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An unusual public dispute erupted Thursday between the IDF and Israel Police over what security forces discovered beneath Qalqilya, with the military directly rejecting the police’s announcement a day earlier that a tunnel under excavation had been uncovered in the Palestinian city.

The controversy began after police announced Wednesday that forces operating in Qalqilya had discovered “a tunnel whose excavation had not yet been completed” that had already reached a depth of at least 25 meters. Police also reported finding what they described as the beginning of another tunnel excavation.

The announcement prompted widespread reports that security forces had uncovered underground tunnel infrastructure in Qalqilya.

On Thursday, however, the IDF issued a sharply different account, saying that an examination of the site determined that no tunnel route existed.

According to the IDF, troops operating overnight together with Border Police forces from the Yehuda and Shomron district, under the command of the Ephraim Brigade, discovered two shafts approximately 12 meters deep.

“Contrary to the official and irresponsible statements issued on the matter, following an examination of the shafts, the existence of a tunnel route in the shafts was ruled out, and the proximity of the shaft to the seam-line area was also ruled out,” the IDF said.

The wording represented an unusually open rebuke between two Israeli security bodies that had participated in the same operation. Although the IDF did not explicitly identify Israel Police as the target of its criticism, its statement came directly after the police’s official announcement regarding the alleged tunnel.

Police had stated Wednesday that “a tunnel and weapons were located beneath the ground in Qalqilya.”

The police announcement further said that “a tunnel whose excavation had not yet been completed was located, and already at this stage its depth is at least 25 meters,” adding that forces had also uncovered “the beginning of the excavation of an additional tunnel.”

The IDF now says the findings were substantially different. According to the military, the two underground shafts were approximately 12 meters deep, and an investigation of the shafts ruled out the possibility that they formed part of a tunnel system. The military also emphasized that the shafts were not close to the seam-line area separating Yehuda and Shomron from pre-1967 Israel.

Despite the dispute over the underground structures, weapons were indeed discovered during the operation.

Security forces found an M16 rifle, a hunting rifle, a handgun and ammunition near the shafts. The weapons were confiscated.

Four suspects accused of involvement in terrorist activity were also arrested during the operation and transferred to security forces for questioning.

Israel’s High Court of Justice on Thursday cleared the way for NIS 286 million in previously frozen Education Ministry funding to be released, ending a weeks-long legal battle over budget transfers approved by the Knesset Finance Committee. The funds include money for chareidi education, including increased salaries for kindergarten teachers, student transportation, after-school programs and teacher training.

The decision came after the petitioners withdrew their challenge following a recommendation from the High Court, allowing the interim order that had blocked the transfers to be lifted.

The funding is significant for a broad range of chareidi educational institutions and programs. Among the allocations are additional funding for chareidi kindergarten teachers, transportation for students in the Chinuch Atzmai and Bnei Yosef school systems, subsidies for afternoon programs at exempt and recognized-but-unofficial schools, and funding for teacher training in seminaries.

Additional money included in the transfers is earmarked for Jewish cultural programming and initiatives serving struggling and at-risk youth.

The latest development follows months of legal disputes over government funding for chareidi education and the procedures used by the Knesset Finance Committee and Finance Ministry to approve and transfer the money.

Earlier this year, the High Court sharply criticized a separate transfer of hundreds of millions of shekels after it emerged that substantial sums had already been transferred before the Finance Committee formally approved them. In March, the court ordered the Finance Committee to reconsider that earlier decision.

That episode also sparked a dispute between Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik and the Finance Ministry over the practice of transferring government funds before receiving the committee’s formal authorization. Afik described the practice as serious and sought information from the Finance Ministry regarding similar cases in previous years.

The money involved in the latest case was approved by the Finance Committee on August 4 in two separate transfers to the Education Ministry. The larger transfer totaled NIS 270 million, while a second transfer totaled NIS 16 million, bringing the combined amount to NIS 286 million.

The approvals came during the Knesset election recess and were challenged in a petition filed by MK Naama Lazimi and the Hiddush organization. The petitioners argued that the Finance Committee had been improperly convened and that the resulting transfers should therefore be invalidated.

The High Court subsequently issued an interim order freezing NIS 409 million in transfers approved during the disputed Finance Committee session. Of that amount, NIS 286 million was designated for the Education Ministry and NIS 123 million for the National Missions Ministry.

The court had already begun easing portions of the freeze before Thursday’s decision. In August, it released NIS 78 million earmarked for the Religious Services Ministry while leaving the other disputed transfers blocked.

Among the most closely watched portions of the Education Ministry funding is money connected to salaries for chareidi kindergarten teachers, following an extended dispute over salary increases and implementation of the Ofek Chadash wage framework in chareidi kindergartens.

With Thursday’s decision, the legal barrier preventing the Education Ministry transfers from moving forward has now been removed, allowing the government to proceed with funding the affected institutions and programs.

Degel HaTorah chairman MK Moshe Gafni welcomed the development and thanked Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik and Finance Committee Legal Adviser Shlomit Erlich for the legal positions they presented during the dispute.

“We acted in accordance with the Knesset regulations and through a completely proper process. This petition was vexatious and unnecessary, and it was clear to us from the outset that this would be its fate,” Gafni said.

Gafni said the money represents essential funding for the chareidi education system and can now finally reach its intended recipients.

Mr. Moishe Indig, a Satmar political activist who broke with other Orthodox Jewish leaders to embrace jihadist socialist Zohran Mamdani during last year’s mayoral race, lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu on Thursday after the Israeli leader used his United Nations address to deliver a blistering attack on the New York City mayor.

In a social-media post following Netanyahu’s speech, Indig rejected Netanyahu’s assertion that many New York Jews have grown fearful under Mamdani and defended the mayor as an ally of his community.

“Mr. Netanyahu, you do not speak for New York’s Jewish community,” Indig wrote.

“Your government arrests hundreds of innocent yeshiva students each week, while we in New York practice our faith and live freely and safely.

“Mayor Zohran Mamdani is a friend and ally to our community.

“You are not.”

The post marked the latest chapter in Indig’s controversial relationship with the Muslim Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel who has accused the Jewish state of genocide in Gaza and previously pledged during his mayoral campaign to seek Netanyahu’s arrest if the prime minister came to New York.

Indig emerged as one of the terror supporter’s most prominent chassidishe supporters during the 2025 campaign, despite significant opposition to Mamdani within the Orthodox community and even within Indig’s own Satmar faction.

During Sukkos last year, Mamdani received a warm welcome at Indig’s sukkah in Williamsburg. At the gathering, another Satmar figure, speaking about Indig’s view of the candidate, said Indig had called Mamdani “a friend of the Jewish people” and believed he would make “the best mayor of New York City.”

The relationship continued into the final days of the campaign. On Nov. 2, Indig formally endorsed Mamdani, a decision that exposed a split within Satmar’s Ahronim faction. Other leaders of the same faction endorsed Andrew Cuomo and warned that the progressive political movement posed a threat to the ability of Orthodox Jews to maintain their way of life.

After Mamdani won the election, Indig attended his victory celebration and told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he felt “great” about the result, citing issues including affordable housing and the needs of large families.

Mamdani was subsequently welcomed at a major Satmar event marking Kuf Alef Kislev. Indig described the community as “honored” to host the mayor-elect, while a speaker at the event recalled that Mamdani had promised Indig before the election that he would be a friend of the community.

Indig has continued publicly praising Mamdani since he took office. Earlier this year, he applauded the mayor after Mamdani was filmed helping residents shovel out a vehicle following a snowstorm in Williamsburg, writing, “Not a photo op — a shovel.”

The alliance has drawn criticism in parts of the Orthodox community because of Mamdani’s positions on Israel and Zionism. In a post-election interview with Mishpacha, Indig defended his willingness to cultivate relationships with politicians whose views he strongly opposes, arguing that his role as an askan requires him to work with elected officials in the interests of his community.

Thursday’s clash came after Netanyahu singled out Mamdani during his UN General Assembly speech and accused him of contributing to a climate in which Jews in New York increasingly feel unsafe.

“Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York,” Netanyahu said. “They talk to me. They tell me: ‘This isn’t the city we remember. It changed so quickly.’”

Netanyahu then accused Mamdani of maintaining relationships with radical anti-Israel figures and repeatedly making what Netanyahu called false allegations of genocide against Israel.

“You praise criminals convicted of supporting Hamas. You count as friends people like Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11. Some friends you have,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu also accused Mamdani of trying to prevent him from coming to New York.

“Mr Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me; you can’t silence the truth.”

The prime minister later warned that rhetoric demonizing Israel has consequences for Jews outside Israel as well.

“The lies you and other antisemites spread about the Jews and the Jewish State have real consequences,” Netanyahu told Mamdani. “In New York, Jews are threatened on the way to synagogue. Jews have been stabbed in the streets. Jews are demonized, targeted simply for being Jews.”

It was that portrayal of Jewish life in New York that Indig directly challenged in his response.

His reference to the arrests of yeshiva students appeared to invoke the long-running confrontation in Israel over the military draft and the arrests of chareidi men accused of failing to comply with IDF conscription requirements. Indig’s Satmar community is fiercely anti-Zionist on theological grounds and rejects participation in the Israeli military.

Indig’s assertion that Mamdani is an ally of “our community” reflects his own relationship with the mayor and that of some Satmar leaders, rather than a consensus among New York Jews or even within Satmar. His endorsement of Mamdani itself divided the Ahronim leadership, and the heavily Satmar district associated with Indig ultimately voted for Cuomo rather than Mamdani in the 2025 election.

That divide has persisted into Mamdani’s administration. Indig attended the mayor’s interfaith breakfast earlier this year, while other Orthodox leaders have remained sharply critical of Mamdani’s anti-Zionism and positions on Israel.

Indig, however, made clear Thursday that the bitter confrontation between Netanyahu and Mamdani has not altered where he stands.

{Matzav.com}

[Video below.] Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu used the world stage at the United Nations on Thursday to deliver a blistering attack on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, accusing the mayor of spreading falsehoods about Israel, contributing to an atmosphere in which Jews feel increasingly unsafe in New York, and attempting to silence the Israeli leader during his visit to the city.

The extraordinary confrontation came during Netanyahu’s address to the UN General Assembly, where the Israeli prime minister devoted a significant portion of his speech to Mamdani, who has repeatedly accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, called Netanyahu a war criminal and previously campaigned on a pledge to have him arrested if he came to New York. Mamdani subsequently acknowledged that New York City does not have the legal authority to carry out such an arrest.

Netanyahu began the section while rejecting accusations that Israel committed genocide during its war against Hamas.

“To all those that are spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the antisemitic 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.”

Netanyahu then addressed Mamdani directly by name.

“Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. They talk to me. They tell me: ‘This isn’t the city we remember. It changed so quickly.’”

Netanyahu’s charge that Mamdani has made Jewish New Yorkers less safe was an accusation by the prime minister, not an independently established finding. Local coverage of the speech similarly reported that Netanyahu blamed Mamdani for worsening the climate confronting Jews in the city.

Netanyahu then laid out a series of allegations against Mamdani and people with whom the mayor has associated.

“It’s no wonder. You praise criminals convicted of supporting Hamas. You count as friends people like Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11. Some friends you have.”

Netanyahu continued:

“You invite into your home a Palestinian journalist who filmed Hamas terrorists beating and torturing Israeli hostages and later admitted that he refused to publish the videos in order to protect – you guessed it – the terrorists. Your wife liked a post praising the October 7th massacre. She liked another post saying Tel Aviv shouldn’t exist. You refused to condemn any of that. You falsely and repeatedly accuse Israel of genocide.”

Those were allegations made by Netanyahu in the course of his political attack on Mamdani; they should not be read as independently adjudicated findings about the mayor or his associates. Reuters, while reporting Netanyahu’s broad attack, specifically characterized his allegation that Mamdani supports Hamas as false.

Netanyahu then turned to Mamdani’s efforts to oppose his presence in New York.

“Mr Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me; you can’t silence the truth.”

The remarks capped several days of increasingly bitter exchanges between the two men.

Before Netanyahu arrived in New York, Mamdani again described the Israeli prime minister as a “war criminal” and “the architect of a horrific genocide against Palestinians.” Netanyahu rejects both the genocide accusation and the war-crimes allegations against him.

Netanyahu had responded even before leaving for the United States, releasing a video promising to confront Mamdani from the UN podium.

“Shame on you for inciting riots against New York Jews. I’m coming to the U.N. I’m going to tell the truth about our heroic soldiers, and I’m going to tell the truth about you,” Netanyahu said in that video.

Mamdani fired back at the time, saying Netanyahu’s accusations were untrue and repeating his own allegations against the Israeli leader.

“Well, we all know that what the prime minister said in that video is not true,” Mamdani said. “What we do know to actually be the truth when it comes to the prime minister is that he is the subject of an International Criminal Court warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. And as the prime minister, he is the architect of the horrific genocide against Palestinians.”

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024, alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity connected to the Gaza war. Israel rejects the allegations and disputes the ICC’s jurisdiction.

At the UN on Thursday, Netanyahu directly linked the dispute with Mamdani to his broader argument that Israel has been falsely portrayed as the aggressor since the October 7 Hamas massacre.

“Here’s a simple truth. Israel didn’t commit genocide; Israel prevented genocide,” Netanyahu declared.

He then took his attack on Mamdani considerably further.

“That’s exactly what Mr. Mamdani’s Hamas buddies would have done to us had we not stopped them. They would have killed every last one of us.”

Netanyahu argued that the rhetoric surrounding Israel is not confined to diplomatic or political debate, but contributes to antisemitism and physical threats against Jews.

He warned Mamdani that “the lies you and other antisemites spread about the Jews and the Jewish State have real consequences.”

“In New York, Jews are threatened on the way to synagogue. Jews have been stabbed in the streets. Jews are demonized, targeted simply for being Jews.”

Netanyahu then broadened the argument beyond New York, citing antisemitic attacks against Jews in a number of cities around the world.

“Jews have been murdered in Sydney, Manchester, Montreal, Boulder, Colorado. They’ve been attacked in Los Angeles, London, Paris, Berlin, Washington DC.”

“The antisemites of the world want to terrify our people,” Netanyahu continued. “I have news for them. The days when Jews were defenseless victims, marched to the slaughter – those days are over.”

The attack on Mamdani was particularly striking because Netanyahu delivered it from UN headquarters in Mamdani’s own city, during the prime minister’s first New York visit since Mamdani became mayor in January. Reuters described the dispute as one of the major themes of Netanyahu’s appearance and reported that the prime minister used his speech to directly confront Mamdani over the mayor’s rhetoric about Israel and Netanyahu.

Mamdani had campaigned on a promise to seek Netanyahu’s arrest if the Israeli prime minister entered New York, citing the ICC warrant. He later acknowledged that he had determined that a New York mayor lacks the legal authority to execute such a warrant, though he has continued urging federal authorities to act against Netanyahu.

The mayor has also continued to describe Israel’s conduct in Gaza as genocide, a characterization Netanyahu forcefully rejected throughout Thursday’s speech.

Netanyahu’s message to Mamdani ultimately became part of his larger argument that Israel will no longer accept what he views as the demonization of the Jewish state without responding publicly and forcefully.

This time, standing just miles from City Hall, Netanyahu made the confrontation personal.

“Mr Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me,” Netanyahu said.

“Well, you can’t silence me; you can’t silence the truth.”

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

[Video below.] Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu used a fiery address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday to defend Israel’s wars against Iran and its terror proxies, reject accusations of genocide in Gaza, denounce what he called an international campaign of lies against the Jewish state, and directly confront New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, declaring that Israel will continue fighting because “we have no other choice.”

The speech began amid extraordinary scenes at UN headquarters in New York, as dozens of delegates walked out when Netanyahu approached the podium, while supporters applauded and members of the Israeli delegation chanted “Am Yisroel Chai.” Reuters independently confirmed the mass walkout.

Netanyahu immediately addressed those leaving.

“If there are any other moral cowards, please do so now,” he said.

From there, Netanyahu launched into a broad defense of Israel’s actions since the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, repeatedly framing the country’s military campaigns as a battle for national survival.

Netanyahu recalled his famous 2012 UN appearance, when he displayed a drawing of a bomb and drew a red line to illustrate his warning about Iran’s nuclear program.

“I vowed to prevent Iran’s murderous dictatorship from developing atomic bombs. Nuclear weapons that could threaten the entire world. That’s exactly what I did.”

Destroying Iran’s nuclear program, Netanyahu said, was “very hard to do,” but the decision itself was straightforward.

“For me, it was one of the easiest decisions I ever had to make as Prime Minister, because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.”

Netanyahu argued that Israel’s military action against Iran had protected countries whose representatives had just walked out of the General Assembly chamber.

“Israel was also defending many of the countries that just left this hall. In fact, many of their leaders even thank us privately for taking out Iran’s nukes. It’s hard to imagine more mind-blowing hypocrisy, but that’s exactly what it is.”

PBS, in its coverage of the speech, also reported Netanyahu’s defense of the attack on Iran and his assertion that ordering it was among the easiest decisions he had made as prime minister.

Netanyahu then reached back nearly six decades to the Six-Day War, arguing that the threats against Israel predated its control of Yehuda and Shomron, Gaza and the Golan Heights.

“We weren’t then in Judea and Samaria, the historic heartland of the Jewish people. We weren’t in Gaza. We weren’t in the Golan Heights.”

He also directly answered Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa over Syria’s claims to the Golan Heights.

“Oh, and Mr. al-Sharaa, Jews have been on the Golan Heights since the days of Moses; you can read it in the Bible.”

Netanyahu ridiculed accusations that Israel is a colonial power, pointing to the country’s small geographic size.

“We weren’t in any of these places; we were a tiny sliver of land. We still are. That is equal to about 1/3 of one percent of the landmass of the entire Arab world. Yet they accuse Israel, tiny Israel, of colonialism. Some colonialism.”

He singled out critics in Britain and France, noting their countries’ own colonial histories.

“People in Britain, and in France. For G-d’s sake, they invented the term. Their colonies embrace the entire globe. Colonialism – give us a break – another lie.”

Netanyahu then made the speech personal, recounting his memories from the tense days immediately preceding the Six-Day War.

He was a high school student in the United States at the time, he recalled, but returned to Israel five days before the war and found the country preparing for a potentially catastrophic conflict.

He went to see his older brother, Yoni Netanyahu, who was serving with the paratroopers and preparing for battle.

Yoni gave him a simple message.

“We’re going to win. We have no other choice.”

That line became the central refrain of Netanyahu’s address.

He connected his brother’s words to October 7, calling the Hamas assault “the darkest day in Israel’s history.”

Netanyahu stressed that there was no Israeli presence inside Gaza when Hamas terrorists crossed into southern Israel and carried out the massacre.

“There wasn’t a single Israeli then in Gaza, not a civilian, not a soldier, not one. It didn’t matter a bit. The Hamas terrorists committed the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.”

“On that darkest of days, our enemies expected to collapse. Well, we didn’t collapse. Instead, we rose and fought like lions!”

Netanyahu portrayed the war that followed as an extraordinary military test for a country of Israel’s size.

“Do you know any other country the size of New Jersey capable of fighting a seven-front war?”

He said Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and other enemies had attempted to overwhelm Israel simultaneously but had failed.

“With our great American friends, we crushed Iran’s army, navy, air force, and nuclear facilities.”

“Israel hammered Hamas. We pummeled Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said.

At that point, Netanyahu produced a pager from his pocket in an apparent reference to the September 2024 operation in which thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah operatives exploded.

“Remember the beepers?” he asked. “We, I can tell you this: Hezbollah certainly remembers them.”

Netanyahu devoted another section of his speech to terrorism in Yehuda and Shomron and what he described as a stark disparity between international attention to Palestinian terrorism and violence committed by extremist Jewish youths.

He said terrorists continue trying to murder Israeli civilians in Yehuda and Shomron, including families traveling on the roads.

Netanyahu acknowledged acts of vigilantism by a relatively small group of Jewish extremists and condemned them.

“I can’t stand that. I won’t stand for vigilantism. We’re a country of law. So we put our Shin Bet on them.”

But he accused foreign governments and media outlets of disproportionately emphasizing what they call “settler violence” while giving far less attention to Palestinian terrorist attacks.

“What a distortion. It’s an obsession. Leaders of countries seriously talk about that, and they say it with such importance: ‘We can’t stand settler violence.’ You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Netanyahu specifically addressed French President Emmanuel Macron, challenging Macron’s assertion that Hamas does not operate in Yehuda and Shomron. He cited the murder of Eliyahu Shakron, a French citizen and father of six, in a shooting attack days earlier that Israel attributed to a Hamas terrorist.

He also spoke about Neria Leiter, an IDF reservist and son of Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, who was seriously wounded in a ramming attack.

Netanyahu read words Neria had posted before the attack:

“We have no other country. It’s a privilege to defend it.”

Netanyahu then made a pledge to Leiter and Israel’s other wounded and fallen fighters.

“Your sacrifice will not be in vain. We will continue to defend our state. We will continue to win, because we have no other choice!”

Netanyahu thanked President Donald Trump for joining Israel in the campaign against Iran and for helping secure the return of hostages from Gaza.

“Why are we winning? Yoni said it simply: ‘We have no other choice!’ Our goal never wavered: to win with unwavering resolve, unrelenting courage, because this is Israel – one nation, fighting for one future, left and right, young and old, religious and secular.”

Netanyahu acknowledged Israel’s deep internal disagreements but said that in moments of existential danger the country comes together.

“Do we have our differences? Of course we do. Who doesn’t? But in critical moments, we stand together because what unites us is so much stronger: our history, our values, our courage, the courage of our brave people who withstood 1,000 ballistic missiles that Iran rained down on our civilians.”

The prime minister then shifted from the battlefield to what he characterized as another war Israel is fighting — a battle over public opinion.

Netanyahu accused foreign governments of pouring enormous sums into efforts to demonize Israel, singling out Qatar.

“Several foreign countries have spent untold billions to spread lies about my country. The first to do so was Qatar. Decades ago, it started massively funding American universities and toxic media outlets like Al Jazeera. They did the same in Europe.”

“Their goal was clear: brainwash young minds to hate Israel, hate America, hate the West. This is the same Qatar that hosts the Hamas butchers of October 7th.”

Netanyahu then turned his attention to Turkey, accusing the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of becoming a “superspreader of antisemitic lies.”

He accused Erdoğan of hosting Hamas leaders, repressing political opponents and journalists, killing Kurdish civilians, denying the Armenian genocide and illegally occupying northern Cyprus. He also charged that Turkey has ambitions to dominate Syria.

Netanyahu responded particularly sharply to Erdoğan’s rhetoric concerning Yerushalayim.

“He says he is going to be the ‘ruler of Jerusalem.’ No sir, you won’t. This is our country, our city, our eternal capital.”

Another major section of Netanyahu’s address was devoted to the war in Gaza and accusations that Israel has committed genocide — allegations Israel rejects and which have become a central focus of international criticism of the war. Reuters noted that Netanyahu arrived at this year’s General Assembly amid intense criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and its broader regional campaigns.

“Accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century,” Netanyahu declared.

He argued that the IDF has taken extensive measures to minimize civilian deaths while Hamas has deliberately embedded itself among civilians.

Netanyahu cited urban-warfare expert John Spencer in arguing that Israel’s efforts to protect civilians have exceeded those of other militaries in comparable conflicts.

He then lashed out at those promoting allegations against Israel and the IDF.

“To all those that are spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the antisemitic 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.”

That brought Netanyahu to one of the most pointed portions of the speech: a direct attack on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a fierce critic of Netanyahu and Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Mamdani has called Netanyahu a war criminal and accused Israel of genocide, allegations Israel strongly rejects. Reuters reported that Mamdani had previously said he wanted Netanyahu arrested if he visited New York, although the mayor subsequently acknowledged that he lacked the legal authority to order such an arrest.

“Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. They talk to me. They tell me: ‘This isn’t the city we remember. It changed so quickly.’”

Netanyahu accused Mamdani of associating with radical figures, praising people convicted of supporting Hamas and repeatedly leveling what Netanyahu called false accusations of genocide against Israel.

“Mr Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me; you can’t silence the truth.”

Reuters separately reported the confrontation, quoting Netanyahu’s declaration to Mamdani that “you can’t silence me” and describing the mayor as one of the central targets of the Israeli leader’s UN address.

Netanyahu then delivered his answer to the genocide accusations.

“Here’s a simple truth. Israel didn’t commit genocide; Israel prevented genocide. That’s exactly what Mr. Mamdani’s Hamas buddies would have done to us had we not stopped them. They would have killed every last one of us.”

He warned that anti-Israel rhetoric has consequences far beyond diplomatic debates at the United Nations, pointing to a series of antisemitic attacks around the world.

“The lies you and other antisemites spread about the Jews and the Jewish State have real consequences. In New York, Jews are threatened on the way to synagogue. Jews have been stabbed in the streets. Jews are demonized, targeted simply for being Jews.”

Netanyahu cited attacks against Jews in cities around the world before closing that portion of his address with a broader declaration about Jewish self-defense.

“The antisemites of the world want to terrify our people. I have news for them. The days when Jews were defenseless victims, marched to the slaughter – those days are over.”

The address came at a particularly contentious UN General Assembly, with the wars involving Israel, Iran and their respective allies dominating much of the week’s diplomacy. Netanyahu’s appearance itself illustrated the international divisions surrounding Israel: dozens of diplomats walked out, while supporters in the chamber applauded him.

Throughout the speech, however, Netanyahu returned repeatedly to the same message — the words he said his brother Yoni had spoken to him on the eve of the Six-Day War nearly six decades ago.

Israel, he argued, has survived repeated attempts to destroy it because its people understand that defeat is not an option.

“We’re going to win,” Netanyahu said. “We have no other choice.”

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

The family of a chareidi special-needs child from Bnei Brak is demanding that authorities reopen a case against an Arab bus driver who was filmed approaching the boy, standing extremely close to him and shouting at him. The family says the encounter left the child severely traumatized, suffering from nightmares and refusing to travel alone by bus to school.

The incident occurred on October 29, 2025, as the minor was walking on a street near a bus terminal in Bnei Brak. Video footage from the scene reportedly shows the driver getting off the bus, walking toward the boy, moving very close to him and shouting at him from close range.

According to an appeal filed on behalf of the family by attorney Chaim Bleicher of the Honenu legal organization, the frightened child fled the scene. When he arrived home, the appeal states, he sat down on the floor and “screamed hysterically,” while complaining of ringing and pain in his ear.

The family says the effects of the incident have continued long afterward. According to his relatives, the boy has suffered from anxiety and nightmares since the encounter and now refuses to take the bus to school by himself. As a result, his mother has been forced to drive him to school each day.

Following the incident, the family filed a police complaint and provided investigators with the video footage. Police subsequently closed the case against the driver.

Bleicher has now appealed the decision to the State Attorney’s Office Appeals Department, asking prosecutors to reopen the case, fully investigate the circumstances surrounding the confrontation and pursue criminal charges against the driver.

The appeal states that the boy’s mother previously challenged the decision to close the case but says she never received a response. According to the mother, the driver’s conduct in the video, together with laughter allegedly seen following the encounter, indicates that his intention was to frighten and humiliate her son.

The mother further said that her children had previously complained to her about Arab bus drivers shouting at them and frightening them. In this case, she said, she decided to turn to police because of the extreme level of fear and distress her son displayed after returning home.

Following the filing of the appeal, Bleicher said the authorities had failed to appreciate the seriousness of what allegedly occurred.

“When examining the background of the incident and the circumstances of the victim, the only conclusion is that this is not at all a ‘trivial matter,’ but rather a serious act. The driver and his friends laugh after the crime, while the child suffered an injury that may accompany him for the rest of his life,” Bleicher said.

Bleicher also criticized the decision to close the investigation, saying his organization has received repeated complaints involving the conduct of some Arab public transportation drivers.

“Unfortunately, we constantly encounter complaints about threats, intimidation, unnecessary sudden stops by minority bus drivers, acts of violence, and skipping stops. Unfortunately, there are drivers who exploit their position and status in order to harm and terrorize the Jewish public,” he said.

Bleicher said the family is seeking both criminal prosecution and the driver’s removal from public transportation work.

“We demand that the driver be prosecuted and that the law be enforced in a manner that will serve as a deterrent, as well as that the suspect’s employment as a public transportation driver be terminated. Every day that the steering wheel is in the hands of hostile drivers constitutes a serious danger to the entire public,” he said.