Netanyahu is due at the UN as protests and a re-election fight close in
Benjamin Netanyahu is due to address the United Nations on Thursday. The Guardian says he will repeat a message of defiance while protests and condemnation leave him more isolated, and that this is his hardest re-election fight in decades, with conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran still open. HuffPost, citing Reuters, says he is expected to berate New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani from the podium after a video in which he told the mayor he was coming to New York to talk about Israeli soldiers and about Mamdani himself.
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A Thursday podium and a defiance message
The Guardian reports that when Benjamin Netanyahu takes the United Nations stage on Thursday he will deliver a familiar message of defiance, even as protests and international condemnation leave the Israeli leader in growing isolation. It calls this his toughest re-election challenge in a political career spanning decades. HuffPost's Thursday dispatch, credited to Reuters from Tel Aviv, says Netanyahu is expected to use the same address to berate New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The two accounts agree on the day and the hall. They differ on the line the speech is expected to take: defiance in one, a direct attack on the mayor in the other.[1], [2]
Three conflicts and a settler campaign
The Guardian ties the re-election pressure to three ongoing conflicts, in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, and to a growing campaign of violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. It also reports that Britain, France and Canada are planning to sanction Israeli settlements, and that British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has accused settlers of ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities. The same Guardian account says a July Pew survey found 62 percent of respondents with a negative opinion of Netanyahu's government, and that 60 percent of American Jews in a poll released this week hope he is voted out in October. HuffPost's account of the same trip stays on the New York speech and Mamdani.[1]
A video aimed at New York's mayor
HuffPost reports that Netanyahu addressed Mamdani directly in a video this week, saying he was going to New York to tell the truth about Israeli soldiers and to tell the truth about the mayor. The story says he falsely accused Mamdani of supporting Hamas militants. It also says this is Netanyahu's first visit to New York since Mamdani took office in January. The Guardian says protests are expected in the General Assembly hall and on New York streets. It reports that Mayor Mamdani has tempered an earlier promise to arrest Netanyahu as a war criminal and told demonstrators this week he would protect their right to protest. HuffPost adds that Mamdani later said he lacked the legal authority to make an arrest, and that he described Netanyahu this week as the architect of what Mamdani called a horrific genocide against Palestinians. Netanyahu rejects the war-crimes allegations. Israelis opposed to his government also plan to protest in New York, HuffPost says.[2], [1]
