But many of the attending delegates weren’t around to hear Netanyahu as they quickly exited the meeting at the start of and during Netanyahu’s speech.
The walkout included diplomats from Arab nations all around Israel — Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey — and totaled 77 countries in all, according to Israeli counts.
The Saudi Arabia reaction is somewhat surprising since it has been discussing normalization of relations with Israel.
There were also notable non-Middle Eastern participants in the protest, including Spain, Brazil, Colombia and South Africa.
Netanyahu didn’t hold back.
“To all those spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the anti-Semitic mayor of New York, I say this. Shame on you. Shame on you for distorting the facts. Shame on you for inverting victim and aggressor. Shame on you for spitting in the face of truth,” he said.
Netanyahu opponents in his reelection bid — Israel votes on Oct. 27 — were widely critical of the speech, United Arab Emirates-based The National reported.
But Bachmann, in an appearance on “Washington Watch” Friday told show host Tony Perkins Netanyahu was impressive in telling the U.N. attendees, whether they hung around or not, exactly what they needed to hear.
“The prime minister was a boss throughout the entire speech. It was a tour de force, very well presented. He dismantled all of the lies and the false arguments that have made been made against Israel,” she said.
In separate comments to AFN, Bachmann blasted the U.N.
“The U.N. is a waste. There's no question it's a waste ... I was actually hoping President (Donald) Trump would just pull us out of the U.N. and if possible, kick them out of the United States and turn that whole area where the U.N. is into a park and leave it that way.”
The United Nations was founded in 1945 as European nations sought to strengthen security efforts in the aftermath of World War II.
There are 193 current members, 57 of them Muslim nations.
The group’s stated purpose is to maintain international peace and security, develop relationships among nations, promote international cooperation and provide a forum where countries could coordinate their actions toward those goals.
U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill had discussed the idea in the Atlantic Charter in 1941. Roosevelt began using "United Nations" as the name for the Allied coalition.
Missing its mandate
It’s a failed organization, Bachmann says
“They have never fulfilled their mandate in 1945 when they began after World War II. They have never. It's a bunch of frauds and a bunch of crooks and a bunch of thieves. That's the U.N.”
Bachmann identified three lies she said Netanyahu refuted in his speech.
“The No. 1 lie is that Israel has committed genocide” in Gaza in its response to Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023 that resulted in more than 1,200 deaths in Israel, she said.
“He took that apart. The other lie is that the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, have committed wanton acts of terror against innocent people. Complete, utter lie,” Bachmann said.
The third lie put forward is that Israel doesn’t have a right to its land, she said.
“He stood up for his nation. He stood up for their handling of the war with Hamas, and he stood up for the IDF,” Bachmann said. “As much as the lie is that Israel has committed genocide is the lie that this is not Israel’s land.”
