It was Israel’s turn at the UN General Assembly on Monday, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in New York to make a point.
Iran has indicated its willingness to help defeat the self-styled Islamic State if its nuclear programme is less hindered. That was a bargain that must never be struck said Netanyahu.
“ISIS must be defeated. But to defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war,” he warned.
(ISIL is sometimes referred to as ISIS)
The last time Netanyahu was here he used a much-ridiculed sketch of a bomb. Not this time.
“Let me show you a photograph,” he said, producing a large colour print.
“It was taken by a France 24 TV crew during the recent conflict. It shows two Hamas rocket launchers, which were used to attack us. You see three children playing next to them. Hamas deliberately put its rockets in hundreds of residential areas like this. Ladies and gentlemen”, he said , “THIS is a war crime,” a clear reference to critics of Israel who accuse it of war crimes in Gaza.
International nuclear negotiators and Iran have given themselves until November 24 to reach a definitive deal, and with the ISIL crisis Israel may feel its priorities slipping down the agenda.
