Haley's Comments

Haley's Comments

Newly-appointed U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley emerged from her first monthly Security Council meeting with a simple message: There's a new sheriff in town.

While critics had cast plenty of doubt on whether or not the former South Carolina governor could handle such a high-profile role in international politics, a fiery and confident Haley came out with some harsh words for the Council and how it has “operated month after month for decades.”

Specifically, she pointed to what she called “the U.N.’s anti-Israel bias”:

Emerging from her first such meeting with the Council, which she noted is “supposed to discuss how to maintain international peace and security,” Haley said she found the agenda “a bit strange.”

She expressed surprise at the things that the Security Council didn't discuss — from the buildup of illegal rockets, to Iran's sponsorship of terrorism, to how to defeat ISIS — adding:

“No, instead the meeting focused on criticizing Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East.

I am new around here, but I understand that’s how the Council has operated month after month for decades. I am here to say the United States will not turn a blind eye to this anymore. I am here to underscore to the ironclad support of the United States for Israel. I am here to emphasize that the United States is determined to stand up to the U.N.’s anti-Israel bias.”

Haley also took aim at a controversial U.N. resolution that considers Israeli settlements in Palestinian-contested areas to be a “flagrant violation of international law,” a resolution which Obama's former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power allowed to pass in late 2016:

“We will never repeat the terrible mistake of Resolution 2334, and allow one-sided Security Council resolutions to condemn Israel. Instead, we will focus on the real threats in the Middle East.”

Haley noted that, under her watch, such “outrageously biased resolutions” would not get such an easy pass, adding:

"Incredibly, the U.N. department of political affairs has an entire division devoted entirely to Palestinian affairs. Imagine that.

There is no division devoted to illegal missile launches form North Korea. There is no division devoted to the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, Iran. The prejudiced approach to Israeli-Palestinian issues does the peace process no favors, and it bears no relationship to the reality of the world around us. The double standards are breathtaking."

Haley's comments come on the heels of President Trump's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that “there is no greater supporter of the Jewish people and the Jewish state than President Donald Trump.”

In the end, it seems that the newly-minted Trump administration is making one priority very clear — that Israel is one ally that the U.S. will no longer ignore.