On the first anniversary of the cross-border incursion on 7 October 2023 and the start of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, all that the UN can boast of can be summed up in one word: complicity. Western countries have either provided Israel with weapons or endorsed the genocide by reiterating Israel’s fabricated security and “self-defence” narrative. If a colonial, occupying entity has the “right to self-defence”, what about the people under occupation? According to the West and the UN, the colonised Palestinian people deserve genocide punctured by rare humanitarian pauses after which Israel is free to kill thousands more.

Netanyahu’s speech at the UN General Assembly blamed the Lebanese for Hezbollah’s existence; he invented stories about missiles and rockets in garages and kitchens – just one missile in each room – which is preposterous. Next, Lebanon is being bombarded by Israel and the Lebanese are blamed for Israel’s aggression, because according to Netanyahu, it is the Lebanese people who can end this new genocide, when the reality is that only Israel and its accomplices in the West are responsible for doing this.

Netanyahu doesn’t employ impenetrable rhetoric, he just lies. And this is apparently acceptable to the UN and the West’s “moral standards”.

For Israel to exist, genocide must be committed, insist Netanyahu and the allies of the settler-colonial, apartheid state. Having basically endorsed Israel’s “right” to commit genocide, is it possible for Western leaders to sink any lower?