Netanyahu's advice: Just tell the truth

One day after addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an appearance before 200 American Jewish leaders at a New York hotel.

"What can I tell my friends on campus in order to send Israel's message loud and clear-" one young student asked the premier.

"Just tell them the truth," Netanyahu replied. Moments later, the prime minister did just that in his remarks to his hosts.

"Whenever I come to the U.N., my objective is to present the truth as it is," he said.

Every September, Netanyahu insists on speaking before the assembly so that he can relay Israel's truth.

"Even one small light is capable of expelling great darkness," the premier says after his speeches.

The speech that he delivered this week was directed at four different audiences: world leaders, the American public, leaders of moderate Arab governments, and Israeli citizens. His messages were clear and unequivocal -- Iran is more dangerous than the Islamic State group, and the changes in the Middle East have created a commonality of interests between Israel and the moderate Muslim states who are also threatened by the specter of extremism, namely Iran and its terrorist arms, Hezbollah and Hamas.

There was another message Netanyahu wanted to get across: While the State of Israel wants peace, it does not seem that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is interested at the moment. The solution is not in Ramallah, but in the capitals of moderate Islam, like Riyadh and Cairo. In tandem with Israel, these governments can reach agreement on an arrangement that would put in place an international system of inspections and safety mechanisms that would ensure Israel's security needs, allow Israel to maintain control of its borders, and purge all the territories of a future Palestinian state from weapons that could threaten Israel.

Fox News and CNN were among the American networks that aired Netanyahu's speech live. The American people heard the prime minister assert that Israel has no intention of asking anyone for favors. We and the West are vulnerable to the same threats, thus the difficult war that we are waging in the Middle East is the West's war as well. We are a bastion of Western values that happens to be situated on the frontlines of this war. There is a new Middle East. There are threats, and there are opportunities, the prime minister said. The primary threat is Iran on the nuclear threshold.

This week, Netanyahu quoted a passage from a book written by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif.

"'We have a fundamental problem with the West, and especially with America. This is because we are heirs to a global mission, which is tied to our raison d'etre ... a global mission which is tied to our very reason of being,'" Netanyahu quoted Zarif as saying.

"And then Zarif asks a question, I think an interesting one. He says: How come Malaysia [which is overwhelmingly Muslim] -- how come Malaysia doesn't have similar problems? And he answers: Because Malaysia is not trying to change the international order.

"That's your moderate. So don't be fooled by Iran's manipulative charm offensive. It's designed for one purpose, and for one purpose only: To lift the sanctions and remove the obstacles to Iran's path to the bomb."

In his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Netanyahu said, in a clear and direct manner, that "our common goal is to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons."

"Iran is looking for an agreement that will remove the tough sanctions that you worked so hard to achieve, and which will allow it to remain a nuclear threshold state," the premier told Obama. "I hope that this will not happen under your leadership."

Obama's blitz

Netanyahu's remarks came as Obama was ordering military strikes on Islamic State while negotiating with Iran. The prime minister's statements could be perceived as undermining the president, which is why Netanyahu was cautious this time. He praised Obama for leading a global coalition against the militant group, though he made it clear that not only can there be no let-up on Iran, but under no circumstances should Tehran be welcomed into the coalition against Islamic State.

Obama, who up until a short time ago sought to free the U.S. from its role as the world's policeman, has significantly slipped in the public opinion polls. Finally, he came to his senses. Now he is waging his own public relations blitz. During appearances this week on American television he was heard sounding completely different messages, as if he was reading from another script altogether.

"When trouble comes up anywhere in the world,” Obama told CBS's 60 Minutes, "they don’t call Beijing, they don’t call Moscow -- they call us. That's the deal."

The president is facing some critical problems. His government is leading an international coalition against Islamic State, trying to cope with Russian aggression in Ukraine, and also trying to contain the Ebola outbreak in west Africa. The Palestinian issue does not feature prominently, but Obama isn't ignoring it. He told Netanyahu this week that the status quo in the West Bank and Gaza cannot persist, though he stopped short of offering his own solutions.

Abbas gave his "genocide speech" at the U.N. this week, accusing Israel of waging a campaign of extermination against the Palestinians during Operation Protective Edge. At the podium, Netanyahu responded by reminding the world that it was Abbas who "proved" in his doctoral thesis that 6 million Jews were not murdered during the Holocaust, but rather "only 600,000." Real genocide was perpetrated by the Nazis, Netanyahu said. Murderous war crimes against civilians -- both Israeli and Palestinian -- are being committed by Abbas' partners, Hamas.

The prime minister properly exposed for all the world to see Abbas' set of values and his distorted perception of reality. According to Netanyahu, Abbas is the serial rejector of peace, while Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said that he is a man who is "irrelevant and has lost all touch with reality."

Abbas' threats to suspend all security cooperation with Israel and his threat to gain Security Council approval for a timetable mandating Israel's withdrawal from Judea and Samaria only confirm the extent to which he is on a collision course with Netanyahu. The prime minister was careful, but this week he said that Abbas is approaching the point at which he will be declared "a non-partner."

Entrance fee

The meeting held this week between Netanyahu and Obama was preceded by a pleasant photo-op in the Oval Office. The prime minister thanked Obama for his assistance during the fighting in Gaza, which entailed supplementary budgets for the Iron Dome system as well as replenishing dwindling supplies for the IDF.

Netanyahu has no interest in butting heads with Obama, particularly at a juncture in which Israel seeks to ensure an American veto that would thwart Abbas' unilateral steps at the U.N. The prime minister's public gratitude was his "entrance fee to the Oval Office."

Just to tie up loose ends, Netanyahu repeated his commitment to peace based on the principle of two states for two peoples which would be anchored in mutual recognition and ironclad security arrangements. It seems that despite the back-and-forth over construction in Jerusalem, the American president also does not appear to have an appetite for a confrontation, not with elections for Congress just around the corner.