By Matt Bradley, NBC News September 24, 2026

TEL AVIV — Even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pleads his country’s case to the world at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, his target audience will likely be closer to home: Israeli voters ahead of next month’s crucial elections.

Netanyahu arrived in New York Thursday for what appears to be a whirlwind trip that will highlight the growing isolation of the U.S. ally over its assault on the Gaza Strip.

With only a handful of diplomatic meetings on the sidelines of the assembly and President Donald Trump’s focus firmly on his summit with China’s Xi Jinping, the prime minister looks set to return to Israel shortly after his address to be back in time for the major Jewish Sukkot holiday on Friday evening.

“I am leaving tonight for New York in order to defend, from the U.N. podium, Israel and IDF soldiers,” the prime minister said in a video Wednesday night before he left. “You hear the terrible lies that are being spread there.”