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Netanyahu heads to New York to ‘refute all the lies’ and praise ‘the most moral army in the world’

Although some friends will receive him at the United Nations General Assembly, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows he will be in hot water tomorrow. When he left with wife for New York this morning for his speech on Monday, he gave a bitter farewell:

“In my address to the UN General Assembly,” he said on the tarmac, “I will refute all of the lies being directed at us and I will tell the truth about our state and about the heroic soldiers of the IDF, the most moral army in the world.”

Already Netanyahu was fulminating yesterday over Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s newfound harshness delivered at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday. Netanyahu called Abbas “inciteful,” and promised, “In my UN General Assembly speech and in all of my meetings I will represent the citizens of Israel and will – on their behalf – refute the slander and lies directed at our country.”

Netanyahu will be backed into a corner on Monday defending Israel and his country’s military. “I think the UN would do itself a great favor if instead of the automatic Israel bashing, they actually turn their attention and their investigative committees against these terrorists,” he said earlier this month, responding to indications that the U.N. might not investigate Hamas for alleged violations of international law. In the backdrop of Netanyahu’s talk, he is facing a war crimes investigation from the United Nations Human Rights Council over his “most moral army in the world” and their summer war in Gaza. And already Israel is known inside of the United Nations as the violator of the most UNGA resolutions.

And Netanyahu’s speech is slated to take place days before the UNGA releases another annual round of censures against Israel for violations of international laws over the past twelve months.

Netanyahu’s abrasive tone comes on the heels of Abbas’s call for a United Nations Security Council Resolution to put an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza—and East Jerusalem—within a specific time frame vis-à-vis an immediate return to negotiations. It was a scaled down J’accuse moment in which Abbas characterized Israel in his strongest language yet, but ultimately his proposal lacked ambition. Abbas said Israel conducted “genocidal” policies in Gaza, constructed an “Apartheid” state, and he spoke readily of Israel’s “racist settlers.”

Expectations were running high for Palestinian leaders to announce they are joining the International Criminal Court so they can charge Israeli leaders for crimes against humanity, with a specific focus on how the army engaged in Gaza. Yet Abbas has not moved on submitting his signed copy of the Rome Statute to the United Nations and instead again has set his sights on yet another stream of talks with Israel. And while this time the parameters are predicated upon reaching an agreement on borders within a specific deadline, when exactly that deadline will be remains unknown, perhaps even unknown to Abbas himself.

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In my dreams, the delegations will first laugh with snorting condescension followed by a highly publicized walk out or stampede.

And Samantha Power will be all alone.

This reminds me of the last time he addressed the UN. There was an enormous outburst of applause. When the (IIRC BBC) camera panned to the audience, the delegates seemed to be all sitting staring fixedly at their folded hands. But against the wall in the back was a claque that Netanyahu had brought with him jumping up and down, cheering and banging their hands together. The American networks, with a meet sense of decorum, broadcast the applause but did not show the source.

I hope our FBI is always on standby to arrest Netanyahu … the moment his diplomatic immunity is ended he needs to be arrested by our FBI to stand trial for stealing nuclear triggers in the 80s and smuggling them out of the U.S. (which others involved now shamelessly and proudly trumpet) – the highest act of physical espionage in our history of which the public is aware … if we can’t get him on our soil, our CIA should rendition him and he can stand trial and face the death penalty

He will surely rebut the so-called lies but whether he will succeed in refuting them we will see. He will certainly face a lot of ridicule and anger but of course all that will be balanced by the ridicule and anger directed at his opponents by a chorus of American and Western politicians, journalists and academics. But then he and Abbas will settle down to yet another and another round of talks where no one proposes anything definite and nothing can even be identified as ‘the gap between the two sides’. I expect they quite like each other really.

“When he left with wife for New York this morning for his speech on Monday, he gave a bitter farewell.”

I think bitter is his default position. What a snide cuss he is. I remember the last time he addressed the UN. His dripping condescension made Bush look like Gandhi in comparison.

Since we already know everything Bibi has to say, as well as the rump-rosy greeting that our press and politicians will give him, let’s at least make this interesting by having a drinking game. I’ll start with an easy one:

One drink every time he says the word “rockets.”