Netanyahu's UN Speech Analysis Highlights Focus on Iran, Hamas, and Israel

An analysis by the Israeli news site "Walla!" of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the UN General Assembly revealed a strong emphasis on Israel, Iran, Hamas, and the ongoing war, with minimal mention of peace or upcoming Israeli elections. The word "Israel" and its derivatives appeared 47 times, "Jew" 24 times, and "world" 15 times. Netanyahu used the term "genocide" eight times, framing it as a response to accusations against Israel, while "lie" appeared 12 times and "truth" eight times. In stark contrast to his 2023 address, where "peace" was mentioned 40 times, it appeared only three times in this speech, twice in phrases like "peace advocates" and once in the context of Israel's pursuit of peace.

The analysis indicated that Iran was mentioned 19 times, and Hamas 12 times. The terms "terrorist" and "terrorists" were used 12 times, "Palestinians" 10 times, and "war" 10 times. Notably, Netanyahu did not mention the upcoming Israeli elections scheduled for October 27th, nor did he mention his wife, Sara Netanyahu. He did, however, mention his brother Yoni Netanyahu seven times, referencing the period before the June 1967 war, and reserve soldier Neriah Leiter four times, who was injured in a recent ramming attack and is the son of the Israeli Ambassador to the US.

Netanyahu also referenced Colonel John Spencer, head of urban warfare studies at West Point, three times, citing him to defend the IDF's actions and claim Israel has made greater efforts than any other army to avoid civilian casualties. Regarding the United States, Netanyahu mentioned former President Donald Trump once, calling him a "greater partner" in confronting "barbarians" and thanking him for his "courageous leadership." He also mentioned New York City Mayor Eric Adams three times, stating that many Jews no longer feel safe in New York and accusing Adams of trying to silence him. Netanyahu asserted that Israel did not commit genocide but rather "prevented genocide."

Walla! compared these figures to Netanyahu's previous UN speeches, noting that in his first address as prime minister in 1998, he mentioned "Palestinians" 31 times compared to only twice for Iran. Between 2009 and 2014, Iran was mentioned 167 times, exceeding the combined mentions of "peace" and "Palestinians." In 2017, Iran was mentioned 37 times versus only twice for Palestinians.

The word analysis was conducted using an AI tool called "Claude" on the speech's transcript, which was then translated from English to Hebrew, followed by a manual review of the results. Different forms of the same word were counted together.