Netanyahu's UN Speech Focused on Iran, Hamas, Ignoring Peace, Analysis Finds

An analysis by the Israeli news site "Walla!" revealed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent address to the United Nations General Assembly heavily emphasized Israel, Iran, Hamas, and the war, while largely omitting discussions of peace and upcoming Israeli elections. The word "Israel" and its derivatives were used 47 times, "Jew" 24 times, and "world" 15 times. Netanyahu also used the term "genocide" eight times, framing it as an accusation against Israel that he refuted, stating Israel "prevented genocide."

In contrast, the word "peace" appeared only three times, a significant decrease from the 40 times it was used in his 2023 UN speech prior to the October 7th attacks. The analysis highlighted a strong focus on Iran, mentioned 19 times, and Hamas, mentioned 12 times. Terms like "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. He did, however, mention his brother Yoni Netanyahu seven times, referencing the period before the 1967 war. He also mentioned reservist Neriah Leiter, who was severely injured in a car-ramming attack, four times. Leiter is the son of Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Yehiel Leiter.

Netanyahu cited Colonel John Spencer of West Point three times, using his expertise on urban warfare to defend the IDF's conduct and claim Israel made greater efforts than any other army to avoid civilian casualties. He mentioned former US President Donald Trump once, calling him Israel's "greatest partner" against "barbarians." Conversely, Netanyahu dedicated three mentions to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, expressing concern for Jewish safety in the city and accusing Adams of attempting to silence him.

The "Walla!" analysis compared these figures to Netanyahu's past UN speeches. In his first address as Prime Minister in 1998, "Palestinians" was mentioned 31 times compared to Iran's twice. 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 "Palestinians" twice.

The analysis was conducted using an AI tool to translate the speech from English to Hebrew, followed by a manual review, with variations of words counted together.