Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan addresses the UN Security Council, Oct. 30, 2023. Photo: Israeli Mission to the United Nations

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan on Monday said that while Hamas seeks the extermination of the Jewish people, Iran and its so-called supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are the Hitler-like figures organizing a “Shia Islamist Reich” — a play off the Nazis’ genocidal Third Reich.

“Hamas are modern day Nazis — from their appalling inhuman violence to identical genocidal ideologies. Hamas is not seeking a ‘solution’ to the conflict. They are not interested in dialogue. The only solution Hamas is interested in is the Final Solution — the annihilation of the Jewish people,” Erdan said. “Yet, Ismail Haniyeh — the leader of Hamas — is no Adolph Hitler. He is not the führer [German word for leader that Hitler was called]. He is not the leader of this genocidal death cult hell-bent on world domination. That role is held by the supreme leader of Iran, the bloodthirsty Ayatollah Khamenei.”

Erdan, who was speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council on “the Palestinian question,” said that the world was ignoring the threat of Iran and its culpability for the Hamas massacre of more than 1,400 people during the terror group’s invasion of Israel on Oct. 7.

“Today the world is watching the rise of a Shia Islamist Reich. Yet just like the rise of Nazism, the world is silent, deafeningly silent,” he said. “Even if you continue calling this meeting the ‘The Situation in the Middle East and the Palestinian Question’ for the rest of time, it will not make it any truer. This meeting is about the Situation in the Middle East and the Iranian Threat! This has nothing to do with the Palestinians!”

During the speech, Erdan and his colleagues from the Israeli mission to the UN put on yellow Stars of David that said “never again.” Erdan said that Israel’s UN diplomats would wear the stars as “a symbol of pride” until the Security Council can “wake up and condemn the atrocities of Hamas.”

The chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial, criticized the decision to wear yellow badges as inappropriate.

“We were sorry to see the members of the Israeli delegation to the UN wearing a yellow patch,” chairman Dani Dayan wrote in a post on X/Twitter. “This act dishonors both the victims of the Holocaust and the State of Israel. The yellow patch symbolizes the helplessness of the Jewish people and being at the mercy of others. Today we have an independent country and a strong army. We are masters of our destiny. Today we put a blue-white flag on the lapel, not a yellow patch.”

The Security Council’s 10 elected members have been working on a fifth draft resolution on Gaza that may call for “humanitarian pauses” or a “ceasefire” to the fighting between Israel and Hamas. The four previous draft resolutions all failed to pass. Erdan on Monday said that a ceasefire at this stage would be ceding victory to Hamas.

“Those who call for an immediate ceasefire are ultimately asking to tie Israel’s hands and keep Hamas’ rule in Gaza,” he said. “I’m sorry to say, but should this council have existed on June 6, 1944, it would be intensely debating how much electricity and fuel the citizens of Munich had, as the Allies approached the shores of Normandy. This council would be fixated on debating the death toll of Germans versus the murder of British civilians. This council would be calling for a ceasefire before the Russians retook Stalingrad.”