U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told this year’s annual AIPAC policy conference in Washington DC that at first, she didn’t expect the “Israel bashing session” she saw at the United Nations.
“They said it was bad,” she told the gathering, “but until you hear it and see it, you can’t comprehend how ridiculous it is.”
But she is determined to change the equation, Haley said, warning, “We’re going to watch Iran like a hawk. We’re going to make sure that everything they do is watched, processed and dealt with. Why [that nuclear deal] was ever allowed to go through, why it was ever passed, is beyond me. It’s terrible,” she said.
Haley also told the gathering that she accepted the position of ambassador in order to make a difference in the world, in order to make sure that America would change the equation.
“I wanted to make sure that the United States starts leading,” said the former governor. “Leading is not saying things when it’s comfortable. It’s saying and doing things when it’s not comfortable.”
Part of that means making sure another anti-Israel resolution such as the one passed last December, number 2334(2016), never happens again.
When Resolution 2334 happened, and the U.S. abstained, the entire country felt a kick in the gut,” Haley said.
“Never before have we not had the backs of our friends. We don’t have a better friend than Israel. To see that happen was hurtful…today, everyone at the UN is scared to talk to me about Resolution 2334. I wanted them to understand that it happened, but it will never happen again.
“The days of Israel bashing [at the UN] are over. We have a lot of things to talk about. There are a lot of threats to peace and security, but you’re not going to take our Number One democratic friend in the Middle East, and beat up on it.”
Haley added that the United States opposed an attempt at the United Nations to “put a Palestinian in one of the highest positions they had ever been given at the UN” — the attempt to appoint former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as UN envoy to Libya.
“Until the Palestinian Authority does what it’s supposed to, there are no freebies for the Palestinian Authority anymore,” she said.