PM Benjamin Netanyahu 'New Middle East' address to the 78th UN General Assembly, 22 Sep 2023 — 15 days before October 7

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Over three millennia ago, our great leader Moses addressed the people of Israel as they were about to enter the Promised Land. He said they would find there two mountains facing one another: Mount Gerizim, the site on which a great blessing would be proclaimed, and Mount Ebal, the site of a great curse. Moses said the people's fate would be determined by the choice they made between the blessing and the curse.

That same choice has echoed down the ages not just for the people of Israel but for all humanity. We face such a choice today. It will determine whether we enjoy the blessings of a historic peace of boundless prosperity and hope or suffer the curse of a horrific war, of terrorism and despair.

When I last spoke at this podium five years ago, I warned about the tyrants of Tehran. They have been nothing but a curse. A curse to their own people, to our region, to the entire world.

But at that time, I also spoke about a great blessing that I could see on the horizon. Here's what I said. Quote: 'The common threat of Iran has brought Israel and many Arab states closer than ever before in a friendship that I have not seen in my lifetime.' I said: 'The day would soon arrive when Israel would be able to expand peace beyond Egypt and Jordan to other Arab neighbors.'

Now, in countless meetings with world leaders, I made the case that Israel and the Arab states shared many common interests, and that I believed that these many common interests could facilitate a breakthrough for a broader peace in our region.

You applaud now, but at the time, many dismissed my optimism as wishful thinking. Their pessimism was based on a quarter-century of good intentions and failed peacemaking.

Why were these good intentions, why did they always meet failure? Because they were based on one false idea, that unless we first concluded a peace agreement with the Palestinians, no other Arab state would normalize its relations with Israel.

I've long sought to make peace with the Palestinians. But I also believe that we must not give the Palestinians a veto over new peace treaties with Arab states. The Palestinians could greatly benefit from a broader peace. They should be part of the process, but they should not have a veto over the process.

See, the Palestinians are only 2% of the Arab world. As long as they believe that the other 98% will remain in a war-like state with Israel, that larger mass, that larger Arab world could eventually choke, dissolve, destroy the Jewish state. So when the Palestinians see that most of the Arab world has reconciled itself to the Jewish state, they too will be more likely to abandon the fantasy of destroying Israel and finally embrace a path of genuine peace with it.

For years, my approach to peace was rejected by the so-called experts. Well, they were wrong. Under their approach, we didn't forge a single peace treaty for a quarter century. Yet in 2020, under the approach that I advocated, we tried something different, and in no time we achieved a remarkable breakthrough.

We achieved four peace treaties working with the United States. Israel forged four peace agreements in four months with four Arab states: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. The Abraham Accords were a pivot of history.

But I believe that we are at the cusp of an even more dramatic breakthrough: an historic peace with Saudi Arabia. Such a peace will go a long way to ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. It will encourage other Arab states to normalize relations with Israel. It will enhance the prospects of peace with the Palestinians. It will encourage a broader reconciliation between Judaism and Islam, between Jerusalem and Mecca, between the descendants of Isaac and the descendants of Ishmael.

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.

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. We will not only bring down barriers between Israel and our neighbors. We'll build a new corridor of peace and prosperity that connects Asia through the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, to Europe. This is an extraordinary change, a monumental change, another pivot of history.

[… Mahmoud Abbas Hitler-not-antisemite paragraphs elided…]

There are many hurdles on the path of peace. But I am committed to doing everything I can to overcome those hurdles, to forge a better future for Israel and all the peoples in our region. Two days ago, I discussed this vision of peace with President Biden. We share the same optimism for what can be achieved. And I deeply appreciate his commitment to seize this historic opportunity. The United States of America is indispensable in this effort. Just as we achieved the Abraham Accords with the leadership of President Trump, I believe we can achieve peace with Saudi Arabia with the leadership of President Biden. Working together with the leadership of Crown Prince Muhammed Bin Salman, we can shape a future of great blessings for all our peoples.

Now you know, Ladies and Gentlemen, you know there's a fly in this ointment, because rest assured, the fanatics ruling Iran are will do everything they can to thwart this historic peace.

[… Iran paragraphs + AI utopia paragraphs elided…]

Thousands of years ago, Moses presented the children of Israel with a timeless and universal choice, 'Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.' May we choose wisely between the curse and the blessings that stand before us this day.