Benjamin Netanyahu: Speaking to an Audience Outside the Hall
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Version 0 of 1. For Benjamin Netanyahu, the brash prime minister of Israel, there are few audiences more skeptical than the world leaders he will face at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. But if his international peers are not all that fond of him, it is fair to say the feeling is mutual. Still, they are useful foils for Mr. Netanyahu as he makes his points to a wider world. He regularly chides the body at these annual sessions for what he considers its reflexive anti-Israel positions. Last year, he condemned the world’s “deafening silence” about Iranian threats to eradicate Israel, then remained silent himself for 45 seconds to dramatize his point. As he takes the rostrum this year during a resurgence of Palestinian attacks at home, Mr. Netanyahu has signaled that he will challenge the United Nations on what he calls its double standard where terrorism is concerned. His broader ambition is to head off any effort by President Obama to use the world body to dictate terms of a peace settlement with Palestinians. Mr. Netanyahu has lately presented himself as a willing negotiator faced with intransigent Palestinians. With Russia, Egypt and France each separately seeking to restart talks, Mr. Netanyahu has repeatedly said he will meet the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, anywhere, anytime — as long as there are no preconditions. The Palestinians have insisted that Israel freeze settlement construction and release prisoners first. “The Palestinians are not ready to negotiate,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Mr. Netanyahu. “They think they should determine the outcome of the negotiations before they start, something nobody would agree to.” Palestinian officials now say Mr. Abbas would meet without conditions, but no date has been set and none seems likely soon. Mr. Netanyahu may also use the forum to try to explain his recent comment that the Palestinians favor “ethnic cleansing” by opposing Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which they consider part of their future state. He may find few sympathetic ears in the hall, but they are not his only audience. |