Netanyahu expected to attack Mamdani in UN general assembly speech
Morning, and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the UN general assembly.
Benjamin Netanyahu will speak at the UN general assembly today where he is expected to attack New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, a vocal critic of the Israeli prime minister who has repeatedly described him as a war criminal.
In a video statement earlier this week, Netanyahu falsely accused Mamdani, New York City’s first Muslim mayor, of supporting Hamas and inciting riots against the city’s Jewish population.
Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador, said he expected Netanyahu’s UN address to resemble a “campaign speech”.
“Maybe he’s thinking, ‘if I can attack Mamdani and attack the Iranians, somebody who was wavering between voting for me and voting for (Gadi) Eisenkot may decide to vote for me’,” Oren told Reuters, referring to Netanyahu’s main political rival in next month’s Israeli general election.
Mamdani said earlier this year that he was looking into whether his office could arrest Netanyahu, who is wanted by the international criminal court (ICC) over alleged war crimes in Gaza, if he visited New York. Speaking in July, he said: “He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the international criminal court, and what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these past many years.” But he conceded that he did not have the legal authority to do so. The US is not a party to the ICC and does not recognise its authority.
Despite his criticism of the Israeli government and staunch support for Palestinian rights, Mamdani is reportedly not taking part in the protests scheduled to take place in New York against Netanyahu. The New York Times reported that he will instead be visiting an LGBTQ+ centre with the prime minister of the Netherlands.
During the UN general assembly last year, Netanyahu delivered his address to a sea of empty chairs after delegates walked out of the hall in protest. My colleagues Andrew Roth and Alice Speri has more on what to expect from his speech today:
Also today:
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While Netanyahu prepares for his UN speech, the Israeli military has continued to launch strikes in the occupied West Bank and Lebanon. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) said it targeted “the home of a terrorist” in the village of Beit Imrin, north-west of Nablus. The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that the home belonged to Dawas Hassoun, a Palestinian prisoner who has been detained since March for allegedly killing an Israeli. Multiple bombings have also been reported in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon, according to the country’s National News Agency.
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The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, will be addressing the UN general assembly via video. Like last year, Abbas was banned from entering the US by the Trump administration, with the state department saying in a statement that the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) had “failed to live up to their commitments”.
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Donald Trump will be in Washington DC to host the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, who landed last night in his first state visit to the US capital in a decade.
Key events
In the latest episode of Stateside with Kai and Carter, Kai Wright and Carter Sherman look at whether Benjamin Netanyahu is losing support in the US as he arrives in New York for the UN general assembly. The episode explores what declining support for Israel among US voters could mean for Netanyahu’s influence in Washington, and how it could affect Israel’s general election next month.
You can listen to the episode Has Netanyahu lost America? here:
A recap of speeches so far
Here is a recap of the speeches at the UN general assembly so far:
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As mentioned, the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, turned the tables on Donald Trump, describing the US as the true bully and terrorist in the Middle East while insisting that Iran had always shown a commitment to the negotiating table. Read the full report here.
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The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called for de-escalation of the war with Russia and urged his counterparts to continue restricting Russia’s revenues and impeding its war efforts. You can watch his speech here.
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The Argentinian president, Javier Milei, said his country would take “matters into [its] own hands” in its dispute with Britain over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. You can read the full report here.
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US president Donald Trump vowed to “annihilate” Iran and “drive them into hell” during his speech, which you can watch here.
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UK prime minister Andy Burnham used his first speech at the UN to announce his government is setting up a new national centre to tackle disinformation and deepfakes from hostile states such as Russia. You can read the full report here.
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French president Emmanuel Macron, in his final general assembly speech, warned against a global “return to the law of the jungle” as he criticised the situation in Gaza and urged the world not to “remain inactive” in the face of the crisis. My colleagues covered his speech, and more, during live coverage of the general assembly earlier this week.
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Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said the UN next secretary general must be a woman from Latin America. You can watch his speech here.
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David Adeang, the president of Naoero, which was formerly known as Nauru, addressed the name change of the Pacific Island nation during his UN speech. You can watch that here.
Netanyahu arrives in New York for UN general assembly
News agencies have reported that Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in New York for the UN general assembly, but that no meeting has been arranged between the Israeli prime minister and US president Donald Trump.
Netanyahu’s office said he will meet with the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Panama, and Ethiopia, the Vvce president of Colombia, and the prime ministers of Greece, Slovenia, and Papua New Guinea.
“Many world leaders requested to meet with the prime minister during the visit, but due to a tight schedule and the need to return before the onset of Sukkot, the prime minister was only able to accommodate some of them,” Netanyahu’s office said on X.
Trump, meanwhile, is hosting Chinese president Xi Jinping in Washington today, where a lavish ceremony will take place at the White House. The landmark summit will also see Xi, on his first visit to the US in more than a decade, attend a state dinner in his honour.
During his UN address yesterday, the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, hit out at the US for undermining peace efforts in its war with Iran, accusing Washington of being the true bully and terrorist in the Middle East.
“It must be understood by president Trump and those who seek to bully us that we are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations but without the language of force,” he told the UN.
During his defiant speech, he displayed images of the late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei and more than 150 schoolchildren killed at the start of the conflict in February.
“We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists,” he said. “Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country.”
Turning to the US, Pezeshkian added: “Yes, they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee.”
Our diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour has more in this report from New York:
My colleagues Andrew Roth and Alice Speri have written about Netanyahu’s speech later today, at a critical moment in his political career:
When he takes the stage at the UN on Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu will deliver a familiar message of defiance even as protests and international condemnation leave the Israeli leader in growing isolation.
Netanyahu is facing his toughest re-election challenge in a political career spanning decades with three ongoing conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, and a growing campaign of violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Internationally, Israel is facing growing condemnation. The UK, France and Canada are planning to sanction Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and the British foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, has accused Israeli settlers of committing ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities.
And the US is in the midst of a historic shift in public opinion against Israel, with 62% of respondents telling Pew in July they had a negative opinion of Netanyahu’s government, and 60% of American Jews in a poll released this week hoping he is voted out in October.
Read more:
Netanyahu expected to attack Mamdani in UN general assembly speech
Morning, and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the UN general assembly.
Benjamin Netanyahu will speak at the UN general assembly today where he is expected to attack New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, a vocal critic of the Israeli prime minister who has repeatedly described him as a war criminal.
In a video statement earlier this week, Netanyahu falsely accused Mamdani, New York City’s first Muslim mayor, of supporting Hamas and inciting riots against the city’s Jewish population.
Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador, said he expected Netanyahu’s UN address to resemble a “campaign speech”.
“Maybe he’s thinking, ‘if I can attack Mamdani and attack the Iranians, somebody who was wavering between voting for me and voting for (Gadi) Eisenkot may decide to vote for me’,” Oren told Reuters, referring to Netanyahu’s main political rival in next month’s Israeli general election.
Mamdani said earlier this year that he was looking into whether his office could arrest Netanyahu, who is wanted by the international criminal court (ICC) over alleged war crimes in Gaza, if he visited New York. Speaking in July, he said: “He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the international criminal court, and what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these past many years.” But he conceded that he did not have the legal authority to do so. The US is not a party to the ICC and does not recognise its authority.
Despite his criticism of the Israeli government and staunch support for Palestinian rights, Mamdani is reportedly not taking part in the protests scheduled to take place in New York against Netanyahu. The New York Times reported that he will instead be visiting an LGBTQ+ centre with the prime minister of the Netherlands.
During the UN general assembly last year, Netanyahu delivered his address to a sea of empty chairs after delegates walked out of the hall in protest. My colleagues Andrew Roth and Alice Speri has more on what to expect from his speech today:
Also today:
-
While Netanyahu prepares for his UN speech, the Israeli military has continued to launch strikes in the occupied West Bank and Lebanon. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) said it targeted “the home of a terrorist” in the village of Beit Imrin, north-west of Nablus. The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that the home belonged to Dawas Hassoun, a Palestinian prisoner who has been detained since March for allegedly killing an Israeli. Multiple bombings have also been reported in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon, according to the country’s National News Agency.
-
The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, will be addressing the UN general assembly via video. Like last year, Abbas was banned from entering the US by the Trump administration, with the state department saying in a statement that the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) had “failed to live up to their commitments”.
-
Donald Trump will be in Washington DC to host the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, who landed last night in his first state visit to the US capital in a decade.
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