Delegations Walk Out Of The UN General Assembly As Israeli PM Netanyahu Begins Speech

Benjamin Netanyahu believed he was untouchable. When he started the war against Iran alongside Washington, he was absolutely certain that no one would ever hold him to account. Even the arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court did not seem to matter to him. The world had no means to stop him. The criticism would fade away in resolutions and press releases, and that would be the end of it.

How much times have changed. The untouchable head of government now stands alone in the room, and in a single moment the world has shown Netanyahu that he can be isolated at any time. Let us take you to New York, to the East River. This hall, where presidents, kings and heads of government from every part of the world have stepped up to the rostrum for decades, was supposed to be a safe stage for Netanyahu, a place where he could present his view of things undisturbed.

The United Nations General Assembly is the place where every country has the same voice. And it is exactly here that Netanyahu has staged his biggest appearances again and again in recent years, in front of cameras from all over the world and with the kind of attention that only this rostrum can offer. He came with maps, with charts and with the certainty that the world had to listen to him. He spoke of victories, of seven fronts and of enemies he said he had crushed. And he spoke as if he had long since convinced the world. But last year this stage already showed its first cracks, and they were clearly visible from the camera.

On September twenty-sixth, twenty twenty-five, hundreds of diplomats left the hall as he stepped up to the rostrum. On the outside, a grand appearance; on the inside, a half-empty hall. This stage was a monument to the increasingly sealed-off world that Netanyahu has built around himself. A rostrum far from home, heavily guarded and far away from the people he talks about, this was the place where Netanyahu felt safe, firmly convinced that no one could expose him here.

Then everything changed. On September twenty-fourth, it emerged that seventy-seven delegations had left the hall shortly before Netanyahu began to speak. It was not an official boycott by the United Nations. It is not even known exactly which countries walked out. All that is known is that the Palestinian mission to the United Nations had explicitly called on the delegations beforehand to walk out.

That appears to have been the trigger. But for Netanyahu, neither this call nor the question of which governments exactly are behind the empty chairs, and why they left, really matters. What matters to him is the image. As he walked to the rostrum, applause, booing and a mass walkout all mixed together, and most of the seats remained empty. It happened in front of rolling cameras in the most important hall of diplomacy, and it showed Netanyahu once and for all that even the safest stage he had built for himself no longer protects him. The delegations may not have meant it personally, but they could have.

They can do it at any time. The isolation that Netanyahu has accused others of for years is closer to him today than ever before. What he thought was a war without diplomatic consequences has become a burden that follows him on every trip, in every speech and at every appearance abroad.

The political leadership in Jerusalem, with Netanyahu at its head, believed it was safe behind an invisible wall of American backing and international restraint. That wall has cracked, and Netanyahu has heard the message loud and clear. There are fewer and fewer places where he can appear freely. This is how the arrest warrant works. As long as he only flies over foreign countries, nothing happens. But anyone who wants to enforce it only has to catch him on their own soil. That is exactly his problem, and it is a growing problem, because even if it was just a single walkout that shaped the images from New York, and you will hear in a moment how Netanyahu reacted to it, the reality is a different one.

One hundred twenty-five states are parties to the International Criminal Court, and on their soil he faces arrest. And even the sky over Europe is no longer a route he can take for granted. Last year, on his way to the General Assembly in New York, his plane flew around large parts of Europe. According to an Israeli estimate, that meant a detour of around six hundred kilometers, just to avoid certain airspaces. This time, he wanted to show that he would not be restricted by that. His plane flew over Greece, over Italy and over France, in other words over three member states of the court.

Paris then stated that the arrest warrant had been no obstacle to the overflight. But an overflight is not a landing. And by now, Netanyahu knows exactly this line better than any other head of government. Netanyahu had made a promise. He would travel to New York despite the arrest warrant. That was meant to reassure, but he had already made another promise.

At the end of July, host Sean Hannity asked him on Fox News what would happen if his plane had to make an emergency landing in a member state of the court. His answer has since become famous. "We have special forces around. I served with them for five years," he said, as if that were reassuring news. A head of government who has to secure his travels with special forces is no longer a free traveler, but someone who has to check every route in advance. And it does not stop there. Several European governments have publicly announced that they would arrest him if he set foot on their territory. And this visit has changed nothing about that.

That will not change overnight. He will have to live for a long time with maps on which more and more countries are marked as places where his plane had better not land. And that is exactly what this is about, in New York, in the airspace over Europe and on every further trip. All of this breaks the contract that Netanyahu made with the Israelis when he waged this war against Iran.

Netanyahu sold his citizens a very clear promise when the war began on February twenty-eighth. They would be safe, all of Israel would be safe. The deal was simple. The declared goal was a hard, determined war that would end the threat from Tehran once and for all. And before the UN, he repeated it in almost the same words. Israel has never been stronger. We are not afraid.

Seven months after this promise, Israelis should be asking what is left of it. In the first forty days, according to Israeli figures, Iran fired around six hundred fifty missiles at Israel. By June tenth, at least twenty-six people had been killed and seven thousand eight hundred thirty-five injured. Exactly what this war was supposed to prevent. The speech at the United Nations is just one more example that this contract has been broken. And it is an example that makes Netanyahu look even weaker than before. It is not only towns on the border that have to worry.

In the spring, missiles also hit places in the center of the country, far from any border and right in the middle of cities that had been considered safe. On March eighteenth, according to Al Jazeera reports, missiles with multiple warheads, which can better evade defense systems, struck Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, and two people died. And in July, Netanyahu himself told the press: "The war is not over yet. New challenges are emerging before us." His defense minister Israel Katz announced that they would return with even greater force, and chief of staff Eyal Zamir spoke of new plans on the drawing board. The reality of twenty twenty-six is so far removed from Netanyahu's promise that it might as well be playing out in another world.

And as for the stage in New York, the glamour that once surrounded Netanyahu's appearances there is officially gone. The walkout of September twenty-fourth is not the first to hit him at this rostrum, and it will probably not be the last. In September twenty twenty-five, hundreds of diplomats from Arab and African countries, but also from several European states, left the hall. When he began to speak back then, the hall was largely empty, and only a few delegations remained, including that of the United States. So far, Washington has stood by his side.

But that was to be expected. The world has never left the hall together as one. Every walkout so far has been a gesture by individual delegations that wanted to show their protest without preventing the speech itself. But this hall could empty even further. It could become even more in the future.

And if it comes to that, we will see whether Netanyahu's appearances still work when dozens, perhaps hundreds of chairs remain empty instead of just a few. One thing we can say with certainty about what just happened in New York: the Israeli leadership is nervous. You can see it in the reaction to the walkout. This nervousness is real, and it is justified. But it is also marked by double standards, and it gives us a glimpse into how Netanyahu deals with the public and into the pressure he is now under every single day.

But before we dig deeper, a quick reminder. You are watching FR Report. If you have not subscribed yet, now is the perfect moment to hit the button and turn on the bell so you don't miss a video. Netanyahu's reaction to the walkout was exactly what you would expect from him after so many delegations had turned their backs on him in front of rolling cameras. It offered an opportunity to portray the critics as the real culprits. Netanyahu seized it with both hands, even before he spoke the first sentence of his speech.

"If there are any other moral cowards who haven't yet left this hall, please do so now," he called out from the rostrum. In defending itself, he said, Israel was also defending many of the countries whose delegates had just left. There is a reason why sentences like these are placed so deliberately. Netanyahu wants to plant this narrative in people's minds, because every critic who is made to look like a coward props up his justification for this war. Israel had to fight this war.

It had to keep going, even when it had long been clear what price the civilian population was paying. The whole world is against us, and only a strong government in Jerusalem can still protect you, that is the message to the audience at home. The double standard reaches a new level here, and the reality of what happened in New York looks completely different. You will already have noticed this if you remember what we said earlier.

The delegations were protesting against a policy, not against a people. On the same day, just a few hours earlier, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stood at the same rostrum. And when it came to this war, Sánchez found very clear words. Spain unreservedly condemned "a genocide that Netanyahu is still perpetrating in Gaza," he told the General Assembly. And he was not alone in this. Turkish President Erdoğan accused Israel of a genocidal mentality, and Brazil's President Lula also held Netanyahu's government responsible.

Even UN Secretary-General António Guterres said this week that the scale of death and destruction in Gaza exceeded anything he had seen in his years of humanitarian work. And Netanyahu himself gave an answer to the accusation of genocide in his speech that many in the hall could hardly believe. "What genocidal regime gives a million polio vaccinations to the enemy's population?" he asked. The world has a different answer to that, but he speaks of hypocrisy.

Let's focus on this double standard for a moment. Netanyahu calls the delegations cowards because they turn their backs on his speech, and he calls their criticism hypocrisy. At best, this is a rhetorical attack as the best form of defense, meant to fend off criticism. At worst, it is a deliberate attempt to reframe every criticism of his war as an attack on Israel itself, so that no one talks about Gaza anymore. Either way, the delegations did not harm anyone.

The same cannot be said about this war and its consequences for the civilian population. According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, at least seventy-three thousand nine hundred twenty-two Palestinians have been killed since October twenty twenty-three. The International Criminal Court accuses Netanyahu of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including starvation as a method of warfare. The court issued the arrest warrants back in November twenty twenty-four, together with an arrest warrant against then defense minister Yoav Gallant. That is the difference between the delegations and this government.

The ones leave a hall in protest and then sit back down. The other is being investigated by an international court over Gaza. And yet Netanyahu sticks to his course, because he apparently believes that toughness secures him approval at home, no matter how empty the hall in New York is. When he calls the delegates cowards, it rings hollow, because he himself avoids the countries where a court could catch up with him.

It is hard to take this outrage seriously when it comes from a man who had to route his flights around Europe. The International Criminal Court is seeking Netanyahu with an arrest warrant. That much is clear. But what just happened in New York also shows that a man who once considered himself untouchable can now be exposed at any time. And that will worry Netanyahu. A head of government who can barely travel freely anymore, because he knows that an arrest warrant could one day catch up with him on foreign soil.

There is yet another reason why Netanyahu went on the counterattack so quickly and so loudly. It is not only about portraying critics as cowards. Netanyahu also uses this stage to tell the world that behind closed doors, many heads of state are actually grateful to him. We know why, because Netanyahu has a history with claims like this. Before the General Assembly, he said that many heads of state and government had privately thanked him for Israel taking out Iran's nuclear facilities.

Netanyahu went all in on this claim. He did not name a single name and not a single country. He presented no evidence, no document and no statement. And no head of state has publicly admitted to any such thanks since. Anyone who listens closely will recognize the pattern. Public criticism in front of rolling cameras is answered with supposed private approval that no one can verify.

And it does not stop at this one sentence. He also declared that Israel had crushed Iran's army, navy, air force and nuclear facilities. Yet the Strait of Hormuz has been largely closed since the end of February. And as recently as July, he himself said this war was not over, while defense minister Katz announced a return with even greater force. From the rostrum, he also praised his most important ally. In the battle against the barbarians, he said, Israel had had no greater partner than President Trump.

But a meeting with Trump was not on the schedule for this visit. Why does all of this matter? When Netanyahu spoke in New York, an Iranian roadmap for ending the war was on the table. Tehran had proposed a regional ceasefire of up to sixty days to Washington, and on the same day Israeli officials said it was only a matter of time before fighting with Iran flared up again.

Diplomacy in New York, war plans in Jerusalem. But this time the hall did not listen to him, and that in front of the whole world. Most of the seats remained empty as he spoke of victory, of strength and of a war on seven fronts. And his words went right past the very people he actually wanted to convince in this hall, the representatives of the states of the world. It would not surprise us if he uses this walkout at home as proof that the whole world is against Israel.

Except that this time, the empty chairs were real. The delegations really did walk out. Netanyahu may try to spin that, but his real reaction is shown by his travel plan. This is a man who now plans his trips abroad around an arrest warrant. He landed in New York on Thursday morning at around nine o'clock local time, spoke to the General Assembly at two in the afternoon, and was due to fly back the same day.

No night in the city, no long trip, no stopover in Europe, just a flight there and back around a single rostrum. In front of the United Nations headquarters, people had already been protesting against his visit the day before, and in the city the calls for his arrest grew louder. And New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani repeated that the court's arrest warrant must be enforced, even though he himself has no authority to do so. He called Netanyahu the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinians. Netanyahu answered him from the rostrum: "You can't silence me."

But by that time, the empty hall had already spoken, and more clearly than any speech. Another broken promise, just like the promise of security. Netanyahu wants to be Israel's great protector, the man who stands up for his country and defends it at any cost. That is the narrative he has built around himself for decades, and it is showing cracks that everyone can see.

Netanyahu presents himself as a strongman, but he is a head of government who plans his flight routes around an arrest warrant, travels with special forces and leaves again after a few hours. This armor has become more and more brittle over the past years. Now a single walkout in New York, filmed from every angle of the hall and sent around the world within hours, has put another deep scratch in it. By now, the whole world knows it.

Netanyahu can now find himself standing before empty chairs at any time, even where he has felt safest so far. And how far the war he is helping to wage already reaches into the lives of the entire region can be seen right now in the Gulf. There, Tehran is now threatening the airports of its neighbors. That may look like a side front. In reality, it is not.

Quite the opposite. It is the moment when this war reaches the hubs of the world, and we have analyzed it in detail in today's video. You will find the link in the description. And if you liked this video, there is much more to come at FR Report. Subscribe to the channel and turn on the bell so you are among the first to see what comes next.