Op-Ed: First Impressions of Netanyahu at the UN
Netanyahu showed outstanding courage, saying things that even pro-Israel activists reserve for their Facebook Friends so as not to be attacked.
Jack Engelhard
Jack Engelhard’s classic international bestselling novel Indecent Proposal,...
►More from this writerWe are all in the same boat. So let’s act together. This was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s central message in his speech today before the United Nations.
Emphatically and without slicing words, Netanyahu urged the rest of the world to join Israel in the fight against Militant Islam, which has begun to cross all borders to satisfy its appetite for world domination:
“They all have the same ideology. They all seek to establish a global Militant Islam – where there is no freedom.”
“They all have the same ideology. They all seek to establish a global Militant Islam – where there is no freedom.”
The prime minister let fly with comments pro-Israel activists usually reserve for their dinner companions and their Facebook Friends – otherwise fearful of being too forthright, or of being tagged Islamophobic.
But Netanyahu was fearless, telling the few who would listen, “The Nazis believed in a master race; Islamists believe in a master faith.”
Saying that took courage before a crowd that is largely Muslim. Tough room. Except that most of them were in hiding.
Half the seats were empty. Applause came sparingly. However, the message could not be denied even among the Arab nations that surround Israel, as they too suffer from the plague of ISIS and other Islamic extremists. Upon this Islamic leadership Netanyahu focused his message and his appeal, an appeal to join hands against a common enemy.
Which brought the prime minister closer to home, averring that “ISIS is Hamas; Hamas is ISIS.”
In words and pictures he proved his case that Hamas is a cowardly, terrorist foe that hides its missiles among women and children.
Paraphrasing, “You could be next,” Netanyahu warned thedelegates. Indeed, ISIS has already encroached the nations Netanyahu was addressing.
About half his speech was devoted to Iran, which, he said, posed the greatest Militant Islamist threat of all.
The casual observer could only wonder why this special emphasis on Iran from the Israeli prime minister. Truly, he must know something the rest of us do not know.
Nor did he mention Israel’s readiness to endorse a “two-state-solution.” This qualifies as a first.
Some of us expected stronger words against the Palestinian Authority’s Mahmoud Abbas, who last week slandered Israel in his own address to the UN. Supposedly, Netanyahu is still “keeping the door open.” Thus Netanyahu spoke of Israel’s ever willingness for peace – though thankfully he said nothing about a (non-existent) “peace process.”
Nor did he mention Israel’s readiness to endorse a “two-state-solution.” This qualifies as a first.
Some of us shudder at the sound of those words and we were grateful not to hear them, for just as Hamas is ISIS, so too Hamas is a two-state “solution.”
Netanyahu, indeed, pointed out that for every territorial compromise, in return Israel gets thousands of enemy rockets.
After declaring that the IDF is the most moral military in the world, he summed up by saying:
“Israel will defend itself against all enemies. Israel will stand proud and unbowed.”
Next he has to persuade President Barack Obama that Israel will never compromise its safety.
Obama will be a tougher sell – tougher than the rest of the world combined. We shall see if Netanyahu prevails “proud and unbowed.
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the novelist, the Middle East/media thriller “The Bathsheba Deadline.” Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Website: www.jackengelhard.com