September 27, 2025 02:47 PM IST First published on: Sep 27, 2025 at 02:47 PM ISTIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in New York for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly not as a leader unencumbered, but as one shadowed by international arrest warrants. His route to the city had to be carefully arranged, avoiding jurisdictions where he might be detained. The spectacle of a sitting Israeli prime minister constrained in his movements, even as he sought to deliver a message of national strength and moral resolve, spoke volumes before he uttered a single word. It set the stage for a speech that, though intended to affirm Israel’s resilience, revealed instead the deep vulnerability of its moral and political standing in the world.In a characteristically trenchant speech, Netanyahu castigated countries that have recognised Palestinian statehood, arguing that such gestures reward terror and embolden violence. He accused critics of succumbing to lies and antisemitism, positioning Israel as the sole bearer of truth. Yet, for all his insistence that Israel’s struggle is self-evidently just, his government has overseen relentless military operations that far exceed the line between legitimate defence and indiscriminate force. In Gaza, where nearly 70,000 civilians have been killed and entire neighbourhoods destroyed, the credibility of Israel’s moral claims has been severely weakened.AdvertisementIn the nearly two years since October 7, Israel has dismantled its most dangerous adversaries. Hamas’s rank and file has been eliminated, Hezbollah has been left in ruins, the Assad regime has been replaced by a Sunni Arab government, and Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions have been checked. These are significant victories that confirm Israel’s capacity to reshape the battlefield in its favour. Yet, none of them resolve the one challenge that defines Israel’s moral and political future. The unresolved Palestinian question and the state’s reputation as a ruthless occupying power continue to undermine its wider deterrence strategy.That contradiction shaped the reception of his remarks. Walkouts in the General Assembly Hall signalled not only disapproval of policy but also fatigue with a leader who refuses to acknowledge restraint or take responsibility. The unease extends beyond the chamber. Israel’s repeated violations of the sovereignty of other states, most recently in Qatar with the killing of Hamas leaders on its soil, highlight a pattern of operating outside the norms that Netanyahu claims to defend. Each operation may bring short-term tactical gain, but cumulatively, they reinforce Israel’s image as a state indifferent to international law.Perhaps the most revealing moment was not in New York but in Gaza. The Israel Defence Forces mounted loudspeakers on trucks to broadcast Netanyahu’s speech live into the devastated enclave. A state that feels compelled to broadcast its leader’s words into the ruins of a displaced population is not projecting confidence so much as exposing the deep insecurities that come with governing through domination.AdvertisementNetanyahu also declined to outline any political horizon beyond military victory. He described Israel’s struggles on multiple fronts, from Gaza to Lebanon to Iranian proxies, but offered no vision of reconciliation or coexistence. Absent were even the most modest gestures toward recognising Palestinian aspirations, acknowledging humanitarian suffering, or engaging with international legal norms.Also Read | Britain, France’s recognition of Palestine is important: It acknowledges a colonial blunderSince its founding, Israel has always wrestled with profound moral contradictions: The tension between democracy and occupation, between security and collective punishment, between its own national story and the dispossession of Palestinians. Yet never before has its international standing felt so precarious. The reasons are not only structural, but also personal. Netanyahu’s leadership has magnified these contradictions. By casting criticism as delegitimisation and restraint as weakness, he has left Israel increasingly isolated, subject to legal and diplomatic scrutiny, and estranged from allies whose support it once assumed (as evidenced most recently – and remarkably – in the collective recognition of Palestinian statehood by erstwhile steadfast supporters of Israel, Australia, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom).most readNone of this denies the reality of Israel’s security threats or the grief of families who continue to mourn hostages, soldiers, and civilians. But it underscores a fundamental truth. Israel’s long-term security cannot rest on military superiority and rhetorical defiance alone. Moral authority and international legitimacy are not peripheral concerns. They are central to the ability of a state to defend its cause and sustain alliances. Netanyahu’s leadership has eroded both.Netanyahu’s defiant turn at the UN podium places him squarely in a lineage of leaders who have used the stage less as a forum for international dialogue than as a platform for domestic theatre. Donald Trump famously declared “America First” from the same dais, thumbing his nose at the very multilateral order the United States had helped construct; Muammar Gaddafi rambled for more than an hour, tossing the UN Charter aside. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used his appearances to question the Holocaust and 9/11, inviting walkouts as a mark of his own bravado. Netanyahu’s performance, like that of earlier figures in this theatre of defiance, was less a display of strength than a stark reminder of how deeply the international order has eroded in the eight decades since the founding of the United Nations.The writer is associate professor of International Studies at the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies