On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the notorious and antisemitic Durban Conference – where Zionism was equated with racism – a number of Israel’s opponents and antisemitic forces have once again mobilised in an attempt to delegitimise the Jewish people’s right to their historic homeland.
During the 81st session of the UN General Assembly (New York, 22–26 and 28 September 2026), ahead of the commemoration planned for 28 September 2026, speeches were delivered by various Islamist actors and representatives of terrorist regimes. Under the auspices of the UN, they allowed themselves to promote their own terrorist activities represented as peace, while Israel’s legitimate defensive war against this terrorism is branded a crime. It was against this chorus of unanimity that Benjamin Netanyahu stepped forward to defend the Jewish people’s right to land and life.
Jews in America, Europe and Australia have experienced a wave of antisemitism, terrorism and violence without parallel in modern times, and the October massacre has left deep scars on the global Jewish community, which formed the emotional and political backdrop to the speech.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday evening, 24 September, emphasised the extensive institutional hypocrisy of Western leaders and their Islamist allies. Netanyahu’s message was unequivocal regarding the Islamists’ objective of the total extermination of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. By emphasising the Jews’ historical and customary-law connection to their homeland – including the Golan, Judea and Samaria as integral parts of the land of the Jews – he made clear the dividing lines between the actual aggressor and the victim.
As an exponent of the values of freedom in confrontation with Islamist extremism, Netanyahu addressed the international community with a warning against a political course with potentially fatal consequences. He expressed solidarity with, among others, the civilian population of Gaza, persecuted Christians in Iran and throughout the Middle East, and the Iranian people, who for nearly fifty years have been subjected to an oppressive terrorist regime. Through this appearance, Netanyahu consolidated his position as a global leader. His exceptional intellectual capacity, extensive insight and strategic leadership qualities – combined with a marked ability to rise above external opinion in favour of overriding objectives – constitute a distinctive profile in modern political leadership.
The left’s moral inconsistency
In his speech, Netanyahu systematically unmasked the alliance between Islamist forces and Western actors who choose to ignore the growing antisemitism in their own societies and internal conflicts in their own countries caused by the same forces that they themselves indirectly support. Zohran Mamdani, together with Western leaders such as Emmanuel Macron, was exposed in all his ideological nakedness. On the one hand stands a mayor who spreads antisemitism and fear in New York; on the other stands Macron, who for inexplicable reasons may appear to believe that France’s social stability can be secured by adopting the Islamists’ narratives about Israel.
The rhetoric from the left in the struggle against Israel and Netanyahu increasingly resembles historical processes of persecution, designed to obscure the actual political objectives. This raises the question of whether the left understands the destructive consequences of its own policies. Do they really believe that the demons they unleash will voluntarily allow themselves to be controlled on the day that Israel is successfully undermined?
Between naivety and ideological blindness
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s conduct during the UN meeting in New York is remarkable, to put it mildly. His blind support for a dying organisation characterised by corruption and antisemitism, his striking admiration for radical actors such as Mamdani, and his attempt to form an anti-American bloc together with Canada and the EU, give every reason for deep concern.
At the same time as Netanyahu was speaking at the UN, Norway – through Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide (declared persona non grata in Israel and who has simultaneously been met with explicit rejection as unwelcome in leading circles in the United States) – chose to announce increased allocations to a state entity he refers to as “Palestine”. The strong popular reactions on social media testify that Barth Eide’s policy lacks democratic grounding; the debate was so intense that comment sections had to be closed to deal with the criticism.
The Foreign Minister’s assertions during the announcement thus appear disconnected from the actual circumstances:
“Norway is increasing its support for Palestine by NOK 125 million. In 2026, Norway is providing around NOK 1 billion in aid to Palestine. Norway is among the strongest advocates for getting early reconstruction in Gaza under way. The work is proceeding too slowly. There is an urgent need to implement the 20-point plan for peace, which the UN Security Council adopted last year. More humanitarian aid must be brought in. Reconstruction must get under way. Palestinian ownership is an important prerequisite, says Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.”
Experience indicates that these funds do not benefit the civilian population of Gaza. The real billionaires are the leaders of the PLO and Hamas, who live in luxury behind walls in countries such as Qatar or under the protection of President Erdoğan in Turkey. As Netanyahu explained, the problem is not a lack of humanitarian aid, but that Hamas confiscates it and sells it at black-market prices to the war-stricken population.
When Barth Eide nevertheless accuses Netanyahu of lacking empathy for anyone other than his own people, it suggests an acute lack of arguments:
“The speech gave no indication that he acknowledged the suffering of anyone other than Israel’s own. Netanyahu’s statements about settler violence in the West Bank and the protection of civilians in Gaza are wrong.”
Moral collapse and demonstrations in Norway
We see a clear thread running from the international campaign against Israel to Norway’s political climate, which in turn spills over into the streets in the form of aggressive demonstrations and growing insecurity for Norwegian Jews.
On the anniversary of the 7 October massacre, a demonstration in support of Hamas is being organised in Oslo. The demonstration is promoted with images of Hamas fighters waving flags on a destroyed Israeli tank – an image from the day when terrorists murdered 1,200 civilians, took 251 hostages (including an infant who was murdered together with his mother in captivity) and carried out bestial acts such as rape and beheading. These acts were documented by the terrorists themselves, several of whom have subsequently been identified as employees of the partly Norwegian-funded UNRWA.
It is this barbarity that radical left-wing forces and their Islamist allies are planning to commemorate. Oslo Rød Ungdom is among the participating organisations, and leader Alexandra Fredwall has stated to Klassekampen that “we in Norway” cannot interfere in “how they conduct their resistance struggle”. Such a total lack of willingness to distance oneself from violence against civilians cannot be interpreted as anything other than direct support for bestial terrorism.
When demonstrations are held on symbolic dates with visual expressions that glorify violence, it is a symptom of a larger blind spot. There is no hesitation in erasing the distinction between the suffering of the civilian population in Gaza and the atrocities unleashed by Hamas on 7 October. Nor do they ever demonstrate against regimes in countries such as Qatar, Iran, Sudan, Afghanistan or Pakistan, China, Turkey and others, where obvious and systematic violations of human rights are taking place. The same pattern is playing out internationally: From the UN rostrum, we see one representative after another of Islamist and authoritarian regimes attack Israel, while their own bestial acts are passed over in complete silence.
The result is deeply tragic: Increasing numbers of Norwegian Jews, like other European Jews, experience everyday life as so unsafe that they conceal their identity or consider moving to Israel. Surveys by the HL-senteret confirm this disturbing development, but the underlying causes are rarely taken seriously.
It was precisely this reality that Benjamin Netanyahu confronted in his UN speech, in which he accused both Western and Islamist actors of claiming the moral high ground while in reality tolerating violence – or unleashing it themselves.
