In first speech at General Assembly, PM brands Iran president ‘the Butcher of Tehran,’ hails US ally and Abraham Accords, says his coalition drove Israel from ‘cliff… to safety’
The official text of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, September 27, 2021. (Note delivered text differed slightly):
Thank you Mr. President.
Israel is a lighthouse in a stormy sea.
A beacon of democracy, diverse by design, innovative by nature and eager to contribute to the world — despite being in the toughest neighborhood on earth.
We are an ancient nation, returned to our ancient homeland, revived our ancient language, restored our ancient sovereignty.
Israel is a miracle of Jewish revival. Am Yisrael Chai — the nation of Israel is alive, and the State of Israel is its beating heart.
For way too long, Israel was defined by wars with our neighbors. But this is not what Israel is about. This is not what the people of Israel are about.
Israelis don’t wake up in the morning thinking about the conflict. Israelis want to lead a good life, take care of our families, and build a better world for our children.
Which means that from time to time, we might need to leave our jobs, say goodbye to our families, and rush to the battlefield to defend our country — just like my friends and I have had to do ourselves. They should not be judged for it.
Israelis remember the dark horrors of our past, but remain determined to look ahead, to build a brighter future.
There are two plagues that are challenging the very fabric of society at this moment: One is the coronavirus, which has killed over 5 million people around the globe; the other has also shaken the world as we know it — it’s the disease of political polarization.
Both coronavirus and polarization can erode public trust in our institutions, both can paralyze nations. If left unchecked, their effects on society can be devastating.
In Israel, we faced both, and rather than accept them as a force of nature, we stood up, took action, and we can already see the horizon.
In a polarized world, where algorithms fuel our anger, people on the right and on the left operate in two separate realities, each in their own social media bubble, they hear only the voices that confirm what they already believe in.
People end up hating each other. Societies get torn apart. Countries broken from within, go nowhere.
In Israel, after four elections in two years, with a fifth looming, the people yearned for an antidote: Calm. Stability. An honest attempt for political normalcy.
Inertia is always the easiest choice. But there are moments in time where leaders have to take the wheel a moment before the cliff, face the heat, and drive the country to safety.
About a hundred days ago, my partners and I formed a new government in Israel, the most diverse government in our history. What started as a political accident, can now turn into a purpose. And that purpose is unity.
Today we sit together, around one table.
We speak to each other with respect, we act with decency, and we carry a message: Things can be different.
It’s okay to disagree, it’s okay — in fact vital — that different people think differently, it’s even okay to argue.
For healthy debate is a basic tenet of the Jewish tradition and one of the secrets to the success of the start-up nation. What we have proven, is that even in the age of social media, we can debate, without hate.
The second great disease we’re all facing is the coronavirus, sweeping the world. To overcome, we going to need to make new discoveries, gain new insights, and achieve new breakthroughs.
It all begins with the pursuit of knowledge.
The State of Israel is on the front lines of the search for this vital knowledge. We developed a model, which fuses the wisdom of science with the power of policymaking.
The Israeli model has three guiding principles:
One, the country must stay open.
We all paid a huge price, an economic price, a physical price and an emotional price, for bringing life to a standstill in 2020.
To bring economies back to growth, children back to school, and parents back to work, lockdowns, restrictions, quarantines — cannot work in the long run.
Our model, rather than locking people down in passive sleep-mode, recruits them to the effort. For example, we asked Israeli families to carry out home-testing of their children so we can keep schools open — and indeed schools stayed open.
The second rule: vaccinate early.
Right from the start, Israelis were quick to get vaccinated. We are in a race against a deadly virus and we must try to be ahead of it.
In July, we were the first to learn that the vaccines were waning — which is what brought a surge in Delta cases. It was then when my government decided to administer a third dose of vaccine — the booster — to the Israeli public.
It was a tough decision, given that at the time the FDA hadn’t yet approved it. We faced a choice to either drag Israel into yet another set of lockdowns, further harm our economy and society, or to double-down on vaccines.
We chose the latter. We pioneered the booster shot.
Two months in, I can report that it works: With a third dose, you’re 7 times more protected than with two doses, and 40 times more protected than without any vaccine.
As a result, Israel is on course to escape the fourth wave without a lockdown, without further harm to our economy. Israel’s economy is growing, and unemployment is down.
I’m glad that our actions have inspired other countries to follow with the booster.
The third rule: Adapt and move quickly.
We formed a national task force that meets everyday, to bypass slow governmental bureaucracy, make quick decisions and act on them right away.
Trial and error is key. Every day is a new day, with new data and new decisions. When something works, we keep it. When it doesn’t, we ditch it.
Running a country during a pandemic is not only about health. It’s about carefully balancing all aspects of life that are affected by corona, especially jobs and education.
The only person that has a good vantage point of all of this is the national leader of any given country. Above all, we’re doing everything in our power to provide people with the tools needed to protect their lives.
The ancient Jewish text, the Talmud, says that “whoever saves one life, is as if he saved an entire world,” and that’s what we aspire to do.
While Israel strives to do good, we cannot lose sight for one moment of what’s happening in our neighborhood.
Israel is, quite literally, surrounded by Hezbollah, Shia militias, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas on our borders.
These terror groups seek to dominate the Middle East and spread radical Islam across the world.
What do they all have in common?
They all want to destroy my country. And they’re all backed by Iran. They get their funding from Iran, they get their training from Iran, and they get their weapons from Iran.
Iran’s great goal is crystal clear to anybody who cares to open their eyes: Iran seeks to dominate the region — and seeks to do so under a nuclear umbrella.
For the past three decades Iran has spread its carnage and destruction around the Middle East, country after country: Lebanon. Iraq. Syria. Yemen. And Gaza.
What do all these places have in common?
They are all falling apart. Their citizens — hungry and suffering. Their economies — collapsing.
Like the Midas touch, Iran’s regime has the “Mullah-touch.” Every place Iran touches, fails.
If you think Iranian terror is confined to the Israel — you’re wrong. Just this year, Iran made operational a new deadly terror unit — swarms of killer UAVs armed with lethal weapons that can attack any place any time.
They plan to blanket the skies of the Middle East with this lethal force.
Iran has already used these deadly UAVs — called Shahed 136 — to attack Saudi Arabia, US targets in Iraq and civilian ships at sea, killing a Brit and a Romanian.
Iran plans to arm its proxies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon with hundreds, and then thousands of these deadly drones.
Experience tells us that what starts in the Middle East, doesn’t stop there.
**
Distinguished delegates,
In 1988, Iran set up a “death commission” that ordered the mass murder of 5,000 political activists.
They were hanged from cranes.
This “death commission” was made up of four people. Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s new president, was one of them.
Raisi’s also oversaw the murder of Iranian children. His nickname is “the butcher of Tehran,” because that’s exactly what he did — butchered his own people.
One of the witnesses of this massacre stated in her testimony, that when Raisi would finish a round of murder, he’d throw a party, pocketing the money of those he just executed, and then would sit down to eat cream cakes.
He celebrated the murder of his own people, by devouring cream cakes. And now Raisi is Iran’s new president.
This is who we’re dealing with.
Over the past few years, Iran has made a major leap forward, in its nuclear R&D, in its production-capacity, and in its enrichment.
Iran’s nuclear weapon program is at a critical point. All red lines have been crossed.
Inspections — ignored. All wishful-thinking — proven false.
Iran is violating the IAEAs safeguard agreements — and it’s getting away with it. They harass inspectors and sabotage their investigations — and they’re getting away with it.
They enrich Uranium to the level of 60 percent, which is one step short of weapons-grade material — and they’re getting away with it.
Evidence which clearly proves Iran’s intentions for nuclear weapons in secret sites in Turquzabad, Teheran & Marivan — is ignored.
Iran’s nuclear program has hit a watershed moment. And so has our tolerance.
Words do not stop centrifuges from spinning.
There are those in the world who seem to view Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons as an inevitable reality, or they’ve just become tired of hearing about it.
Israel doesn’t have that privilege. We will not tire.
We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.
I want to tell you something: Iran is much weaker, much more vulnerable than it seems.
Its economy is sinking, its regime is rotten and divorced from the younger generation, its corrupt government fails to even bring water to large parts of the country.
The weaker they are, the more extreme they go.
If we put our heads to it, if we’re serious about stopping it, if we use all our resourcefulness, we can prevail.
And that’s what we’re going to do.
**
But not everything is dark in the Middle East. Alongside worrying trends, there are also rays of light.
First and foremost, the growing ties Israel is forging with Arab and Muslim countries.
Ties that began 42 years ago with Israel’s historic peace agreement with Egypt, continued 27 years ago with Israel’s peace agreement with Jordan, and even more recently with the “Abraham Accords” — that normalized our relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
More is to come.
At a ripe young age of 73, more and more nations are understanding Israel’s value and unique place in the world.
Some friends have stood with us since our founding. The United States of America is a long time, trusted friend of Israel, as we saw, yet again — just a few days ago in congress.
Alongside our old friends, we are gaining new friends — in the Middle East and beyond. Last week, this manifested itself with the defeat of the racist, anti-Semitic Durban conference.
This conference was originally meant to be against racism, but over the years turned into a conference of racism — against Israel and the Jewish people.
And the world’s had enough of this.
I thank the 38 countries (38!) who chose truth over lies, and skipped the conference.
And to those countries who chose to participate in this farce, I say: Attacking Israel doesn’t make you morally superior. Fighting the only democracy in the Middle East doesn’t make you “woke.” Adopting clichés about Israel without bothering to learn the basic facts, well, that’s just plain lazy.
Every member state in this building has a choice. It’s not a political choice, but a moral one. It’s a choice between darkness and light.
Darkness that persecutes political prisoners, murders the innocent, abuses women and minorities, and seeks to end the modern world as we know it.
Or light — that pursues freedom, prosperity and opportunity.
Over the past 73 years, the State of Israel — the people of Israel — have achieved so much in the face of so much.
And yet, I can say with full confidence: Our best days are ahead of us.
Israel is a nation of great hope, a nation that has brought the heritage of the Torah to life in modern-day Israel, a nation of an unbreakable spirit.
A bit of light dispels much darkness.
The lighthouse among the stormy seas — stands tall, stands strong. And her light shines brighter than ever.
Thank you.
To contrast this, on holidays, families will go out, including the very young and many of the very old, the very wealthy and the very poor will all go to meet and enjoy family gatherings, while singles may gather to socialize or they may stay home to avoid the China Plague. The point is that they are two completely different groups with differing ratios of socio-economics and age groups. This is just considering two such variables. Also all those who do go out will not necessarily be tested but those who are tested will be from each of these different groupings, mind you that these groups are not mutually exclusive but still very different in makeup.
So testing on a holiday will result in many people being tested who might never leave their homes on a given work-day. So the screening tests will bear out very different results. This is because there is no randomness about anything done in human society. So the sampling is never random and testing is always prejudice by one bias or another unless carefully designed otherwise. To do this requires a random sample that is truly randomized and balanced against a control or placebo group.
So this is the real story of why the R0 is really a biased record. It is based on screening tests that are badly based on biases, many more biases than just the two easy ones discussed here. R0 is referred to by many as a meaningful number, but it means something very different when applied using a strong bias, especially if the bias is not maintained as consistent. I largely ignore it for this reason, and it was why I did not mention it in my earlier discussion. Many will use it to represent the value for the general population but this would not be accurate at all. It can be useful when used as a running value from day to day to discuss how the effect on the given portion of the population which is tested, as seen through an established bias, and how this might change over time, but it can not be extrapolated to the general public at large
Also, when you change the normal day to a holiday, this changes everything, which is why I suggest, rather confidently, that the smaller size and the change in this bias sample group tested on the holiday will be an outlier. But it will iron out with time as I noted earlier.
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@Bear
Directly related to the topic of the comparing a normal work/school-day to a holiday is the topic of randomness of screening tests in Israel. Or it might be better to denote it as the completely non-randomness of screening tests in Israel. To gain a representative sample of a general population, you must collect a completely random sample and the sample size must be large enough not to introduce a bias, even if the randomness issue is overcome. When studying the mating habits of fruit-flies, for example, randomness is very easily achieved as the flies have no societal courting patterns that might interject a bias into the equations, beyond ready access, as a given fly will readily mate with the first fly of the opposite sex they come across.
To counter this, the mating rituals of humans are very regimentation on many levels and so to achieve randomness in studying human mating rituals, you must design a careful selection process that will draw a random sample that is tightly associated with the general population.
So, how does this relate back to the topic of the screening tests on a general work/school day vs a holiday. The answer is that there are two distinctly different groups who will wonder out into public on a given work-day vs a holiday, and neither of them are random but quite coordinated base upon many distinct variables.
So who goes out on a work/school-day. The very old will often not go out because they are fearful of the disease and they are often times cared for either in a care facility or by a loved one. Also the very young won’t go out because they are too young to go to school, don’t work and the parents fear for their safety, so no playtime either. This leaves the rest of the public, of which some will go out who have to work or go to school while others will also venture out to shop or run menial errands, but the very wealthy might have no need to go out and the very poor who don’t work also might not have to go out.
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Sorry Bear, that wasn’t my intended meaning, but it is a valid point of concern you raise. My reference was about the holiday traffic being screened and tested vs daily work/school traffic being screened and tested. It was a single-day holiday, so the distinction over the coming days will be an effect of a slight outlier or not, but as a single data point it will not really matter. Single data points are particularly concerning on the day they are collected as they can mislead the trajectory or direction of things, but over time, their erred use will become obvious. So after today this data will be easily seen for what it is, either a new drop or just an anomaly, either way we will now more tomorrow and in the coming days. That is the charm of real world data, every odd data point will be seen sooner or later for what it is, unless there is a serious confounding issue that is routinely repeated, such as with the manner in which data is collected for example.
Your thoughts on the home gathering vs work/school changing the route and distribution of the virus is a valid concern which could also play an interesting confounding role in the coming week or two. So, it is a fair point which could influence the numbers in the coming days, but it wasn’t what I was alluding towards.
Airborne viruses are impossible to prevent from spreading as they concentrate indoors, which is why windows should always be kept open, at least slightly(reduces concentration by 10%). But family gatherings are doubly vexed with the close personal contacts where the concentration of airborne particles increases with increased people in the home and sharing meals can increase exposures through spittle. So personal hygiene including hand-washing as well as oral and nasal washes are increasingly important – betadine(povidone-iodine) solutions are very useful or store-bought antiseptic solutions. It has been stated, though I haven’t seen the data, that it takes a day or two for the virus to penetrate the nasal/oral passages and the nasal/oral lavages can really reduce the viral load available to establish an infection.
@Peloni I am not sure if you are correct on a non-holiday things will get worse. If I recall correctly the virus was transmitted in the past at family gatherings on holidays. Perhaps more will be transmitted at schools (not sure).
@Bear
I think I mention both these points in the referenced post I listed, though without the ‘!!’. But nothing so low as 2,386 new coronavirus cases.
The number and the infection rate will both likely be higher on a non-holiday, and I think this is fairly stated, but lets see tomorrow.
@Peloni, the infection RATE is lower!! Cup half full or Half empty. Things are gradually getting better!!
@Bear
Terribly misleading headline in Arutz Sheva.
I explain this “drop” in cases here:
https://www.israpundit.org/israels-covid-infection-rate-falls-to-lowest-level-in-nearly-two-months/comment-page-1/#comment-63356000241850
The decrease in cases was due to limited testing in likely a very significant part. It is a relatively similar change in positive cases and total testing as the positive cases dropped by nearly half and the testing dropped to almost half, ie relatively mild change which could also be confounded by the people being tested over the holiday. There has been a modest drop in cases over time, but nothing so dramatic as this, unfortunately. Barring some miracle, it would reasonably be expected to see that the cases and percent positives to return much higher tomorrow as screening measures return to normal.
It is good that they didn’t leave this detail out of the article, but the headline was very misleading. FYI.
Bennett was telling the world that Israel will act in a near direct manner against Iran at the UN in English and not in Hebrew at an Israeli press conference. I personally think this is highly significant!!
Iran is not ignoring it as it is conducting military exercises near the Azerbaijan border. Iran says this is because Israel has a military presence in Azerbaijan.
No one knows if Israel does attack Iran’s nuke facility where the attack will come from. Clearly Iran is concerned.
Action is needed now sooner than later to destroy or significantly delay the Iran nuke program. This is a test of massive significance for the government of Israel and Bennett.
COVID infection rate in Israel falls to lowest level in nearly two months
Just 2,386 new coronavirus cases reported as infection rate continues to decline.
The question is… Do you trust Bill Gates and the government with your life? Do they have your best interests at heart?
How does Bennett reconcile Sweden with no lockdowns, no mask wearing and a very small percentage of ‘vaccinated’ comparing Israel’s death rate to Sweden’s lower death rate. So why is he pushing the ‘vaccines’
Bennet basically had two large topics in his speech, the virus and Iran. Since he and his partners are given to talking about Iran rather routinely, I can’t say I was inspired with his discussion here on that topic, but his comments on the virus were important.
I praise Bennett’s stand on lockdowns, as it will limit the contagious nature of the virus. Also he should be applauded for his participation in the decision making that has led his nation to make the decisions on the virus – as he notes, it is the role of leadership, not academic physicians, to make these decisions. Unfortunately, with great authority comes great responsibility for results, and the results are not so great, thus far.
The problem with propaganda is that it can’t change realities on the ground.
It is unfortunate that Bennett chose to cite these findings as they are based on data which does not include the majority of the complications of the vaccine. I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was being misled by his advisers, but he claims to head a committee that meets daily where they discuss the pandemic, “new day, new data,” as he says. If the data is stripped of the multitude of consequences of the vaccine, what use does discussing it provide. It includes a bias is to presume that the vaccines provide no harms and then places all the harmful data into the unvaccinated group, even as these are vaccinated people. This is called survivorship bias, where conclusions are based on those who survive your decisions. If you don’t judge this problem honestly, how will you ever solve it?
Furthermore, if the vaccines work why are critical cases up, severe cases up(with mild improvement), hospitalizations mildly improved, and deaths still at 22/day, down from 24/day. Additionally, the improvement of the hospitalizations are only the mild cases with the middle and hard cases showing no improvements. The main claim to this idea that the 3rd jab improved anything is based on cases dropping by 1/3, but these are not symptomatic cases or it would show in the data that I list, and it doesn’t. These asymptomatic or mild cases were not the reason, I hope, that the 3rd jab was embarked upon. This is a very serious situation and for him to praise these results, after 2months post jab, it is alarming. There is a drop in the severe cases today, which may or not adjust higher, so we will know more on that tomorrow, but to declare that the 3rd jab works based on these findings is a very strong overstatement at this point.
***It seems I prematurely submitted this comment when it was only partially completed, so please ignore it.
The problem with propaganda is that it can’t change realities on the ground.
It is unfortunate that Bennett chose to cite these findings as they are based on data which does not include the majority of the complications of the vaccine. I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was being misled by his advisers, but he claims to head a committee that meets daily where they discuss the pandemic, “new day, new data”. If the data is stripped of the multitude of consequences of the vaccine, what use does discussing it provide. The bias is to presume that the vaccines provide no harms and then places all the harmful data into the unvaccinated group, even as these are vaccinated people. If you don’t judge this problem honestly, how will you ever solve it?
Furthermore, if the vaccines work why are critical cases up, severe cases up(with mild improvement), hospitalizations
On Iran Bennett basically strongly signaled military action against its Nuke Program.