After PM's silence at UN, US Jewish groups offer faint praise
- 9 years ago
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the United Nations Thursday afternoon was marked by a dramatic pause representing the international body’s silence in the face of Iranian threats against Israel.
But if Netanyahu’s silence was the highlight of the day, a second moment of relative quiet was equally remarkable, with many US-based groups offering muted responses to the speech.
The endorsements he did receive this year focused on the contrast between Netanyahu’s overtures toward negotiations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Abbas’s own combative speech one day earlier, rather than on his discourse as to the dangers of a nuclear Iran.
Following last year’s speech to the international body, at which Netanyahu railed against the threat of a nuclear Iran while diplomats attempted to hammer out an agreement, a number of major US Jewish groups quickly released statements showering praise on the prime minister’s rhetoric.
A few Jewish groups offered equally enthusiastic endorsements of Netanyahu’s 2015 speech.
But if Netanyahu’s silence was the highlight of the day, a second moment of relative quiet was equally remarkable, with many US-based groups offering muted responses to the speech.
The endorsements he did receive this year focused on the contrast between Netanyahu’s overtures toward negotiations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Abbas’s own combative speech one day earlier, rather than on his discourse as to the dangers of a nuclear Iran.
Following last year’s speech to the international body, at which Netanyahu railed against the threat of a nuclear Iran while diplomats attempted to hammer out an agreement, a number of major US Jewish groups quickly released statements showering praise on the prime minister’s rhetoric.
A few Jewish groups offered equally enthusiastic endorsements of Netanyahu’s 2015 speech.