Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held up a Hezbollah pager during his United Nations speech Thursday, as dozens of diplomats walked out before he took the stage.
“Remember these things?” Netanyahu asked the audience, holding up the device. “Well, I can tell you this: Hezbollah certainly remembers them.”
Netanyahu was referring to the September 2024 operation in which thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon.
The Israeli prime minister touted Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah, saying the terror group’s arsenal of approximately 150,000 ballistic missiles and rockets had been significantly degraded and that many of its leaders had been killed.
“Hezbollah’s leaders? Dead. Their spirit? Broken,” Netanyahu said.
Before beginning his remarks, Netanyahu addressed the diplomats who had walked out.
“Before I begin, just a quick announcement: If there are any other moral cowards that haven’t yet left this hall, please do so now,” Netanyahu said. “Thank you very much.”
Netanyahu tells any remaining “moral cowards” to leave his UN speech after dozens walk out.
“If there are any other moral cowards that haven’t yet left this hall, please do so now, thank you very much.” pic.twitter.com/CXTjIQwCl0
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) September 24, 2026
He also pointed to Israel’s strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, saying destroying the sites was “one of the easiest decisions” he had made as prime minister because failing to do so would have left Israel facing an existential threat.
“Devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was hard. It was very hard to do,” Netanyahu said. “But for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister. Because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.”
Netanyahu argued that Israel’s actions against Iran were also protecting other countries, including some whose representatives had walked out of the chamber.
“In defending itself, Israel is also defending many of the countries whose delegates just left this hall,” he said, adding that some foreign leaders privately thank Israel for destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The Iranian delegation also left a photograph of slain Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani at its seat during the speech. Soleimani was killed in a 2020 U.S. drone strike in Baghdad.
Netanyahu also praised President Trump for his role in confronting Iran, calling him Israel’s “great American” partner.
“Decades ago, he understood that if left unchallenged, the fanatical ayatollahs who chant ‘Death to America, Death to Israel’ would eventually carry out their mad fantasies,” Netanyahu said. “So Israel and America acted together, not only to protect ourselves, but to save civilization.”
Netanyahu also went after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York,” Netanyahu said, claiming that Jews had told him, “This isn’t the city we remember; it changed so quickly.”
Netanyahu accused Mamdani of having “praised criminals convicted of supporting Hamas.” He pointed to Mamdani’s associations with individuals he said had supported Hamas, including leftist livestreamer Hasan Piker, whom Netanyahu noted had said: “America deserved 9/11.”
He also accused Mamdani of inviting into his home a Palestinian journalist who had filmed Hamas terrorists beating and torturing Israeli hostages and later acknowledged refusing to publish the footage to protect the terrorists. Netanyahu further pointed to posts he said Mamdani’s wife had “liked,” including one praising the October 7 massacre and another saying Tel Aviv should not exist.
“You refuse to condemn any of that,” Netanyahu said. “You falsely and repeatedly accuse Israel of genocide.”
Netanyahu’s comments came after Mamdani had called him a “war criminal” and said he would seek to have him arrested if he came to New York. Mamdani’s administration later determined that the city lacked independent legal authority to enforce the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant.
“Mr. Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here, you tried — you tried to silence me,” Netanyahu said. “Well, you can’t silence me, you can’t silence the truth.”
The Israeli leader then turned to what he called the “eighth front” of the war: the battle over Israel’s image in the international media and on social media.
“It’s the war for truth,” Netanyahu said. “It is waged in the world’s media and, most perniciously, on social media.”
Netanyahu went after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his U.N. speech, accusing him of backing Hamas and calling for Israel’s destruction.
“He says he’s going to be the ruler of Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said.
“No, sir. You won’t. This is our country, our city, our… pic.twitter.com/wtIJqm4HAd
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) September 24, 2026
Netanyahu accused Qatar and Turkey of spending billions of dollars to spread what he described as “antisemitic lies” about Israel. He specifically targeted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing him of hosting Hamas leaders, calling for Israel’s destruction, and seeking greater control over Jerusalem.
“He says he’s going to be the ruler of Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said of Erdogan. “No, sir. You won’t. This is our country, our city, our eternal capital.”
Netanyahu also accused Erdogan of “murdering thousands of Kurdish civilians,” denying the Armenian genocide, jailing journalists and opposition leaders, illegally occupying northern Cyprus, and regularly transgressing against Greece.
Toward the end of his speech, Netanyahu held up another device — a Starlink communications terminal — as he addressed Iran’s restrictions on internet access.
“This is a communications device, Starlink, that allows people to access truth, to exercise choice, to exercise freedom of thought and freedom of speech,” he said.
Netanyahu said he would leave the device with the U.N. General Assembly President to pass on to the Iranian delegation, which was absent from the hall.
“So when they inevitably defect, they too will be able to freely tell their story on social media,” he said.
Netanyahu also addressed the persecution of Christians across the Middle East, contrasting their declining numbers in the region with Israel, where he said the Christian community is “growing, thriving, and succeeding.”
Netanyahu says Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the Christian community is “growing, thriving, succeeding.”
“Everywhere” else, he said, Christians are “being persecuted and hounded.” pic.twitter.com/f6tq1jFVke
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) September 24, 2026
He pointed to Bethlehem as an example, arguing that Christians were pushed out after the city was transferred to Palestinian Authority control.
Netanyahu also highlighted the ongoing threat to Israelis in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, arguing that international attention has focused disproportionately on a small number of problematic settlers while overlooking Arab terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.
He cited the recent attack on Neria Leiter, a reserve soldier who was mowed down by a Palestinian terrorist and is fighting for his life in a Jerusalem hospital. Leiter is the son of Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States.
Netanyahu said he had visited the Leiter family before traveling to New York and noted that Yechiel Leiter’s oldest son, Moshe, was killed three years ago while clearing a booby-trapped building in Gaza.
“Despite the pain, despite the agony, we do not give in,” Netanyahu said.
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