JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Sunday that his country faced “an international campaign to blacken its name” based not on his policies toward the Palestinians but “connected to our very existence,” likening the mounting boycott movement to anti-Semitic “libels” of previous eras.

Speaking to his cabinet after Israel’s successful diplomatic blitz against a Palestinian bid to suspend it from international soccer competition, Mr. Netanyahu declared: “This is a phenomenon that we have known in the history of our people,” citing as examples accusations that Jews “are the focus of all evil in the world” and “drink the blood of little children.”

“It is important to understand that these things do not stem from the fact that if only we were a little nicer or a little more generous that anything would change,” the prime minister said, according to a statement released by his office, “because this campaign to delegitimize Israel entails something much deeper that is being directed at us and seeks to deny our very right to live here.”

The Palestinian push to suspend Israel from FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, was based on complaints about Israeli restrictions on Palestinian athletes’ travel through checkpoints and border crossings, tariffs on imported equipment, racism among soccer fans and the inclusion in Israeli leagues of teams from five settlements in the occupied West Bank. Under intense pressure and unable to garner the 75 percent majority required for suspension, the Palestinians dropped the demand at the last minute, accepting instead the formation of a FIFA committee to address the situation.