Israel Still Fears Iran Nuclear Threat

Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, addresses the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York City, holding what he said were Nazi plans for the Aushwitz concentration camp on Sept. 24. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)

NEW YORK—Israel made it clear that it still sees Iran as a nuclear threat when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, calling on the U.N. to “prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”

According to Netanyahu, “The greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction.”

“Will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons, thereby endangering the peace of the entire world?” asked the prime minister.

Iranian Speech

The only nuclear mention in Ahmadinejad’s speech from the day before was a brief comment that reforming international political relations would be based on, among other things, “the elimination of all nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.”

Many Western delegations did not hear this part of the speech. Eleven delegations, including the U.S., Britain, France, and Germany, stood up and left the room after Ahmadinejad called Israel a “Zionist regime” that had committed “barbaric attacks.”

“It is disappointing that Mr. Ahmadinejad has once again chosen to espouse hateful, offensive and anti-Semitic rhetoric,” read a one-sentence release by the U.S. mission to the U.N.

Canada boycotted Ahmadinejad’s speech from the start.

Israel was not present during the speech and had called upon other countries to not attend. In his speech, Netanyahu praised those who walked out on Ahmadinejad, and blasted those who did not.

“But 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?’” said Netanyahu.

Ahmadinejad has received much international criticism for his repeated denial of the Holocaust.

“Yesterday the president of Iran stood at this very podium, spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants. Just a few days earlier, he again claimed that the Holocaust is a lie,” said Netanyahu.

Protests Outside U.N.

Anti-Ahmadinejad demonstrators have been camped across from U.N. headquarters for days, railing against the Iranian regime for its crackdown on protesters in Iran and the extreme voting irregularities of the president’s re-election last June.

“Ahmadinejad’s regime conducted an election rife with ballot stuffing in June and then violently suppressed its political opposition,” said David Kilgour, former Canadian secretary of state, speaking at the protest on Wednesday.