Netanyahu Faces Isolation at UN as Reelection Looms

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in New York on Thursday for the United Nations General Assembly, but his visit has been marked by a conspicuously thin schedule and no plans to meet U.S. President Donald Trump, with whom he once claimed to stand "shoulder to shoulder" at the start of the year.

The two leaders have diverged over how to conduct the war with Iran, which has dragged on longer than the "little excursion" Trump had predicted. Many in Washington associate Netanyahu with the increasingly unpopular conflict, and the U.S. president has sought to avoid appearing pressured into it by the Israeli leader.

Instead of a packed diplomatic calendar, Netanyahu was set to meet only a handful of leaders before delivering his speech. His office said "many world leaders" had requested meetings, but cited a "tight schedule" and the need to return to Israel before the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which begins Friday at sundown. The leaders on his schedule include those from Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Panama, Ethiopia, Greece, Slovenia, and Papua New Guinea.

The limited engagement stands in contrast to past visits, when Netanyahu met with figures such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, and then-German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. In 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden, though reluctant to host him at the White House, still made time to sit down with him on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

This year, Trump was in New York on Tuesday and met with leaders from Arab nations as well as Denmark, Japan, Greenland, Ukraine, and Venezuela, before returning to Washington to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Netanyahu's brief stay also reflects broader global criticism. Three years after launching the war in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, he faces harsh rebukes from other heads of state at the podium. Ahead of his visit, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged his arrest, citing an International Criminal Court warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Gaza. The U.S. is not a member of the court, and New York City lacks the authority to arrest him.

Criticism has also come from an unexpected quarter: Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel and a longtime supporter of Israeli settlements, referred to settlers attacking Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank as "terrorists" — unusual language for an ambassador.

Experts say the trip could damage Netanyahu's standing at home, where he faces reelection next month in polls widely seen as a referendum on his handling of the security failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attacks and his ability to defend Israel's reputation internationally.

"I think the trip is a mistake, because it exposes his weaknesses," said Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations and professor at Israel's Bar-Ilan and Reichman universities. While many Israelis view the U.N. as hostile, he added, the inability to secure a meeting with Trump highlights how poorly Netanyahu has managed ties with Israel's strongest ally. "Israel cannot survive without the United States," Gilboa said.

Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. who served under Netanyahu, called the slim itinerary "significant of a deeper rift." Natan Sachs, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, described the absence of high-profile meetings as a "big, big miss" for a leader who portrays himself as a global statesman.

Still, Netanyahu is known as a master showman who often uses props and visual aids in flawless English to drive home his message. Last year, scores of diplomats walked out during his speech. But that is unlikely to faze him, as he speaks primarily to an audience of Israeli voters.

"He times his speech so that it is broadcast here in primetime," said Oren.