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From the dais of the U.N. General Assembly just a year ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu triumphantly hailed a new peace he said would sweep through the Middle East. A year later, as he travels back to that same world stage, that vision is in tatters.
The devastating war in Gaza is about to hit the one-year mark. Israel is on the cusp of a wider regional war with the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah. And the country finds itself increasingly isolated internationally and led by a polarizing leader whose handling of the conflict has sparked protests both in global capitals and on the streets of his own country.
And it’s not just the mushrooming regional conflicts weighing Israel down. Netanyahu will head to New York burdened also by what could be an imminent warrant for his arrest by the International Criminal Court, what would put him in a fellowship of sorts with Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir.
“He arrives almost at a point of being persona non grata”, said Alon Liel, a former director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and outspoken critic of Netanyahu.He’s known for his UN speeches, but will this year be different?
Netanyahu is set to address the General Assembly on Friday. A gifted orator, he has long viewed speeches from such venerated perches as the optimal way to deliver a message and score political points with Israelis enthralled by his flawless English and fiery delivery. In July, he championed Israel’s case for the war in Gaza in front of a joint session of the U.S. Congress, where he received multiple ovations and plaudits even from some critics back home.
“In his view, any such trips to New York, to the grand stage of world affairs, he considers an advantage”, said Yossi Shain, a professor of international relations at Georgetown and Tel Aviv University. He said Netanyahu’s speeches abroad were often meant to impress audiences at home, and this one was no different.
Netanyahu is known for his showmanship at the United Nations and has repeatedly used the pulpit to try make a case for his ideology and policies. At a speech in 2012, Netanyahu famously brandished a placard with a cartoon bomb to illustrate what he said was Iran’s race toward a nuclear weapon. In 2009, he showed up with a copy of the plans for the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, using it to highlight what he said was the former Iranian leader’s “antisemitic rants.
