Trump’s nominee for UN ambassador deplores anti-Israel bias

Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to the UN condemned anti-Israel bias at the UN and committed to never abstaining on a resolution encouraging boycotts against Israel.

US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, strongly spoke out against the UN for its anti-Israel bias during her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

“Nowhere has the UN’s failure been more consistent and more outrageous than in its bias against our close ally Israel,” said Haley, who is currently South Carolina’s governor.

“It is an obsession that they have with Israel where they don’t have with North Korea, where they don’t have with Syria,” Haley said of the UN’s Security Council.

Haley specifically addressed the UN Security Council resolution that passed last December condemning all Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria, referring to the resolution as “the ultimate low.”

“Last month’s passage of UN Resolution 2334 was a terrible mistake, making a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians harder to achieve,” she added. “We need to let the two bodies resolve this themselves. That is what has always taken place and I think it’s dangerous when the UN starts to tell two different bodies what should and shouldn’t happen.”

Haley also argued that the Obama administration’s decision not to veto UN Security Council resolution 2334 not only harmed Israel’s national interests but American national interests as well.

“When we basically abstained from 2334, we made Israel more vulnerable,” she contended. “We made America more vulnerable in that we don’t stand by our allies.”

Haley, the first governor to sign legislation combatting Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, is the daughter of immigrants from India who reminded their children on a daily basis of their good fortune to be Americans. Her brothers served in combat duty.

“Any honest assessment also finds an institution that is often at odds with American national interests and American taxpayers,” Haley said while also making it clear that she does not believe in a policy advocated by several US Senators of “slash and burn” in pulling US financial contributions from the UN.

Haley did clarify, though, that she would never abstain in any vote that harms the interests of both countries.

“I will not go to New York and abstain when the UN seeks to create an international environment that encourages boycotts of Israel,” she stressed. “I will never abstain when the United Nations takes any action that comes in direct conflict with the interests and values of the United States.”

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News

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