Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00We just heard from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who addressed the UN General Assembly in a defiant
00:07Speech saying Israel was winning and rejecting criticism over its war in Gaza and attacks on Hezbollah in
00:15Lebanon, let's get
00:17Let's cross live to our correspondent in New York Jessica LeMessurier who was following that speech
00:24Jessica what are your main takeaways then from that?
00:30Well Netanyahu was angry. He was defiant. He was bellicose and
00:36He sounded like he thinks he's on a holy mission in indeed. He kept using
00:42religious terminology
00:44to talk about his vision of the world of
00:48light versus dark of
00:50Good versus evil. He said he's on a holy mission that he will bring the hostages back and he said that
00:59Israel is winning the war and that there is no place in the Middle East that its missiles can't reach
01:05So very defiant. It doesn't sound as though he's going to be accepting any kind of peace plan. He just wants to keep going
01:13He had brought the families of some of the hostages
01:19Who were being held in Gaza to the General Assembly Hall and they applauded throughout his speech
01:25Pretty much everything that he said but other delegates it appeared had walked out
01:29We had been told there would be a walkout because here at the United Nations the vast majority of member states
01:36Consider Israel now to be a rogue state to be breaking international law in particular with the way that it
01:43According to them is killing civilians in Gaza and now in Lebanon
01:49Well, he said that he had a message for the tyrants of Tehran if you strike us
01:54He said we will strike you and he also as he always does when he comes here
02:00To that stage at the United Nations brought props
02:03He had these two maps and he called them the blessing map and the curse map and they represented
02:11The visions that he says are possible for the Middle East one good in his mind and one bad
02:18one good where Israel wins and
02:21in his vision creates a
02:23partnership between like-minded states for trade and tourism in the Middle East and the other one bad in which
02:29the so-called
02:31terrorists take over
02:33So he really had this stark warning for the world, you know
02:36If you don't side with Israel, then you are siding with evil
02:41It was a very black and white vision. And of course people here at the United Nations
02:46Will not agree with that vision at all because they consider that Israel is
02:52Completely disregarding all international law and they want it to be reined in in fact
02:58the president of the Palestinian Authority when he spoke said that Israel should even be kicked out of the United Nations for its
03:05Disregard of international law and of civilian lives and he made reference to that as well during his speech
03:12Remembering when he was ambassador here back in the 80s
03:15He said that back in 1984
03:18he'd spoken in the same hall about a proposal to expel Israel from the United Nations and then
03:25Lamented the fact that he's finding himself here again
03:28Listening to the same proposal from Abbas, but there is a lot of anger towards Israel here
03:35And there have also been protests in the street here in New York
03:38At Netanyahu even being here because by many he's considered a war criminal
03:44He really just had extremely strong bellicose aggressive words
03:48So now we'll be wondering if there really is any chance for any sorts of sort of
03:54Negotiations on the future of Gaza. He said that there can be no role for Hamas
04:00He said imagine asking the Nazis to rebuild
04:05Germany he said that that Israel
04:08Seeks really a demilitarized
04:10and
04:11deradicalized Gaza, so a very forceful speech and it will not be well received by the
04:19vast majority of
04:21Delegates and countries here. All right, Jessica. Thank you very much for following that for us from New York