been killed in Gaza and that much more could have been done to protect them.
04:11It's worth mentioning, Jessica, that just moments ago, President Donald Trump said that he is close to obtaining a deal to end the war in Gaza
04:20and to bringing the hostages home.
04:23Those that reporting coming in as Benjamin Netanyahu was finishing up his remarks will, of course, bring more on that as it comes in.
04:30In the meantime, Jessica, the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis have undoubtedly dominated the agenda at the General Assembly this year.
04:39Yes, there's been a frenzy of diplomatic activity on Gaza, on the Middle East, here at the UN all week.
04:49I'm even hearing about secret meetings in the basement to discuss Trump's peace plan.
04:56All sorts of meetings have been going on on the sidelines.
04:59This 21-point peace plan was presented to Arab and Islamic states earlier on this week on the sidelines of the United Nations.
05:08The French-Saudi peace plan was discussed, obviously, on Monday during this Two-State Solution Conference.
05:15It's unclear which elements of that plan are going to be included in the president's plan, the Trump plan.
05:23But certainly this ongoing diplomatic activity, it will continue.
05:28What we have been told, though, by Netanyahu's office is that he doesn't really plan on responding until he's met in person with Trump in D.C. on Monday.
05:40Jessica LeMazurier, our correspondent in New York, thank you very much.
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