At the U.N., overwhelming anger at Israel

Cohen’s parents told my colleagues earlier this month that they blame Netanyahu — not Hamas, a terrorist organization over which they have no influence — for not seizing the opportunities presented to him to bring about a cease-fire and the release of the remaining hostages. The expert consensus among Israeli and regional analysts is that a cease-fire in Gaza does not serve Netanyahu’s personal interests, in part because members of his far-right coalition want the war to continue.

The plight of hostages — never mind the 2 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza whose homes have been destroyed and lives turned upside down — are lesser concerns, say Netanyahu’s critics. “There is a rope hanging over my son’s head,” Yehuda, Cohen’s father, told The Washington Post. “But we still have a reason to fight. I don’t think of anything else.”

Netanyahu is himself fighting on other fronts. He arrived in New York as Israel stepped up its bombardments of alleged Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, an offensive that has already claimed hundreds of Lebanese lives, including women and children. After emergency consultations, the United States and France led a push for an immediate 21-day cease-fire to cool tensions. The call was agreed in coordination with Israel, according to U.S. officials, but Netanyahu seemed to reverse course, distancing himself from talk of an imminent cease-fire in Lebanon after domestic pressure from his right flank.

Netanyahu, in a statement, instructed his country’s forces to “continue fighting at full force.” Israeli polls show that while Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza is becoming less popular, there is public enthusiasm for opening up a war on the northern front. Israeli officials insist that their escalation, including a potential ground offensive, is necessary in order for tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by fear of Hezbollah rocket fire to return to their communities.

At the United Nations, though, dignitaries and leaders condemned the spiraling conflict and called on Israel to rein its actions. “An all-out war must be avoided at all costs,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said, warning that “hell” was “breaking loose” over Lebanon. “It would surely be an all-out catastrophe,” he added.

“Israel is violating our sovereignty by sending their warplanes and drones to our skies,” Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati told a special session of the Security Council on Wednesday, saying that Israel had spread “terror and fear among the Lebanese citizens in full view of the world” — just days after Israel had allegedly exploded numerous pagers and other communications devices in the possession of Hezbollah operatives across the country, killing scores.

Israeli officials routinely bristle at censure in the United Nations. Danny Danon, Israel’s envoy at the United Nations, lambasted the “annual show of hypocrisy” at the General Assembly. Regarding Lebanon, he said Israeli strikes were “precise” and aimed at neutralizing Hezbollah’s considerable capacity to threaten Israel. “I sit here again to defend Israel’s actions as if any other country in our situation would behave differently, would chart any different course and would not act in the defense of their people,” Danon said.

But a legion of critics followed, denouncing the killings of more than 40,000 people in Gaza and the unfurling war over Lebanon. “Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said, adding that much of Gaza was “destroyed” and also pointing to Israel’s deadly operations in areas of the West Bank. “This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank.”

While denouncing Hamas and Hezbollah, world leaders cast Israel’s heavy-handed campaigns and the inability of the U.N. system to rein it as a danger to the institution itself. “The right of self-defense is being used as a weapon of mass extermination, stoking legitimate fears of genocide,” said Guyana’s president Mohamed Irfaan Ali. “No State, large or small, should feel comfortable and safe when such atrocities are allowed to continue with impunity.”

“The global international order faces a test that threatens its existence,” said Iraqi prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, decrying Israel’s killing of civilians in both Gaza and Lebanon.

Last week, the General Assembly passed a resolution by a huge majority calling for the dismantling of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and an end to the Israeli occupation — something that’s nowhere in the cards and impossible to enforce. But numerous dignitaries in New York reiterated their condemnations of settler provocations and calls for a separate, sovereign Palestinian state.

“It is our common interest and shared responsibility to ensure strict respect for international law and humanitarian law, as well as the proper functioning of the international justice system,” Portuguese prime minister Luís Montenegro said.

“In Palestine we must ask ourselves: whose interests are driving the war?” asked Finnish president Alexander Stubb from the dais of the General Assembly, in a perhaps oblique nod at Netanyahu. “Peace meets the interests of the global majority, and the Palestinians and Israelis.”

He added: “There are no more excuses. This war needs to end and it needs to end now.”