Netanyahu ties Hamas, ISIS
He also accused Hamas of committing "the real war crimes in Gaza" in the recently ended war.
UNITED NATIONS - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared his country's recent bombing campaign in Gaza to the U.S.-led strikes against militants in Iraq and Syria, saying Hamas and the Islamic State group share the same goal of world domination.
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly on Monday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of committing "the real war crimes" in Gaza by using Palestinian civilians as human shields. It was an angry response to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' speech to the U.N. last week in which he accused Israel of conducting a "war of genocide" in Gaza.
Netanyahu railed against world leaders who have condemned Israel for its war with Hamas while praising President Obama for attacking Islamic State militants and other extremists in Syria and Iraq.
Netanyahu said the leaders of ISIS and Hamas share the same goal of imposing militant Islam on the world.
"Hamas' immediate goal is to destroy Israel, but it has a broader objective," he said.
And turning to another regional rival, Netanyahu said Iran's concern about the spread of terrorism is "one of history's greatest displays of doubletalk." He criticized the efforts of six world powers to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, saying, "to defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a potential nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war."
He accused Iran itself of mounting terrorist attacks all around the world, and lumped the country in with Islamic extremist movements. "To say that Iran doesn't practice terrorism is like saying Derek Jeter never played shortstop for the New York Yankees," he said.
On the latest war in Gaza, Netanyahu questioned how Israel can be accused of genocide when it gave advance warning to Gaza civilians before attacks on neighborhoods.
Holding up an image of what he said was a Hamas rocket launcher with children nearby, he said Hamas hid rockets in schools and homes and used civilians as human shields.
Israel "was doing everything to minimize civilian casualties. Hamas was doing everything to maximize civilian casualties," he said.
During the 50-day Gaza war, which ended Aug. 26, Israel launched thousands of airstrikes against what it said were Hamas-linked targets in the densely populated coastal territory, while Gaza militants fired several thousand rockets at Israel. More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, the vast majority civilians, and some 18,000 homes were destroyed, according to U.N. figures. Sixty-six soldiers and six civilians were killed on the Israeli side.