Our View: Israel’s True Friend
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Our View: Israel’s True Friend

Nikki Haley again showed her fidelity with her words and actions during the recent U.N. debates on Gaza.

By Atlanta Jewish Times June 7, 2018, 6:18 am Edit
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, criticizes her colleagues' refusal to label Hamas as a terrorist organization at a U.N. Security Council debate May 30. (U.N. live-stream screen grab)
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, criticizes her colleagues' refusal to label Hamas as a terrorist organization at a U.N. Security Council debate May 30. (U.N. live-stream screen grab)

As long as Donald Trump is president, American Jews will argue over whether he and his policies are good for Israel. But there can be no doubt that Trump’s U.N. ambassador is a true friend to Israel.

As she has since giving up the South Carolina governorship to become an ambassador, Nikki Haley shamed her colleagues on the U.N. Security Council during recent debates and votes over the threat to peace and security posed by the ongoing Israel-Gaza violence.

“It is outrageous for the Security Council to fail to condemn Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli citizens while the Human Rights Council approves sending a team to investigate Israeli actions taken in self-defense,” Haley said during a debate held at her request Wednesday, May 30, after dozens of rockets and mortar shells rained down on southern Israel from Gaza the previous day. “I urge the members of the Security Council to exercise at least as much scrutiny of the actions of the Hamas terrorist group as it does Israel’s legitimate right of self-defense.”

She introduced a resolution that called on the council to recognize Hamas for what it is, a terrorist organization, just as the United Nations has labeled Islamic State and Al-Qaeda. But 11 of the 14 other Security Council members abstained Friday, June 1, while Russia, Kuwait and Bolivia voted no.

Less surprising and therefore more frustrating is the other resolution the council considered the same day: an abysmal measure crafted by Kuwait and championed by France and Sweden that put all the scrutiny and the blame for the border violence on Israel. As Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, bitterly complained, “Hamas” didn’t appear once in the resolution, despite the clear role Hamas plays in making life miserable in Gaza.

Four council members — Poland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ethiopia — abstained, reflecting their recognition of the unfairness of the measure. And Haley stood up for her friend, vetoing the “grossly one-sided and morally bankrupt” proposal.

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