Opinion Nikki Haley is kicking anti-Semites in the UN to the curb

By Andrea Peyser

March 31, 2017 | 12:23am | Updated Modal Trigger Nikki Haley is kicking
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Nikki Haley, the “new sheriff in town,’’ is taking no guff from
anti-Semites disguised as Israel-haters infesting the United Nations,
that den of obscene bigots and butcher-lovers that sits, like a giant
middle finger pointing at America, on the East Side of Manhattan.

After years of being shuttled to the back of the proverbial bus, folks
in the Jewish community, plus all who value freedom and decency,
are breathing sighs of sweet relief. Say what you will about the
administration of President Trump, its insiders have the Jewish state’s
back.

With Haley’s ascent to the top of this country’s diplomatic heap,
high-ranking UN officials and ambassadors are shaking in their Italian
loafers.

Malcolm Hoenlein, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations, told me, “They are taking threats to cut funding
very seriously.’’

For Haley to “go into that arena of hostility, having someone stand
up for Israel — it’s most reassuring to people everywhere,’’
enthused Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York
Board of Rabbis.

The married mother of two, 45, was confirmed by the Senate in January as
the United States ambassador to the UN, whose headquarters sits uneasily
on an “international’’ no-man’s-land that isn’t considered
American soil.

Yet freeloading diplos show little gratitude toward US taxpayers for
financing the party venue’s operational and peacekeeping budgets to
the tune of more than $3.5 billion this year, by far the largest share
paid by any member nation.

I have suggested that UN headquarters would be put to better use as
luxury condos, perhaps with affordable units sprinkled in.

But suddenly, everything has changed.

Haley burst into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Policy
Conference in Washington, DC, Monday, kicking butt and taking names.

To Potasnik, she was a “rock star.’’

“The days of Israel-bashing are over,” she declared to enthusiastic
applause.

“For anyone who says you can’t get anything done at the UN, they
need to know there is a new sheriff in town.”

She said, “I wear heels. It’s not for a fashion statement, it’s
because if I see something wrong, we’re gonna kick ’em every
time.’’ And so, she ushered in a new era of support for Israel, this
country’s great ally in the Middle East. It’s the only democracy in
the region and the only place there in which LGBT types live and love
freely without fear of persecution or murder, women enjoy equal rights,
and all people are free to worship, or not, as they choose.

And yet, many political progressives and naysayers, here and abroad,
malign Israel to the point of wishing the country wiped from the map.

It makes zero sense.

Haley, the daughter of Indian Sikh immigrants, converted to Christianity
and served as the Republican governor of South Carolina, finding her
mojo as a defender of civil and human rights. She pushed for and won
the removal of the Confederate battle flag, seen by many as a symbol of
racism, from the grounds of the State House in 2015.

The same year, she became the first chief executive officer in the nation
to sign a law banning her state’s government from doing business with
any company participating in the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and
sanctions movement — BDS — or with any firm discriminating “based
on race, color, religion, gender or national origin of the targeted
person or entity.”

The relationship between Israel and the administration of former
President Barack Obama was strained, to put it mildly, culminating
in the US joining in the Israel-threatening nuclear deal with Iran,
and this country’s abstention from December’s UN Security Council
vote condemning Israeli settlements. Haley described the move at AIPAC
as “embarrassing” and “hurtful.”

Yet pro-Israel reps would not blame Obama entirely for the bad
blood. “This hostility long preceded President Obama,’’ said
Hoenlein.

This month, Haley demanded that a UN commission withdraw a report that
described Israel as an “apartheid state’’ — trashing it for
the self-defensive treatment of Palestinians. The fracas, and demands
for retraction from the UN secretary-general, prompted Rima Khalaf,
then-executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for
Western Asia, to resign her post. Good.

The report was yanked from the commission’s website.

Peace in the Middle East can only be achieved if both sides come together
at the bargaining table, and the Palestinian side has refused to sit
back down with the Israelis.

Haley understands that healing differences is as simple as that.

What a menschette.