Nikki Haley has been making headlines since she began her term as the United States Ambassador to the UN. During an interview at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington DC, she explained her positions and outlook – and it certainly went down well with the crowd.
Last month, Ambassador Haley made a speech, after her first meeting at the UN Security Council about the Middle East. The speech went viral, as she described her surprise at how the Council seemed to ignore Iran, ISIS, Hezbollah and Hamas, and focus solely on criticizing the one democracy in the region, Israel. She followed those tough words up with tough actions. She blocked the appointment of the former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to a senior UN position, saying she did not support the signal it would send to the Palestinian Authority. And recently, her strong stance condemning an anti-Israel UN report authored by the notorious Richard Falk, lead to real consequences. Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the UN, distanced himself from the report, the report was removed from the UN website, and the head of the UN agency responsible for it resigned.
At AIPAC, Ambassador Haley made it clear that she means business. “The days of Israel-bashing are over,” Haley said, pointing to the fact that since she entered office there has already been a notable reduction in anti-Israel rhetoric at the UN. This new stance will also express itself in the decisions that the USA makes at the UN – “Never again will we do again, what we saw with Resolution 2334.” She also spoke about her personal heritage, as the child of Indian immigrants, and how that impacted her connection to Israel. “I have seen so many similarities between the Israeli culture and the Indian culture. We are very close knit, we love our families, we have a strong work ethic, we believe in professionalism and philanthropy, giving back.”
Her most memorable line, after a spirited monologue about the first few months in the office, was this:
“So for anyone who says you can’t get anything done at the UN? They need to know, there is a new sheriff in town.”
Hopefully the sheriff can clean up the act of this notoriously anti-Israel organisation.
Contributed by Aron White, CAMERA intern
