The winds at the United Nations are changing to Israel’s benefit, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said today in Jerusalem, during her first-ever visit to Israel. She called the international body a “bully.”
“We’re starting to see a turn in New York. she said at a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to countries that routinely bash the Jewish state at the U.N.’s various agencies.
“I think they know they can’t keep responding in the way they’ve been responding,
“They sense that the tone has changed. We were talking with some ambassadors in Geneva who are all on the Human Rights Council, and we talked to them about Agenda Item 7,” Ms. Haley said. “Some of them were embarrassed by it. They acknowledge the fact that it just makes no sense.”
Ms. Haley was saying that since 2007, Israel has been the only country whose alleged human rights abuses are regularly discussed in the framework of a single permanent item on the Human Rights Council’s agenda.
On Tuesday, at a speech in Geneva, Ms. Haley had urged the council to abandon Agenda Item 7 (“the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories”), which singles out Israel for perpetual censure. If the 47-member body failed to do so, the U.S. would quit and seek to promote human rights in other forums, she threatened.
“There is no legitimate human rights reason for this agenda item to exist,” she said later Tuesday, at the Graduate Institute of Geneva, hours before taking off for Tel Aviv. “It is the central flaw that turns the Human Rights Council from an organization that can be a force for universal good, into an organization that is overwhelmed by a political agenda.”
Welcoming her in his office W this morning, Mr. Netanyahu thanked the U.S. envoy and President Trump for their staunch support of Israel, including in international bodies such as the U.N.
“Thank you for all your help and standing up for Israel, standing up for the truth, which is standing up for America,” he said. “Actually, I think it’s standing up for the U.N. as it was originally conceived.
“People appreciate truth. We have an ancient Hebrew saying that when somebody tells a truth, you can feel it. So people feel it, they not only understand it, they feel it. And we feel it.”
The prime minister went on to praise Ms. Haley’s “uncommon common sense,” and said he already sees her efforts bearing fruit.
“President Trump and you, I think, have changed the discourse, have drawn new standards, and everybody’s taking up, and that’s great,” he said. “I think it makes a world of difference, both for Israel and the U.S. Again, I felt that the U.N. would collapse, you know, that whole scaffolding of lies would just collapse. I think you’ve put in that simple word, truth.”
Ms. Haley said she was surprised by the tremendous love Israelis have showered her with.
“You know, that’s all I’ve done — tell the truth — and the reaction is kind of overwhelming,” she said. “It was a habit. It was something that we’re so used to doing. If there’s anything I have no patience for it is bullies, and the U.N. was being such a bully to Israel because it could.”
This story originated at www.timesofisrael.com