At UN, Netanyahu faces a choice: Speak to the world or rally his political base

More than half a century ago, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Chaim Herzog, stood before the General Assembly and delivered one of Israel’s most memorable attacks on the world body. The United Nations, Herzog said in November 1975, had begun as an anti-Nazi alliance but, 30 years later, was “on its way to becoming the world centre of anti-Semitism.” He added that Adolf Hitler “would have felt at home” listening to some of its proceedings during the previous year. The speech came as the General Assembly adopted Resolution 3379, declaring that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” The resolution was revoked in 1991. Fifty-one years later, Israel is again confronting unusually sharp criticism at the annual gathering of world leaders in New York.