Pakistan

Islamabad, September 25, 2026. The Pakistani press is not primarily focusing on Benyamin Netanyahu's speech at the UN podium, but rather on the brevity of his visit to New York: less than eight hours on site, compared to a week last year. The Israeli Prime Minister met with nine leaders, including five from Latin America, a region where Israel is seeking to establish ties as its traditional partners in Europe have distanced themselves since the Gaza war and the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. No meeting with an American official was announced, an absence noted by several Pakistani newspapers that republish, almost verbatim, the same agency dispatch.

Former Israeli Ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, quoted in these articles, is blunt: "It's a campaign speech." He adds that such a speech would have benefited from a meeting with the American President, another leader, or at least the Secretary of State — "but apparently that's not the case." Oren says he can't recall a visit by an Israeli Prime Minister to the United States without a meeting with the President. The missed meeting comes a month before the Israeli legislative elections on October 27. Donald Trump, who has met Netanyahu eight times since the beginning of his second term, last saw him in July. The Prime Minister's office cites a tight schedule and the need to return before the Jewish holiday of Sukkot to explain the lack of additional meetings.

A second angle, distinct from the first, comes from the Mayor of New York. Zohran Mamdani accused Netanyahu of repeating, at the podium, unfounded claims about the conflict in Gaza, described as lies in a local press report. He recalled the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in November 2024 against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. According to Mamdani, diplomatic status does not erase the charges brought by the Court, based in The Hague. He had already asked the US federal authorities to execute this warrant. Two Pakistani readings thus converge: that of a weakened head of government at home, and that of a leader whose international judicial legitimacy remains contested even in the city that hosts him.