Bennett’s ’empty’ UN speech denounced by Likud, criticized by left-wing partners

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s UN speech Monday was slammed by both right and left-wing opposition parties, and also faced some criticism from coalition partner Meretz.

Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, the largest opposition party, lambasted Bennett’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly, dismissing the premier as irrelevant and his words as empty.

“Bennett gave an empty speech in front of an empty hall and wasted empty words instead of making use of an important international stage,” Likud said in a lengthy statement that expressed strong disapproval with all parts of Bennett’s address.

The party charged that the government is failing to take action to curb the current COVID-19 outbreak “and he presented that as leadership. What a joke.”

Likud also panned Bennett for touting the current government he heads as a model of unity: “Since when does an Israeli prime minister raise internal political matters to the top of the agenda at an international forum?”

It called the premier’s words on Iran “empty” as well, since he “promised not to wage a global struggle against the nuclear agreement and subjugated our operational activity to prior coordination with the Americans.”

Related: Full text of Bennett’s UN speech: Iran’s nuclear program at a ‘watershed moment’

“Bennett showed today how the world views an inexperienced Israeli politician who only has six Knesset seats — like a tree that falls in the woods that nobody saw, nobody heard and nobody cares about,” the Likud statement said.

אם זה נראה כמו פוליטיקאי עם 6 מנדטים ונשמע כמו פוליטיקאי עם 6 מנדטים – זה פוליטיקאי עם 6 מנדטים. pic.twitter.com/m80rwDtqdm

— הליכוד (@Likud_Party) September 27, 2021

In a separate tweet, Likud wrote: “If it looks like a politician with six Knesset seats, and sounds like a politician with six Knesset seats — it’s a politician with six Knesset seats,” alongside an image of an apparently relatively vacant General Assembly hall.

Mocking Bennett’s concluding words, Netanyahu tweeted “A bit of light dispels much darkness,” with a picture of him speaking at the UN when serving as premier.

מעט מן האור דוחה הרבה מהחושך. חג שמח לכולכם! pic.twitter.com/8K6YJx8cEW

— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) September 27, 2021

MK Aida Touma-Sliman of the Arab-majority Joint List party attacked the speech after Bennett didn’t mention the Palestinians at all, claiming it shows that the current government is continuing Netanyahu’s approach.

“Concealing the occupation and the existence of the Palestinian people, claims of Israel’s moral superiority, and warmongering on Iran. Those are the principles guiding Netanyahu’s right-wing government, and they are guiding Bennett’s government,” she said in a statement.

“Only a change of direction from the path of the right will bring peace and security to both nations,” Touma-Sliman added.

Mewanwhile, the left-wing Meretz party, a member of the current government, criticized the lack of focus on the Palestinians in Bennett’s speech.

“We in Meretz are actually very interested in the Palestinians,” the party said in a statement.

“We will continue to work both within and outside the government to push for a two-state solution and restore ties with the Palestinian Authority. Ignoring the Palestinians means continuing the creeping annexation and rushing into a binational state,” Meretz added.

Israel’s current government, headed by Bennett, is made up of an array of parties from across the political spectrum. “About 100 days ago, my partners and I formed a new government in Israel. What started as a political accident, can now turn into a purpose. And that purpose is unity,” he said in the speech on Monday.