His Nation Was Accused of 'Genocide' at the UN. On Monday, He'll Try to 'Refute the Slander and Lies

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he planned to use the opportunity of his Monday address to the U.N. General Assembly to “refute the slander and lies directed at our country.”

Netanyahu met with reporters before boarding his plane at Ben-Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv, where he said, “In my address to the U.N. General Assembly, I will refute all the lies being directed against us, and I will tell the truth about our country and the heroic soldiers of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], the most moral army in the world.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara at Ben-Gurion Airport on Sunday en route to the U.S. (Photo: Prime Minister’s Office)

The prime minister’s comments follow Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ blistering speech to the U.N. Friday in which he accused Israel of committing genocide, an allegation that evoked the criticism of the State Department.

In his speech, Abbas said Israel had waged a “war of genocide” in Gaza and accused Israel of “abhorrent apartheid” policies.

Abbas further characterized 2014 as “a year of a new war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people.”

“President Abbas’s speech today included offensive characterizations that were deeply disappointing and which we reject,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Friday.

By using the word "genocide" Abbas gave up the empathy of the Israeli public, including most of the left

— Dani Dayan (@dandayan) September 26, 2014

“After the deceitful speech of the Iranian president and Abbas’s inciting words, I will tell the truth of the citizens of Israel to the whole world,” Netanyahu said in a statement Saturday night according to the Times of Israel.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Abbas’ speech “proved for the umpteenth time that [Abbas] is not a leader who wants peace and strives to advance the lives of his people, but a person who is propagating lies, is engaged in incitement and spreads hate speech against Israel.”

While in the U.S., Netanyahu will also meet with President Barack Obama.

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