The Jerusalem Post

Off-Broadway theatrics: Netanyahu’s top four spotlight gimmicks at the UN

- • Jerusalem Post Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to speak on Tuesday before the UN General Assembly. His advisers are already telling reporters that the prime minister’s speech will focus on Iran, the threat it continues to pose to Israel and the need for the world to annul the nuclear deal.

The big question though is what Netanyahu’s gimmick will be this year. Ahead of the speech, The Jerusalem Post compiled a list of the top four gimmicks he has used since his election as prime minister in 2009.

• In 2009, Netanyahu presented the United Nations General Assembly with a copy of the blueprints of the Auschwitz death camp. He spoke a day after Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadineja­d.

“To those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency .... What a disgrace! What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations! Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. You’re wrong.”

• In 2012, Netanyahu presented the world with a loony tunes-like bomb cartoon which he proceeded to draw a red line on, to show what stage Iran was at in its pursuit of enriched uranium.

Holding a drawing of the bomb, with a lit fuse, Netanyahu told the UN: “At this late hour, there is only one way to peacefully prevent Iran from getting atomic bombs, and that’s by placing a clear redline on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Redlines don’t lead to war; redlines prevent war. Iran uses diplomatic negotiatio­ns to buy time to advance its program.”

• In 2014, Netanyahu displayed a picture from the Gaza Strip showing a rocket launcher next to a group of Palestinia­n children. Netanyahu’s speech was just a few weeks after the Gaza war had ended and Israel was facing fierce internatio­nal criticism.

“You see three children playing next to them. Hamas deliberate­ly put its rockets in hundreds of residentia­l areas like this. Hundreds of them. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a war crime .... And these are the real war crimes you should have investigat­ed, or spoken out against from this podium last week.”

• In 2015, Netanyahu stopped his speech midway and stood silent for 44 seconds. That silence, he said, was designed to show how the world has responded with deafening silence while Iran continues to threaten to murder Israeli citizens.

“Seventy years after the murder of six million Jews, Iran’s rulers promise to destroy my country, murder my people. And the response from this body, the response from nearly every one of the government­s represente­d here, has been absolutely nothing! Utter silence! Deafening silence.”

So, what will happen on Tuesday? We will have to wait and see.

 ?? (Reuters) ?? PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu holds up a document outlining plans for the Auschwitz death camp as he addresses the 64th UN General Assembly at UN headquarte­rs in 2009.
(Reuters) PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu holds up a document outlining plans for the Auschwitz death camp as he addresses the 64th UN General Assembly at UN headquarte­rs in 2009.
 ?? (Reuters) ?? PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu holds up a photograph of a rocket launcher in the Gaza Strip as he addresses the UN in 2014.
(Reuters) PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu holds up a photograph of a rocket launcher in the Gaza Strip as he addresses the UN in 2014.
 ?? (Reuters) ?? PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he drew on the graphic of a bomb during his speech to the UN in 2012.
(Reuters) PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he drew on the graphic of a bomb during his speech to the UN in 2012.
 ?? (Reuters) ?? PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu pauses while addressing attendees during his UN speech in 2015.
(Reuters) PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu pauses while addressing attendees during his UN speech in 2015.

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