Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu used his address to the 81st United Nations General Assembly on Thursday to defend the war on Iran, praise United States President Donald Trump and played down settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

This is as groups of diplomats walked out of the hall when he began speaking.

Netanyahu opened by lambasting Iran, claiming that if Israel had not struck the country’s nuclear facilities, “we’d all be dead.” He described the decision as one of the easiest he has ever had to make as prime minister, though he admitted that the operation itself was very hard to carry out. He went on to say that Iran would have carried out its “mad fantasies” had the United States and Israel not attacked, referring to the joint war the two countries launched in late February, which is still going on.

The Israeli leader then turned to Washington, saying his country has had “no greater partner” than Trump. He thanked the American president for what he called bold leadership in confronting an enormous danger to America, Israel and the world, and credited the United States with helping to bring home the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. He said every one of them had been returned.

Netanyahu also addressed violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, which has drawn international criticism. He claimed it was carried out by a handful of “young juvenile delinquents,” about 150 in number, and said the Shin Bet security agency had been put on them. He described the focus on the issue as an obsession and added that Israel, as a country of law, could not stand vigilante action.

In a moment of theatre, he also held up a pager as a prop, saying Hezbollah remembers the attack that wounded nearly 3,000 people in Lebanon.

The address came during an unusually short trip to New York, lasting less than 24 hours, during which he has no scheduled meeting with Trump. Protesters gathered in the city ahead of the speech, and it is being treated in Israel as a campaign moment, with elections roughly a month away.

Earlier in the day, Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas addressed the assembly by video after again being denied a visa by the Trump administration.

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