Haley slams Obama for not blocking UN resolution against Israel.

Envoy nominee vows to protect Israel’s interests

WASHINGTON • South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley assailed the Obama administration on Wednesday for failing to block a UN Security Council resolution that condemned Israel’s settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. She pledged to reject future measures that she said unfairly targeted the Jewish state if confirmed as president-elect Donald Trump’s UN ambassador.

Haley told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her confirmation hearing that if she’s approved for the post she won’t go to New York and “abstain when the UN seeks to create an international environment that encourages boycotts of Israel.”

She told the committee the UN resolution was “a terrible mistake” that makes a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians harder to achieve.

Haley also said the UN has a “long history of antiIsrael bias,” and that during the most recent UN General Assembly session, the international body adopted 20 resolutions against Israel “and only six targeting the rest of the world’s countries combined.”

Haley acknowledged that she is new to international diplomacy. But she said while the UN has had many successes, citing health and food programs that have saved millions of lives, “any honest assessment also finds an institution that is often at odds with American national interests and American taxpayers.”

The United States contributes 22 per cent of the organization’s budget, and Haley questioned whether such a sizable investment is worthwhile.

“We are a generous nation,” Haley said. “But we must ask ourselves what good is being accomplished by this disproportionate contribution. Are we getting what we pay for?”

Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the committee’s top Democrat, said that despite the UN’s shortcomings, “it is almost impossible to imagine a world without the UN.” He emphasized the need to strengthen America’s alliances, particularly in light of Trump’s view that NATO is “obsolete.”

“We need to be reassuring our allies, not threatening to abandon them,” Cardin told Haley.

INSTITUTION THAT IS OFTEN AT ODDS WITH AMERICAN NATIONAL INTERESTS.