Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned his rhetorical guns on Iran and the international community’s refusal to speak out against its “genocidal intentions” in his speech to the UN General Assembly in New York today.

In an impressively delivered address – complete with long pauses and dramatic crescendos – Mr Netanyahu thundered: “Seventy years after the murder of six million Jews, Iran’s rulers promise to destroy my country, murder my people.”

He then hit out at the member states of the UN for their consistent failure to speak out against the Iranian threats. “Iran threatens to destroy my people and the international response is absolute silence,” he said.

Echoing international criticism of Israel over its operations in Gaza, Mr Netanyahu argued that the UN has displayed “disproportionality” and “injustice” in its treatment of the Jewish state.

“The UN should rid itself of its obsessive bashing of Israel. Around 250,000 people have died in the Syrian war – more than 10 times the number of Israelis and Palestinians killed in 100 years of conflict. And yet last year, the UN produced 20 critical resolutions on Israel, and one on Syria."

He continued: “When will the UN check its anti-Israel fanaticism at the door? Stand with Israel, as we check the fanaticism at our door.

“Israel is civilisation’s front line in the battle against barbarism. Israel is not just defending itself, Israel is defending you.”