At UN, Bennett sets Israel’s international discourse back to the days of Golda Meir

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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett did well to announce before his trip to the UN General Assembly and he would not be using visual aids in his speech. His predecessor turned the annual event into a circus; before every appearance we were flooded with hints, winks and promos; the TV studios went ecstatic over whatever “bombshell” former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was going to drop; it always ended with an illustrated placard or an aerial photo. When all was said and done, after over a decade of apocalyptic appearances and entirely unveiled threats, we are left with the unfortunate reality: Iran in 2021 is closer than ever to a nuclear bomb.

If, in retrospect, Netanyahu’s bombastic speeches turned out to be froth on the water, Bennett’s speech was whipped cream on the water. The “color” he added to his remarks was about the cream cakes the “butcher of Tehran,” as he called Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, sits down to eat after he executes his people.

Not only were the gimmicks lacking on the podium this time, but so was the Holocaust. The latter was soldered into every text of Netanyahu. He couldn’t get enough of it. Every year in the fall he would go up to the podium and sow fear and terror. Not in the hearts of the diplomats in the hall, who had had it with the shticks, but here at home. He would compare Israel, one of the strongest military powers on earth, to the Jews of Europe in the 1920s and ’30s, as if Israel was on the brink of destruction, and he was its only defender and savior. This was a cynical and manipulative exercise, for domestic consumption. Bennett did well to leave the diasporic assertions on the cutting room floor.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu uses a diagram of a bomb to describe Iran’s nuclear program while delivering his address to the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, in 2012.AFP

The style and delivery this time were different, but the content was the same. Highlighting Israel’s achievements, focusing on the Iranian threat, revealing relevant intelligence on the diplomatic stage (secret actions at nuclear sites and Tehran’s intention to arm its allies with “deadly drones”).

Bennett mentioned Iran almost as frequently as his predecessor, while the word “Palestinians” was not mentioned even once. The closest conflict to us, the conflict that shapes, polarizes and bleeds us and them, does not exist in the international discourse of Israel’s prime minister. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas served him the ball last week in a belligerent speech (and empty threats). And Bennett? He let the ball just bounce alongside him and skipped to more comfortable courts, as if there was never the occupation, blood, suffering and apartheid in the territories. Because of the impossible coalition as far as this goes, and with nothing wise to say, Bennett simply reverted to 50-year-old talking points, to the days of Prime Minister Golda Meir (“there is no Palestinian people”) – the childish, embarrassing propaganda.

True, no one expected that it would be Bennett who would invite the Palestinian president to start negotiations. But if he would have said a few sentences about willingness to improve the lives of the Palestinians, focusing on the regional economy and the wellbeing of its inhabitants; the desire to assist the unfortunate residents of Gaza to rebuilt; the need to enlist the world in building infrastructure in the Gaza Strip while disarming Hamas – it would have cost him nothing. His base, if there is such a thing, would have survived.

The first part of the speech was good, but the frame was surprising. For more than two months now, the Israeli government has not managed to convey its messages about the coronavirus. Instead of press conferences in Jerusalem, the prime minister chose the podium of the United Nations to send aggressive messages to his Health Ministry’s experts. Lucky he didn’t pull out a placard with a picture of the Health Ministry’s head of public health services, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis. The presentation of the government’s fight against the pandemic was well organized and serious. Too bad it wasn’t presented here, in Hebrew, long before.

FULL TEXT: Bennett’s UN speech – Iran, COVID, and not one mention of Palestinians

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The various segments of the coalition demonstrated unity, with knee-jerk praise for Bennett. On the other hand, Likud (now known by its updated name, Bibistan) once again broke an age-old tradition and attacked the prime minister on a diplomatic mission abroad, referencing one of Netanyahu’s speeches at the United Nations (“if it sounds like a prime minister with six Knesset seats, it is a prime minister with six Knesset seats”). That’s what they did when Bennett was in Washington and once again now, low and bullying, as usual.

Netanyahu also contributed one of his sarcastic tweets, with a photo of himself holding some placard or other at a previous speech to the General Assembly, as if this were a photo contest between models on Instagram. The man simply insists on reminding us again why he is now sitting at home, bitter and frustrated to the depths of his soul and someone else, indeed, someone with only “six Knesset seats” (which merely magnifies the failure of the one with 30 Knesset seats), is representing Israel on the most important stage in the world.