Netanyahu will address the UN as Israel, bogged down by one war, barrels toward another

JERUSALEM (AP) — From the dais of the U.N. General Assembly just a year ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu triumphantly hailed a new peace he said would sweep through the Middle East. A year later, as he travels back to that same world stage, that vision is in tatters.

The devastating war in Gaza is about to hit the one-year mark. Israel is on the cusp of a wider regional war with the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah. And the country finds itself increasingly isolated internationally and led by a polarizing leader whose handling of the conflict has sparked protests both in global capitals and on the streets of his own country.

And it’s not just the mushrooming regional conflicts weighing Israel down. Netanyahu will head to New York burdened also by what could be an imminent warrant for his arrest by the International Criminal Court, what would put him in a fellowship of sorts with Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir.

“He arrives almost at a point of being persona non grata,” said Alon Liel, a former director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and outspoken critic of Netanyahu.

Netanyahu is set to address the General Assembly on Friday. A gifted orator, he has long viewed speeches from such venerated perches as the optimal way to deliver a message and score political points with Israelis enthralled by his flawless English and fiery delivery. In July, he championed Israel's case for the war in Gaza in front of a joint session of the U.S. Congress, where he received multiple ovations and plaudits even from some critics back home.

“In his view, any such trips to New York, to the grand stage of world affairs, he considers an advantage,” said Yossi Shain, a professor of international relations at Georgetown and Tel Aviv University. He said Netanyahu’s speeches abroad were often meant to impress audiences at home, and this one was no different.

Netanyahu is known for his showmanship at the United Nations and has repeatedly used the pulpit to try make a case for his ideology and policies. At a speech in 2012, Netanyahu famously brandished a placard with a cartoon bomb to illustrate what he said was Iran's race toward a nuclear weapon. In 2009, he showed up with a copy of the plans for the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, using it to highlight what he said was the former Iranian leader's “antisemitic rants.”

Last year, his focus was on what appeared to be a burgeoning normalization with Saudi Arabia that he said showed how a broader Middle East peace was not contingent on resolving the conflict with the Palestinians. He held up his prop, a map of the region, and used the word “peace” 42 times. The map appeared to show Gaza and the West Bank — territories claimed by the Palestinians for a future state — as being encompassed by Israel.

But Netanyahu arrives at the United Nations this week at a time when his own diplomatic capital and legitimacy, as well as that of the country he represents, are at a low. Critics say that aside from a moment in the spotlight, it's not clear what Netanyahu will achieve with the visit.

“He is a great believer in speechmaking,” said Tal Schneider, an Israeli political commentator. “He thinks that if he delivers a speech in English, he can convince people in the justness of his ways,” she said, adding that that demonstrated he was “disconnected from reality.”

Netanyahu's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Miki Zohar, a Cabinet minister who is close to Netanyahu, said the U.N. was a “very important stage” to lay out Israel's position and he hoped the speech would bolster international support.

At the U.N., Netanyahu will seek to persuade a world growing increasingly exasperated by Israel’s war in Gaza that its aims are righteous. He may try to galvanize the world behind an Israeli war against Hezbollah. And he is likely to lay blame for the region’s chaos on Iran, a repeated focus of his speeches at home and abroad. That he is making the trip at all, at a time of escalating violence with Hezbollah, points to how much significance he places on the speech.

But Netanyahu’s words may fall on deaf ears.

The Israeli leader “actually believes that his U.N. speeches have transformative effects on history. They do not,” said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general in New York. Netanyahu's visit, Pinkas added, comes as Israel is now globally perceived as being “on the precipice of a condemned pariah state” with its leader seen as a “rogue war-monger.”

Protests are expected during his visit. New York is home to Columbia University, site of some of the most intense campus demonstrations of recent years this spring — by students objecting to the bloodshed in Gaza.

Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader, has been a divisive figure internationally for years, with his hard-line approach to the Palestinians in particular frustrating world leaders. But his handling of the war in Gaza has further stained his global perception.

The war was set off by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 250 people dragged as hostages into Gaza. Many Israelis blame Netanyahu and his policies for allowing Hamas to develop the military capacity for being able to burst through Israel's vaunted defenses and stage the attack.

The war has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza, and has often wiped out multiple members of the same family. It has displaced most of the tiny territory's 2.3 million population, in many cases several times, and set off a humanitarian crisis that has caused widespread hunger and lack of access to basic services. U.S.-led cease-fire efforts have stalled, and at home, Netanyahu has come under criticism for his failure to bring home the roughly 70 hostages still presumed to be alive and the bodies of some 30 others.

In the aftermath of Hamas' unprecedented attack, Israel initially had the backing of its allies to punish the militant group. But the fierceness of the retaliatory assault and the staggering toll it has taken on civilians have soured the international mood against Israel. Over time, the Biden administration has grown increasingly impatient and has slowed some weapons deliveries. Britain said earlier this month it was suspending some arms exports to Israel over the risk that their use could violate international law.

The request by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for an arrest warrant against Netanyahu will also loom large over the visit and could cast a leader who views himself as an international statesman as a global pariah instead. Liel guessed that very few heads of state will agree to meet him on the sidelines of the assembly and that the visit could turn out to be a bust for Netanyahu.

“There is no doubt that he knows how to deliver a speech,” Liel said, adding: “I think the world buys his chatter less and less.”

See more of AP’s coverage of the U.N. General Assembly at https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations

People attend a pro-Israel really held outside the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations building, Tuesday Sept. 24, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

People gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Israeli soldiers take up position next to destroyed buildings following Israeli strikes during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli soldiers drive next to destroyed buildings following Israeli strikes during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

People protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah launched a missile at Tel Aviv early Wednesday in its deepest strike yet into Israel, marking a further escalation after Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed hundreds of people.

The Israeli military said it intercepted the surface-to-surface missile, which set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and across central Israel, and there were no reports of casualties or damage. The military said it struck the site in southern Lebanon from which the missile was launched.

Hezbollah said it fired a Qader 1 ballistic missile targeting the headquarters of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, which it blames for a recent string of targeted killings of its top commanders and for an attack last week in which explosives hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies killed dozens of people and wounded thousands, including many Hezbollah members.

The Israeli military said it was the first time a projectile fired from Lebanon had reached central Israel. Hezbollah claimed to have targeted an intelligence base near Tel Aviv last month in an aerial attack, but there was no confirmation. The Palestinian Hamas militant group in Gaza repeatedly targeted Tel Aviv in the opening months of the war.

The launch ratcheted up tensions as the region appears to be teetering toward another all-out war, even as Israel continues to battle Hamas in the Gaza Strip. A wave of Israeli strikes on Monday and Tuesday killed at least 560 people in Lebanon and forced thousands to seek refuge.

Families have fled southern Lebanon, flocking to Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon, sleeping in schools turned into shelters, as well as in cars, parks and along the beach. Some sought to leave the country, causing a traffic jam at the border with Syria.

Israel said late Tuesday that fighter jets carried out “extensive strikes” on Hezbollah weapons and rocket launchers across southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa region to the north. The military has said it has no immediate plans for a ground invasion but has declined to give a timetable for the air campaign.

Tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group have steadily escalated over the last 11 months. Hezbollah has been firing rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and its ally Hamas, a fellow Iran-backed militant group.

Israel has responded with increasingly heavy airstrikes and the targeted killing of Hezbollah commanders while threatening a wider operation.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Lebanon for Wednesday at the request of France.

Nearly a year of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel had already displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border before this week’s escalation. Israel has vowed to do whatever it takes to ensure its citizens can return to their homes in the north, while Hezbollah has said it will keep up its rocket attacks until there is a cease-fire in Gaza, something which appears increasingly remote.

The rocket fire over the past week has disrupted life for over 1 million people across northern Israel, with schools closed and restrictions on public gatherings. Many restaurants and other businesses are shut in the coastal city of Haifa, and there are fewer people on the streets. Some who fled south from communities near the border are coming under rocket fire again.

Israel has moved thousands of troops who had been serving in Gaza to the northern border. It says Hezbollah has some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including some capable of striking anywhere in Israel, and that the group has fired some 9,000 rockets and drones since last October.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said the missile fired Wednesday had a “heavy warhead” but declined to elaborate or confirm it was the type described by Hezbollah. He dismissed Hezbollah's claim of targeting the Mossad headquarters, located just north of Tel Aviv, as “psychological warfare.”

The Iranian-made Qader is a medium-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile with multiple types and payloads. It can carry an explosive payload of up to 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds), according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Iranian officials have described the liquid-fueled missile as having a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles).

Cross-border weapons firing began ramping up on Sunday in the wake of the pager and walkie-talkie bombings, which killed 39 people and wounded nearly 3,000, many of them civilians. Lebanon blamed Israel, but Israel did not confirm or deny responsibility.

On Sunday, Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel.

The next day, Israel said its warplanes struck 1,600 Hezbollah targets, destroying cruise missiles, long- and short-range rockets and attack drones, including weapons concealed in private homes. The strikes racked up the highest one-day death toll in Lebanon since Israel and Hezbollah fought a bruising monthlong war in 2006.

An Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Tuesday killed Ibrahim Kobeisi, whom Israel described as a top Hezbollah commander with the group’s rocket and missile unit. Military officials said Kobeisi was responsible for launches toward Israel and planned a 2000 attack in which three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and killed. Hezbollah later confirmed his death.

It was the latest in a string of assassinations and other setbacks for Hezbollah, which is Lebanon's strongest political and military actor and is widely considered the top paramilitary force in the Arab world.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said six people were killed and 15 were wounded in the strike in a southern Beirut suburb, an area where Hezbollah has a strong presence. The country’s National News Agency said the attack destroyed three floors of a six-story apartment building.

The U.N.’s High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon said one of its staffers and her young son were among those killed Monday in the Bekaa region, while a cleaner under contract was killed in a strike in the south.

Hezbollah fired 300 rockets on Tuesday, injuring six Israeli soldiers and civilians, most of them lightly, according to the Israeli military.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 564 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since Monday, including 50 children and 94 women, and that more than 1,800 have been wounded, a staggering toll for a country still reeling from the deadly pager and walkie-talkie bombings last week.

Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-wa r

Israelis stay in a residential building bomb shelter to stay safe from rockets fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Haim, northern Israel, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israelis rest in a residential building bomb shelter to stay safe from rockets fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Haim, northern Israel, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israelis rest in a residential building bomb shelter to stay safe from rockets fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Haim, northern Israel, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israelis sit next to a public bomb shelter to stay safe from rockets fired from Lebanon, in Haifa, northern Israel, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

A Turkish Air Force airplane brings medical aid boxes at Beirut International airport, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Workers unload Turkish medical aid boxes arriving at Beirut International airport, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A Turkish Air Force personnel unloads medical aid boxes at Beirut airport, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A Lebanese police intelligence stands near a crater at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

People gather near a damaged car at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

People gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

People gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

People gather near the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Residents cry as they walk past a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

An Israeli surveillance aircraft seen from Hadera flies over the Mediterranean sea towards northern Israel, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Residents check the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A forklift removes a damaged car as Lebanese army and emergency workers gather at the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A wounded man reacts at the scene of the building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man uses his mobile phone to document a damaged car at the scene of the building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Journalists gather at the scene of a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Residents and rescuers check a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A forklift removes a damaged car as Lebanese army and emergency workers gather at the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Residents check a partially destroyed building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises behind a destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike on Khiam village, as seen from Marjayoun town, south Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A destroyed house by an Israeli airstrike on Khiam village, as seen from Marjayoun town, south Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)