Over the last five years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has devoted all the speeches he delivered on US territory — whether to UN assemblies or the US Congress — to the connection between the Iranian nuclearization threat and the Holocaust of European Jewry.
For Netanyahu, the Iranian threat is his life project, the crowning glory of his rulership ever since he was elected to his second term of office in February 2009 and also in his current third term. To a large extent, this issue defines Netanyahu’s recent years as prime minister. Thus, perhaps he finds it difficult to free himself from his modus operandi and old proclamations, even when Iran is ostensibly singing a new song these days, at least to the outside world.
Netanyahu might be correct in being suspicious of the “new song” in the softened declarations of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, as he chooses to hold firm to his familiar agenda and rhetoric. On the afternoon of Sept. 24 — Israel time — Netanyahu ordered the members of Israel’s UN delegation to leave the hall during Rouhani’s speech to the UN General Assembly, exactly like last year. “Iran thinks that soothing words and empty gestures will allow it to continue its pursuit of the bomb,” Netanyahu said, in explanation of his demand of the diplomatic representatives. “Only when Iranian leaders will stop denying the Holocaust of the Jewish nation and stop calling for the destruction of the State of Israel will the Israeli delegation in the UN attend their addresses.” Afterward, he called Rouhani’s speech cynical and filled with hypocrisy.
In contrast to Netanyahu’s predictable responses, Finance Minister Yair Lapid elucidated in his statement that he feels the prime minister was mistaken. Lapid said, “Israel does not need to be perceived as a serial refuser of negotiations, a country that is not interested in peaceful solutions… Walking out of the UN General Assembly brings to mind the past behavior of Arab states toward Israel.” In other words, Lapid said, let’s allow the Iranians to be the refusers of peace.
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