Netanyahu Warns ‘Obsessively Hostile’ UN: ‘Unmuzzled’ Iran Makes War More Likely

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the United Nations Thursday before a sea of anti-Israel states, defiantly standing up for his country’s right to exist as a sovereign state, and condemning Iran for exporting its terror regime worldwide.

“31 years ago, as Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, I stood at this podium for the first time. I spoke that day against a resolution sponsored by Iran to expel Israel from the United Nation. Then as now, the UN was obsessively hostile towards Israel; the one true democracy in the Middle East,” the Israeli Prime Minister said.

“Then as now, some sought to deny the one and only Jewish state a place among the nations,” he said. “I ended that first speech by saying, ‘Gentleman, check your fanaticism at the door.’ More than three decades later, as the Prime Minister of Israel, I’m privileged to speak from this podium, and for me that privilege has always come with a moral responsibility to speak the truth. So after three days of listening to world leaders praise the nuclear deal with Iran, I begin my speech by saying, ladies and gentleman, check your enthusiasm at the door!”

The Iran deal “makes war more likely” due to the fact that it gives Iran billions of dollars to disburse to its terrorist allies, Netanyahu explained, citing several instances in the past six months where Iran had supplied terrorists and dictatorial regimes with weapons.

In addition to arming Hamas, Hezbollah, the Syrian regime, and the Houthis in Yemen, Iran opened “two new terror fronts against Israel, promising to arm Palestinians in the West Bank, and sending its Revolutionary Guards generals to the Golan Heights, from which its operatives recently fired rockets on northern Israel,” Netanyahu said.

“Israel will continue to respond forcefully to any attacks against it from Syria” and continue to act to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah, the Israeli leader pledged.

Iran is setting up dozens of terror cells around the globe, including in the Western Hemisphere, he warned. “I repeat, Iran has been doing all of this… just in the last six months, when it was trying to convince the world to remove the sanctions. Now just imagine what Iran would do after those sanctions are lifted,” he warned. “An unmuzzled Iran would go on the prowl, devouring more and more prey.”

Netanyahu asked, do “you think hundreds of billions of dollars in sanctions relief and fat contracts will turn this rapacious tiger into a kitten?” Iran is committing executions at a record pace and “escalating its regional aggression” exponentially, “and rapidly expanding its global terror network,” he added.

“I wish I could take comfort in the claim that this deal blocks Iran’s path to nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said. “But I can’t, because it doesn’t.”

“In fact, if it becomes even more dangerous in the years to come, the most important constraints will still be automatically lifted,” he explained. “That would place a militant Islamic terror regime weeks away from having the fissile material for an entire arsenal of nuclear bombs.”

“If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country,” he suggested. But the deal does no such thing to a country that changes “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” during Friday prayers, the Israeli leader added. “When bad behavior is rewarded it only gets worse.”

“I’ve long said that gravest danger facing our world is the coupling of militant Islam with nuclear weapons, and I’m gravely concerned that the nuclear deal with Iran will prove to be the marriage certificate of that unholy union,” he commented. “One of history’s most important yet least learned lessons is this: the best intentions don’t prevent the worst outcomes.”

During his speech, Netanyahu showed the delegations at the UN a copy of Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei’s new book, which outlines the Islamic Republic despot’s plan to annihilate Israel. He also cited a recent statement by Khamenei where he pledged that there Israel would be wiped out in the next 25 years.

He added, defiantly: “70 years after the murder of six-million Jews, Iran’s rulers promised to destroy my country, murder my people, and the response from this body, the response from nearly every one of the governments represented here, has been absolutely nothing. Utter silence. Deafening Silence.”

“Perhaps you can understand why Israel is not joining you in celebrating this deal,” he stated. “If Iran’s rulers were working to destroy your countries, perhaps you would be less enthusiastic about the deal. If Iran’s terror proxies were firing thousands of rockets at your cities, perhaps you’d be more measured in your praise, and if this deal were unleashing a nuclear arms race in your neighborhood, perhaps you’d be more reluctant to celebrate,” he suggested.

He warned fellow countries, “Iran already has missiles that could reach Israel, so those Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles Iran is building; they’re not meant for us, they’re meant for you. For Europe, for America, for raining down mass destruction anytime, anywhere.”

As the Prime Minister of a Jewish state, and having learned the price of silence, “I refuse to be silent,” Netanyahu said. “The days when the Jewish people remain passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over!”

“Israel will not allow Iran to break in; to sneak in, or to walk into the nuclear weapons club,” he pledged. “No one should question Israel’s determination to defend against those who seek our destruction.”

The regime in Tehran “would be wise to consider” that Israel is “the nation-state of a people nearly 4,000 years old.” Empires that lasted for a thousand years “are long gone,” he explained, “but Israel lives! the people of Israel live! Am Yisrael Chai.”

He added: “Here’s my message to the rulers of Iran: you’re plan to destroy Israel will fail. Israel will not permit any force on earth to threaten its future.”

“And here is my message to all of the countries represented here: whatever resolutions you may adopt in this building, whatever decisions you may take in your capitals, Israel will do whatever it must do to defend our state and to defend our people,” he stated.

He urged the UN to use available tools “to tear down Iran’s global terror network.”

The Israeli leader said he hoped for a future with their Arab neighbors for “lasting peace,” but Israel’s number one partner will always be the United States of America.

Israel is ready to take on the ongoing technological revolution in the 21st century, as Israel is “the innovation nation,” he lauded.

Netanyahu called for “two states for two people,” with a demilitarized Palestinian state standing next to a Jewish state. However, he pointed out that the “Palestinians have refused to end the conflict and make peace with Israel.”

He asked: “How can Israel make peace with a Palestinian partner who refuses to even sit at the negotiating table?”

“But we owe it to our peoples to continue to try” for peace, he urged.

Decades after first speaking at the UN, Netanyahu said: “I’m still asking: when will the UN check its anti-Israel fanaticism at the door? When will the UN finally stop slandering Israel as a threat to peace, and actually help Israel advance peace?”

“Here’s a novel idea for the United Nations: instead of continuing the shameful routine of bashing Israel, stand with Israel. Stand with Israel as we check the fanaticism at our door. Stand with Israel as we prevent that fanaticism from reaching your door… Stand with Israel, because Israel is not just defending itself. More than ever, Israel is defending you,” he concluded.