WATCH: Day 4 of the 2025 United Nations General Assembly

Dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly hall en masse Friday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped up to give a speech about the Mideast situation to the world’s leaders and, beyond them, many of its people.

Watch the fourth day of high-level debate at the United Nations General Assembly in the video player above.

Netanyahu’s annual speech to the U.N. General Assembly is always closely watched, often protested, reliably emphatic and sometimes a venue for dramatic allegations. But this time, the stakes were higher than ever for the Israeli leader.

WATCH: Facing global isolation, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu addresses U.N. General Assembly

In recent days, Australia, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and others announced their recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

The European Union is considering tariffs and sanctions on Israel. The assembly this month passed a nonbinding resolution urging Israel to commit to an independent Palestinian nation, which Netanyahu has said is a non-starter.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant accusing Netanyahu of crimes against humanity, which he denies. And the U.N’s highest court is weighing South Africa’s allegation that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, which it vehemently refutes.

Against that backdrop, Netanyahu sounded resolute Thursday as he boarded a plane in Israel to head for the U.N.’s annual meeting of top-level leaders in New York.

“I will tell our truth,” Netanyahu said. “I will condemn those leaders who, instead of condemning the murderers, rapists and burners of children, want to give them a state in the heart of Israel.”

Global censure

Last month, 28 Western-aligned countries that had rallied around Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack called on it to end its offensive, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. They also criticized Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid, which have contributed to famine.

Ten countries, including Britain, France, Canada and Australia — recognized Palestinian statehood this week, hoping to revive the long-moribund peace process, a move that the U.S. and Israel have vehemently rejected. Germany, one of Israel’s closest allies, has not joined the calls for a ceasefire or the push for Palestinian statehood, but has halted some military exports.

READ MORE: France recognizes Palestinian statehood ahead of UN General Assembly

Several Arab states, including some with longstanding relations with Israel, have accused it of committing genocide in Gaza, as have leading genocide scholars, U.N. experts and some Israeli and international rights groups. The U.N’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, is weighing genocide allegations raised by South Africa that Israel vehemently denies.

Netanyahu acknowledged the country’s isolation in a speech last week, saying Israel might have to become a self-sufficient, militarized “Super Sparta.” He backtracked the next day after the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange took a dive.

“This is a bitter fact that has begun to spread like a bushfire beyond the sphere of diplomatic relations,” Itamar Eichner wrote in Israel’s daily Yediot Ahronot. “Israel is already becoming an ostracized country.”

Trump stands firm

Trump has stood by Israel through it all, applying no public pressure after it ended a ceasefire he had helped broker earlier this year; or when it cut Gaza off from food and medicine for several weeks, or when it invaded Gaza City earlier this month.

Trump aired his displeasure after Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar derailed negotiations aimed at a ceasefire and hostage release. But there was no daylight seen between the two allies when Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Israel days later.

The administration has meanwhile imposed sanctions on ICC judges and prosecutors, cracked down on pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, shielded Israel from U.N. calls for a ceasefire and provided billions of dollars worth of arms — continuing the Biden administration’s massive military support.

Public opinion is shifting

U.S. public opinion polls over the past year raise doubt over how long such support will last.

About half of Americans say Israel’s military response in Gaza has “gone too far,” according to a survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s up from November 2023, shortly after the start of the war, when 40% said it had.

A recent poll by the University of Maryland found that nearly half of Democratic voters sympathize more with the Palestinians, compared to just 6% who sympathize more with Israel. The survey of 1,514 Americans was carried out July 29-Aug. 7 and had a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

The same poll found a growing divide among Republicans, with younger people showing far less support for Israel. While 52% of Republicans aged 35 and older said Israel’s actions in Gaza were justified under the right to self-defense, just 22% of Republicans 18 to 34 agreed.

Evangelical Christian Republicans, a bulwark of support for Israel, showed a smaller but significant divide, with 59% of older respondents and 36% of younger respondents saying Israel’s actions were justified.

“This is unprecedented, and I say that as someone who’s been doing research on this issue for decades,” said Shibley Telhami, the professor who authored the survey.

He said the polls indicate a “paradigmatic shift” is underway, comparable to the souring toward foreign intervention after the wars in Vietnam and Iraq.

“We have a Gaza generation, and I think this Gaza generation doesn’t trust Israel, sees Israel as a source of a problem, sees what’s happening in Gaza largely to be genocide. And I don’t think that’s likely to change once the war ends,” he said.

Israel blames antisemitism and Hamas

There’s no indication that any of this has chastened Israeli leaders. Netanyahu says Israel is waging a lawful war of self-defense in response to the Oct. 7 attack, chalking up the criticism to antisemitism and Hamas propaganda.

WATCH: Israeli ambassador to U.S. says war ends when Gaza is ‘free of Hamas’

Last month, Israel approved a major settlement project that could split the occupied West Bank in half and that its Western allies — including past U.S. administrations — had long opposed. Netanyahu has hinted he might annex parts of the territory in response to Western countries recognizing a Palestinian state.

“When the Western world is condemning us, our reaction is not to give in, but to dig our heels in deeper,” said Oren, the former ambassador. “There are some things that Israel just cannot do or will not do in order to ameliorate its international standing: For example, creating a Palestinian state which would fall to Hamas within 24 hours.”

Israel’s increasingly frustrated allies warn of the opposite — that if it continues to rule over millions of Palestinians who are denied basic rights, it will have to choose between some form of apartheid or a binational state in which Jews may not be a majority.

“The approach of your government, some ministers especially, is to destroy the possibility of a two-state solution,” French President Emmanuel Macron said last week in an interview with an Israeli TV network. “It’s the last minute,” he said, before such a solution becomes “totally impossible.”