Netanyahu's speech vs UN fantasy

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sure knows how to deliver a speech. Even his most vocal critics would concede as much. Netanyahu has perfect English; he knows how to match his rhetoric with his body language; his sentences are not too long and not too short.

But even Netanyahu's brilliant U.N. addresses could not prevent the bad nuclear deal with Iran from taking shape. Perhaps that is why Netanyahu decided that when he appeared before the U.N. General Assembly this year it would be best to follow the age-old adage: Silence is golden. That is why he stayed silent for 44 full seconds at a certain point in his speech. If it weren't for the great danger emanating from the Iran nuclear deal, Netanyahu may have even been content with a 44-second speech, but his deafening silence, which echoed loudly at the General Assembly Thursday, needed to be punctuated by words.

Some were quick to lash out at what he actually said. They described the speech as devoid of hope, saying it was defined by despair. I am talking specifically about Opposition Leader MK Isaac Herzog. Less than an hour after Herzog voiced his disapproval, terrorists murdered a young couple driving in Samaria as their four children watched in horror from the back seat. Anyone who lives in Israel knows the reality we face. Netanyahu's task at the U.N. was to make the world understand our reality, even if the world doesn't want to hear about it. He was not there to sell fantasies, which the world loves so much.

Netanyahu, who could have torn apart Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' deceitful speech from the previous evening, chose instead to present the world with Israel's peaceful aspirations. Netanyahu decided that despite the turbulence in the region, he would let the speech carry a glimmer of hope, but the terrorists in Samaria had other plans. They were already looking for an easy Jewish target when he walked to the podium. Perhaps they perpetrated this attack to celebrate the fact that the Palestinian flag was hoisted this week at the U.N. headquarters

The Middle East is becoming increasingly dangerous and Israel's security challenges are growing by the day. It cannot just stand idly by as the threats materialize, especially the Iranian threat. Israel is sick an tired of the world being indifferent to its plight. Netanyahu wanted to focus on this message. Did Netanyahu succeed in driving this home? It is hard to tell. But did he convey it masterfully? Yes, he could not have been more on point.

Netanyahu knows which way the wind is blowing. Now that the nuclear deal is complete, he expects the international community to monitor Iran's every move and every action against Israel. He also expects the world to crack down on Iranian terrorism. Netanyahu knows that U.S. President Barack Obama is a powerful figure, but he has disappointed Netanyahu -- and the Israeli prime minister has made it abundantly clear by attacking the nuclear deal. Nevertheless, Netanyahu would like to see Obama become the control tower overseeing the nuclear deal. It is the least Obama can do.

Of course we would have preferred to have Netanyahu deliver a different speech. We would have all loved to see a different nuclear deal with Iran and a less hypocritical world. It would have been better had there not been a deadly terrorist attack on Thursday. "People do not believe lies because they have to, but because they want to," the late British journalist and author Malcolm Muggeridge famously said. This is exactly what the world is doing right now regrading Iran and Abbas. This is precisely why Netanyahu stayed silent for 44 seconds.

טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו