Netanyahu ends UN speech with New Year greetings

“Tomorrow evening, Jews around the world will celebrate Rosh Hashanah,” Netanyahu says at the end of his speech. “It’s time of reflection, and we look back with wonder at the miraculous rebirth of our nation, and we look ahead with pride to the remarkable contributions Israel will continue to make to all nations.

“You look around you and you will see those contributions every day – in the food you eat, the water you drink, the medicines you take, the cars you drive, the cell phones you use, and in so many other ways that are transforming our world,” he continues.

“You see it in the smile of an African mother in a remote village, who, thanks to an Israeli innovation, no longer must walk eight hours a day to bring water to her children. You see it in the eyes of an Arab child, who was flown to Israel to undergo a life-saving heart operation. And you see it in the faces of the people in earthquake-stricken Haiti and Nepal who were rescued from the rubble and given new life by Israeli doctors.”

He quotes the prophet Isaiah: “I have made you a light unto the nations, bringing salvation to the ends of the earth.” And he concludes: “Today, 2,700 years after Isaiah spoke those prophetic words, Israel is becoming a rising power among the nations. And at long last, its light is shining across the continents, bringing hope and salvation to the ends of the earth.”

“Happy New Year, Shanah Tovah from Israel. Thank you,” he concludes before leaving the podium.