The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has strongly praised President Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, for her fabulous clear thinking and remarks at a press conference, following the conclusion of a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting last Thursday, in which she lambasted the perverse preoccupation within the Council with criticizing and condemning Israel. Ambassador Haley criticized the Council for focusing on their anti-Israel obsession, while ignoring vital regional matters of paramount importance to its mission of upholding international peace and security.
In her remarks to the press, Ambassador Haley said,
“The Security Council just finished its regular monthly meeting on Middle East issues. It’s the first meeting like that that I’ve attended, and I have to say it was a bit strange. The Security Council is supposed to discuss how to maintain international peace and security. But at our meeting on the Middle East, the discussion was not about Hizballah’s illegal build-up of rockets in Lebanon. It was not about the money and weapons Iran provides to terrorists. It was not about how we defeat ISIS. It was not about how we hold Bashar al-Assad accountable for the slaughter of hundreds and thousands of civilians. 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’m here to say the United States will not turn a blind eye to this anymore. I am here to underscore the ironclad support of the United States for Israel. I’m here to emphasize the United States is determined to stand up to the UN’s anti-Israel bias. We will never repeat the terrible mistake of Resolution 2334 and allow one-sided Security Council resolutions to condemn Israel. Instead, we will push for action on the real threats we face in the Middle East.
We stand for peace. We support a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is negotiated directly between the two parties, as President Trump reiterated in his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday. The outrageously biased resolutions from the Security Council and the General Assembly only make peace harder to attain by discouraging one of the parties from going to the negotiating table.
Incredibly, the UN Department of Political Affairs has an entire division devoted to Palestinian affairs. Imagine that. There is no division devoted to illegal missile launches from 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. Just a few days ago, the United States sought unsuccessfully to have the Security Council condemn a terrorist attack to Israel, where the terrorist opened fire on people waiting for a bus and then stabbed others. The Security Council would not hesitate to condemn an attack like that in any other country. But not for Israel. The statement was blocked. And that’s downright shameful.
Israel exists in a region where others call for its complete destruction and in a world where anti-Semitism is on the rise. These are threats that we should discuss at the United Nations as we continue working toward a comprehensive agreement that would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But outside of the UN, there is some good news. Israel’s place in the world is changing. Israel is building up new diplomatic relationships. More and more countries recognize how much Israel contributes to the world. They are recognizing that Israel is a beacon of stability in a troubled region, and that Israel is at the forefront of innovation, entrepreneurship, and technological discovery.
It is the UN’s anti-Israel bias that is long overdue for change. The United States will not hesitate to speak out against these biases in defense of our friend and ally, Israel (‘Remarks at a Press Availability Following UN Security Council Consultations on the Middle East: Ambassador Nikki Haley, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, U.S. Mission to the United Nations, New York City, February 16, 2017’).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “We strongly praise President Trump’s UN Ambassador Haley’s forthright and eloquent denunciation of the pernicious and absurd bias and hatred directed at Israel from within the UN.
“Ambassador Haley’s remarks to the press following her first Security Council meeting show that President Trump and his Administration is well aware of, and take very seriously, the international promotion of hatred against Israel and the Jewish people and means to do something about it.
“Indeed, President Trump himself rightly condemned the UNSC Resolution 2334 last December, even before he had assumed office. He also personally criticized UN behavior towards Israel in his recent joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“With great power, Ambassador Haley laid bare the evil and tragedy of a UN that ignores the worst crimes, wars and human rights abuses happening daily, while occupying its time with castigating the democratic country of Israel, the one Mideast country that respects the human rights of all minorities, including the rights of women and gays.
“The UN provides a drip-feed of toxic anti-Semitism into the international blood stream. For far too long, this has been neglected as a triviality, including, at various times, by the United States. It is long past time to have it called out and denounced in incisive terms, and that is precisely what Ambassador Haley did last week.
“Ambassador Haley’s remarks are in a tradition of searing honesty and incisiveness that lay bare the evil being perpetrated within the UN system and are worthy of her great predecessors Daniel Patrick Moynihan and John Bolton.”