Confronting Allies and Enemies At The United Nations

"The final remnants of Hamas are holed up in Gaza City. They vow to repeat the atrocities of Oct. 7 again and again and again, no matter how diminished their forces. That is why Israel must finish the job." 

"I want to tell you a secret behind closed doors, many of the leaders who publicly condemn us, privately thank us. They tell me how much they value Israel’s superb intelligence services that have prevented time and again, terrorist attacks in their capitals, time and again, saving countless lives."

"Giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after Oct. 7 is like giving Al Qaeda a state one mile from New York City after 9/11. This is sheer madness. It’s insane, and we won’t do it."

"To the remaining Hamas leaders and to the jailers of our hostages, I now say, lay down your arms, let my people go, free the hostages, all of them, the whole 48 free the hostages. Now, if you do, you will live. If you don’t, Israel will hunt you down."

"I want to ask you a simple question, a simple logical question, would a country committing genocide plead with the civilian population it is supposedly targeting to get out of harm’s way?"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu   

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the United Nations General Assembly on September 26, 2025 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

 

Isolated, friendless, it takes nerves of steel and a steely determination to shunt that aside and confront those who, by failing to stand with a country that has for the entire time of its existence been pilloried in public opinion, militarily attacked by its neighbours, suffered a slanderous public relations campaign to delegitimize its legacy and its presence in the Middle East, contended with constant lethal violence committed by terrorist groups whose sole purpose is to destroy the Jewish state, yet calmly, dispassionately and searingly make the point that Israel will nonetheless prevail.

 

Israel's longtime Prime Minister stood before the General Assembly of the United Nations not only to defend itself against malodorous accusations of genocide and apartheid, but to flagellate the inconstancy of those who have posed as allies of the tiny state, as a fellow democracy, trading partner and reliable intelligence source in a world increasingly pummeled by rogue state actors. Allies, many of which have decided in their perfidious worldview of 'progressive' liberalism that the originators of terror and violence against Israel and Jews are, as they claim, the victims, and Israel their oppressor.

 

It is unseemly for a Jewish state in defense of its people, their safety, security and future, to take up arms against those who seek to destroy it. The very nations who would themselves move heaven and earth to destroy the violent threats to themselves by full military responses unforgiving of the welfare of the population from whence the threat emanates, fully expects Israel to stand back and patiently await the next round of sadistic savagery certain to arise from terrorists who openly declare their intention to strike again and again and again.

 

Hamas has run the Gaza Strip since 2007   Getty Images

 

Israel's invasion in Gaza has the intention to ensure that the terrorist group Hamas that has ruled the Palestinian territory for 17 years will never again have the opportunity to repeat the horrors of October 7, 2023. That intention relates to the utter destruction of Hamas, its leadership, operatives, weapons depots, infrastructure, headquarters, launch sites and network of tunnels. The Israel Defense Forces operate as a model of military discipline, capable and employing intelligence enabling it to fire precise missiles for the distinct purpose of eliminating threats from terrorism, while still mindful of minimizing civilian deaths.

 

No mean feat when fighting a terrorist mentality that sees its own civilian population as living shields for the protection of the terrorist structure. The propaganda arm of Hamas has been on overdrive, celebrating the 'martyrdom' of its civilian population as a prop in convincing the international community that Israel's objective is the annihilation of Palestinians in their entirety. Ages-old distrust of the global Jewish community, both the diaspora and now the state that defends the historical dispersed has erupted in an orgy of viral antisemitism.

 

The general membership's diplomacy of the United Nations exercised their sanctimony in an exercise of moral debasement to walk out of the chamber where the Israeli Prime Minister spoke rather than remain even as a diplomatic courtesy practised in a civilized manner respectful of the opportunity to hear out the reason and logic behind an embattled nation's response to an existential threat it has lived with for most of its existence, culminating in the most recent assault of monumental barbarity.

 

"We will not commit national suicide because  you don't have the guts to face down a hostile media and antisemitic mobs demanding Israel's blood", Netanyahu confronted his detractors. Israel's intention is to continue the war in Gaza until Hamas is no more. Recognizing Palestinian statehood, when its leaders continue to deny Israel's right of existence, when its leaders continue to incite to violence against Israel, when its leaders give financial rewards to those who attack and murder Jews, when its leaders teach its younger generation through school curricula, plays, television programs, poetry and music to hate Jews and aspire to become 'martyrs' against the Jewish state's existence, translates to awarding terrorism its goal. 

 

Palestinians rally beneath images of President Mahmoud Abbas and his predecessor, Yasser Arafat. Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images

 

Who Could Possibly Doubt Al Jazeera's Neutrality?!

"The picture that emerges from the documents demonstrates categorically [and] with convincing, clear and unambiguous evidence the close, long-term connection between the Hamas terror organization and the Al Jazeera media network with the Hamas terror organization advancing its goals through the channel."

"[A clip aired on Al Jazeera that described as a] briefing for how to damage an Israeli tank [and whose purpose was] to harm IDF forces during wartime -- the meaning of which is real harm to state security."

"[There is a] close connection [between the Qatari news network Al Jazeera and the Hamas terror group]."

Justice Shai Yaniv, deputy president, Tel Aviv-Jaffa District Court 

Police raid the Al Jazeera offices in East Jerusalem on May 5, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

 

A review of the decision by Israel's Communications Minister, approved by the country's security cabinet to ban the news network, Al Jazeera for a limited period was undertaken by the Tel Aviv-Jaffa District Court. Justice Yaniv upheld the temporary ban decision, but he ended up limiting the ban period to 35 days from its original 45 days, linked to the court's procedural concerns. The ban set to expire now on June 9, although the Communications Ministry was planning to extend the ban to another 45-day period.

From May 5, Al Jazeera's broadcasts within Israel were taken off air, its website taken offline, its equipment seized, its offices sealed in accordance with an April emergency law that recognized violations of national security by foreign outlets were to result in their being temporarily blocked. 

Justice Yanif stated his conviction that national security had been harmed by Al Jazeera, making the news site eligible for being banned despite the harm that could arise relating to the constitutional principle of press freedom. However, democracies with their respect for freedom of the press and its protection, did not require them to suffer security harm during a period of war, in  upholding that freedom of expression.

Three classified position papers had been submitted for Justice Yaniv's examination, provided by security agencies as well-founded evidence that included recently occurring incidents making it clear that the network did pose a threat to Israeli security. Hardly surprising, since Al Jazeera's reportage made it abundantly clear that it is hostile to the existence of the Jewish state; its reportage echoing that of its paymaster's sentiments.

 

A closure order on the door of the Al Jazeera offices in east Jerusalem, May 5, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

 

According to Al Jazeera in its self-defence, the tank video was designed for the purpose of demonstrating the tank's capabilities, and similar clips on the capabilities of Israel's Iron Dome rocket defence system as well. Completely innocent of any attempt at security sabotage. An argument rejected by the court. "The clip indicates weak points on the tank and explains how to act to damage the tank and destroy it", responded Justice Yaniv.

"In short, the general picture leaves no room for doubt about the nature of the ongoing relationship between the Al Jazeera channel and the terrorist organization, and the fact that the content broadcast on it serves the terrorist organization Hamas and does significant harm to state security, which is currently in the midst of a grave war with the terror organization."

Aptly, Justice Yaniv brought up the precedent of a decision by the General Court of the European Union banning the Russian state-sponsored RT France channel in July 2022, due to its propaganda for the Kremlin. "Freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the media are among the most important and central values in a democratic state", he wrote, despite the times when that freedom verges on and locks into security threats at which time that freedom calls out to be curtailed.

A general view of the Al Jazeera logo [Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile – Getty Images]

Timeline Israel

"Alper, 24, jumped into her car and raced to the main road. But at the intersection she encountered crowds of stricken festival attendees, shouting at drivers to turn around."

"Then a noise. Firecrackers?"

"Panicked men and women staggering down the road just in front of her fell to the ground in pools of blood."

"Gunshots."

AP report

"We were hiding and running, hiding and running, in an open field -- the worst place you could possibly be in that situation."

"For a country where everyone in these circles knows everyone, this is a trauma like I could never imagine."

Arik Nani, 26, Tel Aviv

A soldier mourns at the grave of an Israeli soldier who was killed following an attack by Hamas gunmen from Gaza. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)

 

It all began at dawn on Saturday when the first sirens began sounding to warn Israelis that rockets were being launched out of Gaza, striking urban centres like Rehovot, Ashkelon. A hospital was hit. And then the rockets reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, to the north. Over 2,200 rockets launched by the time noon came around. Israel's secure border between it and Gaza had been breached in no fewer than 28 places.

Terrorists on fan-powered hang gliders flew across the border, using explosives to blow up sections of the barrier to enable men on foot and motorbikes to drive through the gaps. Bulldozers were brought forward to flatten the fences, so enough space was cleared for vehicles to drive through. "The idea of a bulldozer getting that close to the fence at all just boggles the mind", said Matthew Levitt, director, counterterrorism program, Washington Institute for Near East policy.

A few hours on, Israel formally declared war. By the end of the day hundreds of Israelis, soldiers and civilians together, would be murdered, and a still-questioned number taken as hostages into Gaza; children, infants, mothers, grandmothers, men and women, soldiers and civilians alike. Many of them wounded, the women raped before dragged by their hair and herded onto the backs of trucks, the seats of jeeps, squeezed onto motorcycles.

The invading terrorists came in on motorcycles, in pickup trucks and vans invading Ashkelon, Sderot and Ofakim, and nearby kibbutzim; a large-scale, co-ordinated operation, with an estimated thousand members of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists arriving in Israel. From the sea they arrived in speed boats. At least one boatload of Hamas 'commandos' was blown up in the water by the Israeli navy.

Hanging from paragliders, some powered by propellers, they arrived by air. In Sderot and other towns near the border, armed men kicked in doors, shooting residents, hunted down people, took hostages. The terrorists had the freedom to prowl Israeli streets, with no military presence, shooting civilians wherever they were, taking hostages back to Gaza in vans and motorcycles. The police station in Sderot was taken over. 

 

Hamas attack on music festival in Israel unfolded – video report

 

In the Negev desert a music festival, the Supernova Sukkot Gathering was in full play, roughly 3,500 young Israelis present in a field outside of Kibbutz Re'im, some five kilometres from the
Gaza border wall. AP reporters heard reports from survivors, including Maya Alper who had been helping to pick up trash when the first rockets streaked across the dawn sky and the sirens began sounding.

Soon 50 Hamas attackers were on scene, arriving mostly in vans, some in motorized paragliders to cut the power and begin shooting automatic rifles into the panicked crowd. Some of the festival goers fled toward trees to be hunted down and shot point blank while others fled across fields and hid in bushes. The desperate young people attempted to drive away in cars, only to be overrun and turned back by their attackers.

 

An aerial picture shows the abandoned site of the Supernova Festival, following an attack by Hamas terrorists, in the Negev desert in southern Israel, on Oct. 10, 2023. Jack Guez—AFP/Getty Images

Some of the fleeing festival-goers encountered roadblocks that appeared at first like Israeli army, but were Hamas terrorists who stopped the cars and shot the occupants. Cars were overturned, burned out, pock-marked with bullet holes. Alper fled with a handful of others, the car soon abandoned, leaving them to bolt across a field where she hid in bushes for six hours being hunted by the Hamas men coming close enough she could hear them talking until finally Israeli tanks arrived to fight them and soldiers scooped the survivors to safety.

But not before over 260 people were killed on that sad site, a count given out by the Israeli emergency services collecting the bodies. As for the number of festival-going young people taken hostage; unknown. A video on social media shows an Israeli couple, Noa Argamani and her partner Avinatan Or, being dragged away by his captors. Her face contorted in panic, Argamani screams, "No, no!" while forced on a motorbike between two gunmen. 

She reaches imploringly out toward Or, whose hands are bound behind his back, a group of terrorists marching him forward. And then, just after 8 a.m., on a horribly disastrous morning, Israel declared a state of alert for war, calling up reservists. By mid-morning the war began in ferocious responses as Israeli fighter jets hit targets over Gaza. Reportedly 21 buildings over the next two hours were hit that were used for Hamas military operations.

By 11:35 a.m. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel to be at war with Hamas. Israeli troops moved into the Hamas-raided towns after noon, following six hours of terror. An Israeli cabinet meeting in early afternoon issued a statement that Israel would reinforce other borders to the threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon. All sites used to launch the rockets from Gaza into Israel were reported destroyed the following day, Sunday. 

 

The operation to mass Israeli troops for a potential invasion of Gaza began.

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from southern Israel toward the Gaza Strip Wednesday. (Erik Marmor/The Associated Press)

Celebrating "Friends, Love and Infinite Freedom" in Israel

"The event will take place in a powerful natural location full of trees stunning in its beauty and organized for your convenience, about an hour and a quarter south of Tel Aviv."

Publicity for The Tribe of Nova trance music festival

 

"We heard sirens and rockets, tons of rockets. We started running; we didn't now where to go. Nobody knew what to do."

"I took the car keys from a friend of mine that was really wasted and got as many people in the car as possible and started driving like crazy."

"The people who stayed, most of them got kidnapped or murdered."

"Every direction we ran we had more people shooting at us; we were running for two hours trying to escape. We started crawling in bushes. Eventually I realized I couldn't run anymore."

"We stayed silent and tried to reach the police. The police said they can't help us because too many people were kidnapped."

Millet Ben Haim, 27, music festival attendee, Israel

"We heard shots. There were cars with corpses on top of them that blocked the road. We couldn't get out."

"There were about seven to eight terrorists, and they started to shoot at us in our car."

"It's clear that there was a failure here. Now we need to get these people back who are missing. And to tell these people's stories."

Gal Raz, 31, music festival attendee, Israel

The aftermath of an attack on a music festival by Palestinian militants, near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev desert in southern Israel on October 8

 

It was billed as a night of dancing, a trance music festival, to celebrate "friends, love and infinite freedom". People were dancing, singing, the music thumped and thrummed. And just before dawn arcing through the sky over the thousands of revellers came the first rockets from Gaza, over the border. Many of the dancers took little notice of the explosions over the loud music. Accustomed to rockets from Gaza, others who did become aware shrugged them off. But not for long.

The music suddenly stopped. The thousands of young Israelis stopped dancing, snapping happy photos of the event and of each others' smiling faces. They felt a cold draft as a voice boomed over the loudspeakers over at the tented stages. "Guys, we have red alert" warned the voice. "Red alert!"

People swiftly began leaving, some jogging off, many looking at the white rocket flashes appearing in the sky just beginning to greet the dawn, as they ran. Videos showed they confused in appearance, but no one seemed to be panicking. Someone in black wearing a yellow safety vest directed crowds away from the stages. And soon the gunfire began. 

Located close to Kibbutz Re'im, the music festival became one of the initial targets the Hamas terrorists attacked in force, launching their surprise invasion of Israel in the early morning hours of Saturday as they overran the concert area, shooting into the crowd, pulling away as many hostages as they could manage. The terrorists had blocked roads, ambushed escaping cars, scouring the mostly open area for others to abduct.

When the ZAKA, an Israeli volunteer emergency response group arrived, they recovered an initial 260 bodies. Many people remain missing, according to the Israel Defense Forces. The figure has been put at over 100 by Israeli media, but it is growing, tragically. Hostages, states Hamas, are being held in tunnels and other secure locations in Gaza. If they are indeed being held in tunnels that will be an added complication since there will be plans to bomb the tunnels.

Survivors of the mass atrocity have been flooded with messages from other people frantically searching for their loved ones. Bodies were placed by the military in the back of a large refrigerated truck parked next to hundreds of abandoned cars. The shells of burned vehicles sat beside discarded tents, camping mats and coolers in one of the clearings. At a nearby intersection relatives searching for the missing said over a thousand people attended the event.  

Festivalgoers, however, estimate the true figure to be between 3,000 and 4,000 attendees. The exact location of the festival was not released until a few hours prior to the festival opening at 10 p.m. on Friday. Held five kilometres from the fence dividing Israel from the Gaza Strip, the festival was a ready target as the terrorists surged through a fence built with defensive materials and electronic devices, when explosives were used to blast through, enabling hordes of terrorists on foot, motorcycles and jeeps to enter Israel.

 

Instructions to attendees was to bring no firearms or sharp objects to the festival grounds. When the attack began, the ravers were tired, and defenceless, they were trapped in a wide-open area offering few places where they might conceal themselves from the relentless death-delivering search of the terrorists.  On the roads the terrorists were shooting at cars.

Those who tried to escape in their vehicles soon realized they couldn't get much further than a few hundred meters before they ran into groups of terrorists shooting at anything that moved. Abandoning their cars, the Israelis began running wildly, hoping to outrun their tormentors and find shelter somewhere, and as they ran passing vehicles with dead bodies. 

Ben Haim and her friends leaped out of their car and ran through the fields. Finally, she and two of her friends along with a stranger concealed themselves in a dense bush, covering their bodies with leaves. With her phone battery at two percent, after seven hours Ben Haim and her group were rescued by a local resident driving around with the intention of rescuing people. Raz was picked up eventually by the military.