Revisiting Netanyahu's 2023 UN speech - "A New Middle East" ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Revisiting Netanyahu's 2023 UN speech - "A New Middle East"

Two weeks before the October 7 Hamas pogroms, Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the UN and gave his vision of a "New Middle East."

Two weeks ago, we saw another blessing already in sight. In the G20 Conference, President Biden, Prime Minister Modi, and European and Arab leaders announced plans for a visionary corridor that will stretch across the Arabian Peninsula and Israel. It will connect India to Europe with maritime links, rail links, energy pipelines, fiber-optic cables.

This corridor will bypass maritime chokepoints and dramatically lower the costs of goods, communication and energy for over two billion people.

What a historic change for my country! You see, the Land of Israel is situated on the crossroads between Africa, Asia and Europe. And for centuries, my country was repeatedly invaded by empires passing through it in their campaigns of plunder and conquest elsewhere. But today, as we tear down walls of enmity, Israel can become a bridge of peace and prosperity between these continents.

Peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia will truly create a new Middle East.

But then he added that there were those who wanted to disrupt the potential peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Now you know, Ladies and Gentlemen, you know there’s a fly in this ointment, because rest assured, the fanatics ruling Iran will do everything they can to thwart this historic peace. Iran continues to spend billions to arm its terror proxies. It continues to extend its terror tentacles in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, South America, even North America. ...

Iran continues to threaten international shipping lanes, hold foreign nationals for ransom and engage in nuclear blackmail. Over the past year, its murderous goons have killed hundreds and arrested thousands of Iran’s brave citizens.

Iran’s drones and missile program threaten Israel and our Arab neighbors. And Iran’s drones have brought and bring death and destruction to innocent people in the Ukraine.

Yet the regime’s aggression is largely met by indifference in the international community.

This is as close a prediction of October 7 as there was, based not on intelligence but just on knowing the psychology of antisemites.

Bibi was right. Iran and its proxies did everything they could in order to thwart a new Middle East and to maintain their stranglehold on Gaza, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Yemen.

And today we are on the cusp of a new Middle East. It isn't one that Netanyahu or anyone else envisioned, but it is a world where Iran's malign influence on the region has been dramatically scaled back.

The attacks on and since October 7 by Iran and its proxies has indeed ushered in a new Middle East - one that has been permanently changed, although we still don't know what it will look like in six months or five years. Nevertheless, Hamas helped usher in the era of a New Middle East - one without Hamas, one with a much smaller and less influential Hezbollah, and one where moderate Arab states are much more willing to stand up to an Iran that has been shown to be a mostly paper tiger.

Netanyahu reiterated the theme of a New Middle East in the General Assembly this year as well. In this case he knew what would happen only a few hours afterwards: Israel killed Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah. In his speech he practically promised that would happen: "We took out senior military commanders who not only shed Israeli blood but American and French blood as well. And then we took out their replacements. And then the replacements of their replacements. And we’ll continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met. "

Critics derided both of these speeches by Netanyahu, as they have done with his previous UN speeches. But when you look back at them, they are the most prescient of any other leaders' speeches at the UN in history.