New York City was unmistakably on alert.
The signs were everywhere: NYPD officers at every turn, hundreds of armed Secret Service agents accompanied by sniffer dogs, and the persistent wail of sirens as motorcades swept through the streets.
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But the most conspicuous displays were not security-related. Trucks and billboards carrying striking political messages had appeared across the city.
“Iranian delegates, thinking of a shopping spree?” one asked.
A billboard paid for by the State of Israel
It was one of the ways Israel sought to command attention during the week, deploying hundreds of billboards and digital trucks bearing messages about Iran’s nuclear programme and the US-Israel alliance.
Israel’s role in US strikes on Iran, its military campaign in Gaza and its actions in the Occupied West Bank featured prominently in discussions at the United Nations.
As international criticism intensified, Israel was determined to make its case.
Those same concerns were reflected in the Taoiseach’s address to the United Nations General Assembly last night.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres opened High-Level Week on Tuesday with a warning that violence, displacement and the expansion of settlements were fuelling fears of ethnic cleansing in the Occupied West Bank.
The Taoiseach took up that argument directly, pointing to settler violence, the forced displacement of Palestinians and the damage being done to the prospects of a two-state solution.
“Violent settlers continue to act with near-total impunity, while Palestinian communities face a sustained campaign of displacement and destruction – amounting to ethnic cleansing,” he said.
His assessment of the Gaza peace plan echoed remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron, who called the “so-called peace in Gaza” “a spectacle that shames us all”.
‘The world has failed Palestine’ – Micheál Martin
In his farewell address to the UN, the French President also challenged US President Donald Trump’s assertion that peace had been achieved in Gaza. He noted that not a single humanitarian corridor had reopened in the enclave despite the declaration of peace.
Those interventions on the international stage prompted a forceful response from the Israeli Prime Minister during his address yesterday.
“Here’s the simple truth. Israel didn’t commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide,” Mr Netanyahu said, describing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as “the most moral army in the world”.
His speech was intended to defend Israel’s conduct, answer its critics abroad and present a country that, despite mounting pressure, remained resilient and able to protect itself.
“They’ve chosen weakness. They’ve chosen appeasement,” he said of European democratic leaders, whose condemnations of Israel’s actions have grown increasingly direct.
The Irish delegation did not join the mass walkout during the Israeli Prime Minister’s speech — Spain was the only EU country to do so — but the Taoiseach stood alongside a number of countries in voicing grave concern about the conditions facing Palestinians.
When he warned that the full horrors of Gaza “are finally and fully revealed, it will shame the world”, the chamber erupted in applause.
Delegates from the state of Palestine clapped and appeared visibly moved. The Israeli delegation remained expressionless.
Micheál Martin said that the Gaza peace plan has not “changed the reality on the ground”
The Taoiseach also told the assembly that the international community has “failed Palestine”. He criticised last year’s Gaza peace plan, arguing that it had not “changed the reality on the ground”.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had made a similar argument earlier in the day. Speaking by video after the US refused to grant him a visa, he said the promises that had been made had failed to become reality.
That criticism carries particular weight as the US President’s Board of Peace has announced a $2.45 billion (€2.15bn) recovery package for Gaza, covering 66 programmes during the next six months.
Yet the announcement also underscored how formidable the task will be.
The board says $18bn has been pledged, but just $280 million has been delivered so far. The projected cost of rebuilding Gaza in full is more than $70bn.
In his address, the Taoiseach brought together many of the issues that have shaped debate at the General Assembly this week: Gaza, the West Bank, the Two-State Solution, Ukraine, Sudan, human rights and the future of the international order.
There was also a notably Irish presence behind him as he spoke.
By coincidence, the two UN officials seated behind the Taoiseach were Vice President of the General Assembly Martin Fraser, the former Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach, and Emer Herity, Chief of the Economic and Social Council Affairs Branch in the General Assembly.
The question now is whether the appeals and declarations delivered inside the UN this week by presidents, prime ministers and senior officials will lead to meaningful change beyond its walls.
Read more:Taoiseach says world has ‘failed Palestine’ in UN addressDozens of envoys at UN walk out of Netanyahu speech
