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

 

Sacrificing Israel to Appease Hamad's Jihad and Conquest

"The name Palestine, in its Geek form Palaistine, was both a  transliteration of a word used to describe the land of the Philistines and, at the same time, a literal translation of the name Israel."

Historian David Jacobson, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 

 

"The Palestinian people does not exist ... there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese."

"We are all part of one people, the Arab nation [...] Just for political reasons we carefully underwrite our Palestinian identity. Because it is of national interest for the Arabs to advocate the existence of Palestinians to balance Zionism."

"Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity exists only for tactical reasons[...] Once we have acquired all our rights in all of Palestine, we must not delay for a moment the reunification of Jordan and Palestine." 

1977 interview with PLO's Zuheir Mohsen  

Caanan/Palestine/Israel NASA

Palestine in the ancient world was part of the region known as Canaan where the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were located. The term `Palestine' was originally a designation of an area of land in southern Canaan which the people known as the Philistines occupied a very small part of.

The Canaanites, Canaanite-Phoenicians, and the Israelites, among others, established themselves in the area much earlier. The Philistines are thought to have come to the area toward the end of the Bronze Age c. 1276 BCE and established themselves on the southern coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea in an area afterwards known as Philistia.

The whole of the region was referred to as `Canaan' in Mesopotamian texts and trade records found at Ebla and Mari as early as the 18th century BCE while the term `Palestine' does not appear in any written records until the 5th century BCE in the Histories of Herodotus. After Herodotus, the term `Palestine' came to be used for the entire region which was formerly known as Canaan.

Joshua J. Mark, World History  

 

Hamas is fulsome in its praise for the definitive statements on Palestinian statehood issued by France, Britain, Australia and Canada, among others. All of these countries formerly while supporting Palestinian statehood as an aspiration were supportive of the diplomatic channels between Israel and Palestinian leaders to reach a joint agreement on such a declaration in support of statehood for 'Palestinians'. Time and again efforts to reach that historical agreement failed. And time and again it was those calling themselves Palestinians that rejected that two-state solution, just as they had in 1947.

 

It took a cataclysmic event to convince Israel's purported allies to jettison their historical approach to Palestinian statehood. With the full knowledge available to them that it would take a final and absolute agreement on the part of the Palestinians to recognize Israel's existence, and to no longer challenge that existence. That event was the October 7, 2023 savagery that Palestinian terrorists - from Hamas operatives to the PLFP, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Palestinian civilians themselves breaching the border from Gaza to Israel to launch a well-planned raid of farming communities; raping, mutilating, murdering and  hostage-taking.

 

That wholesale sadistic barbarism led inevitably to the launch of a military invasion by Israel, which responded as any other country that would have reeled in shock and disbelief at the scope and depth of the depravity of terrorism targeting their civilian population by marching into the enemy territory from whence wholesale death emerged to destroy the structure, weaponry, and leaders, alongside the foot soldiers of terrorism in a determination that never again would that source commit such a mass atrocity. A source more than committed to offering up its own civilian population as protective shields.

 

The victimhood plight of Palestinians used as a public relations tool whereby Palestinian  terrorist groups could arrest and manipulate international public opinion to damn Israel and support Palestinian statehood aspirations. "We're under no illusions that this [recognition of a Palestinian state] is any sort of panacea, but it's necessary, in our judgment and the judgment of most other countries in the world, that we have to push on this now. So, we're doing what we can, but recognizing limitations", offered Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney. 

 

A prime minister and a government in Canada that has permitted its own Muslim population and Palestinian student groups to maximize the pressure of threats on Jewish Canadians for two years, since October 7, violating the very hate laws of the country in the process, and committing continual civic infractions of the public and social and law-and-order weal with impunity, because Jews are expendable and all the more so, Israeli lives under ongoing threat of the Middle East Islamist threat to the existence of a Jewish state. 

 

Hamas itself, the instigator and perpetrator of the mass atrocity that ultimately spurred Europe and other 'allies' of civilized, democratic Israel to abandon justice for the sake of their sanctimonious perceived need to avoid the spirit of 'genocide' purportedly threatening Palestinians, is delighted with those allies and indeed the entire reaction of the United Nations' membership. Aside from continuing to attack Israel, alongside its other Iran-sponsored-and-armed surrogates Hezbollah and the Houthis, Hamas fairly chortles with delight over the success of its propaganda war uplifting its agenda of Jewish annihilation and territorial conquest.  

"[Recognition, representing reward for] years of struggle, perseverance, and sacrifice."

"This action [of state recognition] is an important step in establishing the right of the Palestinian people to their land and sanctities and on the path to establishing n independent state with Holy Quds [Jerusalem] as its capital, which is the result of years of struggle, perseverance, and sacrifice of our people on the path of freedom and return."

Hamas statement

 

"We welcome these developments and consider them in the right direction toward isolating the fascist Israeli government globally, and ending the longest-ever occupation in our modern time.
"[Israel] constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation, and must be finished."

Ghazi Hamad, Hamas spokesman 

"There is no solution to the Palestinian question except by Jihad. All initiatives, proposals, and International Conferences are all  waste of time and vain endeavours." 

"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [endowment] consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up." 

"The question of the liberation of Palestine is bound to three circles: the Palestinian circle, the Arab circle and the Islamic circle. Each of these circles has its role in the struggle against Zionism."

"Arab countries surrounding Israel are asked to open their borders before the fighters from among the Arab and Islamic nations so that they could consolidate their efforts with those of their Muslim brethren in Palestine. As for the other Arab and Islamic countries, they are asked to facilitate the movement of the fighters from and to it, and this is the least thing they could do."

"Writers, intellectuals, media people, orators, educators and teachers, and all the various sectors in the Arab and Islamic world - all of them are called upon to perform their role, and to fulfill their duty. Jihad is not confined to the carrying of arms and the confrontation of the enemy." 

"The Zionist project is a racist, aggressive, colonial and expansionist project based on seizing the properties of others; it is hostile to the Palestinian people and to their aspiration for freedom, liberation, return and self-determination. The Israeli entity is the plaything of the Zionist project and its base of aggression."

"Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea."

"Hamas welcomes the stances of states, organizations and institutions that support the rights of the Palestinian people."

Hamas Doctrine, Wilson Center 

Bullying Israel for Hamas's Barbaric Savagery

"This is a reckless policy that undermines prospects for peace."

"It sets the dangerous precedent that violence, not diplomacy, is the most expedient means for terrorist groups like Hamas to achieve their political aims."

"Hamas's war crimes are clear, and its rejection of diplomacy should lead your countries to impose more pressure. Instead, you offer greater rewards." 

28 Republican members of U.S. Congress 

 

"[My government's goal in recognizing Palestinian statehood is to keep the topic] front and centre [at the United Nations General Assembly with a host of] influential but not decisive countries." 

"We're under no illusions that this is any sort of panacea, but it's necessary, in our judgment, and the judgment of most other countries in the world, that we have to push on this now."

"So, we're doing what we can, but recognizing limitations".

"Recognizing the Sate of Palestine, led by the Palestinian Authority empowers those who seek peaceful coexistence and the end of Hamas." 

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a United Nations Summit on Palestinians at U.N. headquarters on Sept. 22, 2025. | Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

 

"[Recognition is our reward for] years of struggle, perseverance, and sacrifice."

"This action is an important step in establishing the right of the Palestinian people to their land and sanctities and on the path to establishing an independent state with Holy Quds as its capital, which is the result of years of struggle, perseverance, and sacrifice of our people on the path of freedom and return."

"[Recognition represents a] victory for Palestinian rights and the justice of our cause."

Hamas spokesman Mahmoud Mardawi 

The Hamas movement welcomed the move by Britain, Canada, and Australia to recognize the state of Palestine, and expressed its satisfaction with the announcement of the decision by a number of other countries to officially recognize it in the near future.

 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was called upon to "reconsider" his government's decision through an open letter from 25 Republican members of Congress and U.S. Senators. This, in response to the formal recognition that Carney's government gave for a Palestinian state prior to arriving in New York for the scheduled UN General Assembly. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macon were also directly addressed in the letter. 

"We compel the Government of Canada to reverse this decision and support a future agreement developed through direct negotiation and mutual recognition."

"The consequences of this foreign policy decision will undoubtedly unfold domestically."

Iddo Moed, Israel’s ambassador to Ottawa 

 

"Recognition under these circumstances does not bring us any closer to lasting peace, it only further compromises the prospect of a two-state solution." 

"Today, our government has chosen appeasement over principle."

Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy, B’nai Brith Canada 

 

"[Carney’s decision is an attempt to distract Canadians from] rampant crime, costs, debt, immigration and job-loss [across the country]."

"Conservatives will always stand for Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, living next to a future demilitarized, terror-free, democratic and peaceful Palestinian State."

"Conservatives will focus on what is good for Canada because it is time to put our country first for a change."

Parliamentary Opposition Conservative Party statement

A  pro-Palestine march gathers in a Toronto intersection on Sunday Oct. 29, 2023. Photo by Chris Young /THE CANADIAN PRESS

 

When news of Carney's decision was first released, he was careful to condemn Hamas, and to ask for the return of the Israeli hostages from Gaza; that recognition would be contingent on a number of issues to be addressed; a democratic election to be held, Hamas to be removed from power in Gaza, that the Fatah-related Palestinian Authority prepare to govern both the West Bank and Gaza, and that Israel's right to exist be categorically supported. Fatah, as it happened, took part in the Hamas-instigated savagery of October 7.

 

None of the issues articulated by Mr. Carney as a prerequisite for Canada recognizing a Palestinian state have been addressed; the 'pay for slay' reward for Palestinian terrorists that gave handsome monetary gifts to Palestinians who attacked or murdered Israelis has been maintained in a covert form. Most Palestinians in the West Bank, according to a Palestinian poll, supported Hamas, not the governing body in the West Bank. So, none of the metrics that should accord with granting formal recognition of nationhood status have been fulfilled.

 

The U.S. Congress and Senate members letter went on to say that granting recognition is "especially troubling" in consideration of the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023 -- reminding world leaders that Canada, France and the United Kingdom, as well as may other countries saw some of their own citizens murdered that fateful day. Moreover Hamas continues to hold  hostages, using them as "bargaining chips"; those still alive being held in "deplorable conditions". 

 

 

Nonetheless, Carney in his wisdom insists that recognition of a Palestinian state does not legitimize terrorism, or compromise Canada's "steadfast support" for Israel. A support that Canadian Jews fail to recognize, particularly with this government that has never addressed the ongoing verbal and physical violence that Canadian Jews have been subjected to through the constant 'protests' taking place with pro-Palestinian mobs lionizing Hamas and slandering Israel while threatening Canadian Jews, promising a 'final solution', and inviting them to 'go back to Poland'. Hate crimes toward which Canadian laws should be addressed.   

"[Allied partners were warned this was] counterproductive [to peace talks]."

"We actually think it's undermined negotiations, because it emboldened Hamas, and we think it undermines future prospects of peace in the region."

"It's what we thought would  happen [Israel moving to annex part of the West Bank in response to Canada 'unilaterally' declaring Palestinian statehood]."

"We warned that this kind of action would happen among some in Israeli government if they did what they did."

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio 

Isolating Russia

"This is an extraordinary moment. Now, at more than any other point in recent history, the United Nations is being challenged."

"Vote yes if you believe UN member-states -- including your own -- have a right to sovereignty and territorial integrity."

"Vote yes if you believe Russia should be held to account for its actions."

Linda thomas-Greenfield, U.S.Ambassador to the United Nations

"[The resolution did not undergo] full consultations with the whole membership [of the assembly]."

"Nor does it take full consideration of the history and complexity of the current crisis. It does not highlight the importance of the principle of indivisible security, or the urgency of promoting political settlement and stepping up diplomatic efforts."

"These are not in line with China's consistent positions."

Zhang Jun, Beijing's envoy to the United Nations

"The evil will never stop. It requires more and more space."

"[The resolution is] one of the building blocks to build a wall to stop [the Russian offensive against Ukraine].It's already clear that the goal of Russia is not an occupation only. It is genocide,"

Sergiy Kyalytsa, Ukraine UN envoy

Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya speaks at the United Nations in New York on Wednesday before a vote on a resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

One of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council called to account before the membership of the General Assembly. Where an unprecedented emergency session was called in the wake of last week's sudden but anticipated full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. In the few days of this "special operation" as Moscow calls it, over two thousand Ukrainians have lost their lives. In the process of the military occupation, it is not only military bases and government buildings that have been bombed, but civilian areas of Ukraine's cities; schools, apartment blocks, hospitals.

Millions of people have taken to seeking shelter in bomb bunkers and subway tunnels whenever air raid sirens go off warning of yet another bombing raid. Artillery rounds blow huge gaps in apartment buildings. Russia has been accused of using cluster bombs in strictly civilian areas, and the International Criminal Court has been called upon to launch an investigation of the commission of war crimes.

There are fears for the further fate of civilian life should radiation be released by actions of the Russian military which has taken control of the ill-fated Chernobyl installation and which has now been accused of bombing Ukraine's nuclear reactor campus at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest such plant in Europe. Citizens of the closest town, Enerhodar, had hastily erected road blocks with the use of trucks, scrap cars and sandbagsm to deter Russian troops from entry.

The situation is as dire overall as any horror story that might be imagined. And in response to that unfolding situation, the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to 'reprimand' Russia. A non-binding vote to be sure, but one that consolidates Russia's growing isolation as a pariah state. Of the assembly's

193 members 141 supported the demand that Moscow withdraw its military forces from Ukraine.

A half-million Ukrainians have fled to their borders with adjoining countries that have all pledged to offer haven to the refugees. Ukrainians that remain in their cities face devastating bombardments and an uncertain outcome. Many wonder whether they will survive, and what will happen to their families, their friends, their neighbours, their country. 

Russia was joined by Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria in voting against the resolution deploring Russia's "aggression against Ukraine". China, along with thirty-five assembly members, chose to abstain. Wednesday's vote assured Ukraine of a symbolic victory over Russia. The vote must have given Vladimir Putin brief pause for reflection when even traditional ally Serbia voted against Russia and for the resolution. 

Western governments were accused by Russia's UN envoy of pressuring assembly members to pass the resolution, denying that Moscow was targeting civilians. He warned adoption of the resolution could be the source of fuel for further violence. Since the violence emanates from the Russian military, with Ukraine responding as best it can for its survival, that must surely represent a not-so-subtle threat of an enraged Putin ordering harsher assaults against Ukraine.

The Russian envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, charged that it was Ukrainian forces who were using civilians as human shields while deploying heavy weapons in civilian areas. An accusation that before social media and internet communications by news media posting videos from the scene, might have been received with a measure of doubt. But there can be no doubt any longer than Russia has indulged in outright lies assuring the West that it had no intention of invading Ukraine despite the huge buildup of troops on its border.

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, speaks Wednesday at an emergency special session of the General Assembly about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Eduardo Munoz / Reuters