U.N. Ambassador Wows AIPAC Conference Attendees

So far, Nikki Haley, the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has drawn the longest and loudest standing ovations among speakers at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference.

“For anyone who says you can’t get anything done at the U.N., they need to know there’s a new sheriff in town,” she said, alluding to the Trump administration, to the more than 18,000 AIPAC supporters in attendance.

Haley’s address last night at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., came on the second night of the conference, which has attracted the nation’s leading elected officials and policymakers to talk about their support for Israel and the pro-Israel advocacy movement. The conference concludes today.

Other speakers included Vice President Michael Pence, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (via satellite), former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as well as leading Democrats.

Haley sharply criticized the Obama administration for abstaining last December in the matter of the U.N. Security Council’s Resolution 2334, which condemned Israel for settlements activity in the West Bank.

“The U.S. abstention for Resolution 2334 showed us at our weakest point ever,” she said. “The entire country [of Israel] felt a kick in the gut. It will never happen again. We have no greater friend than Israel. …

“Now, everyone at the U.N. is scared to talk to me about Resolution 2334.”

Haley pledged to help turn the anti-Israel tide at the U.N. and among its agencies. She noted her role in preventing former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad from becoming the body’s envoy to Libya, and in getting U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to withdraw a U.N. affiliate’s report likening Israel to an apartheid state.

“This report is absolutely ridiculous,” Haley said. “The days of Israel bashing are over. There are a lot of threats to peace and security, but you’re not going to bash our best friend in the Middle East. … Until the Palestinian Authority comes to the table to negotiate peace with Israel, there are no freebies for the Palestinian Authority anymore.”

Getting Personal

At one point, Haley, 45, offered some personal insights. “I am the daughter of Indian parents who every day told my brothers and sister and me how blessed we were to live in this country,” she said. “And I’ve seen so many similarities between Israeli culture and the Indian culture. We’re very close-knit, we love our families, we believe in professionalism and giving back. So that’s all the good things. We’re aggressive, we’re stubborn, and we don’t back down from a fight.”

During a question-and-answer segment, Haley was asked about how to change anti-Israel sentiments among members of the U.N.

“I’m not there to play,” she said. “I want to make sure the U.S. begins leading again. Leading is saying and doing things when it’s not comfortable. … We will never again do what was done to Resolution 2334. Never do we not have the backs of our friends. We don’t have a greater friend than Israel. …

“There’s a lot we can do,” Haley said. “The power of your voice is an amazing thing. We tell them what we’re not going to put up with. Change the culture to what we should be talking about. I wear heels. It’s not a fashion statement. It’s because if I see something wrong, we’re going to kick them every single time.”

Haley also spoke about the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestments, Sanctions movement. As governor of South Carolina, she noted that she signed the first anti-BDS resolution by any state.

“I think we have to show how absurd BDS is,” Haley told the conference attendees. “With the BDS movement that we were able to stop in South Carolina, we’re going to take that to the United Nations. We’re going to make sure they understand this is not what we need to be focused on.”

Also speaking last night was Ryan, who said the Obama administration “damaged trust” with Israel. “President Donald Trump’s commitment to Israel is sacrosanct,” he said.

In particular, Ryan criticized the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran, calling it an “unmitigated disaster.” But like Pence – who on Sunday night at the conference revived the issue of moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv – Ryan stopped short of proposing the dismantling of the Iran deal.

Ryan endorsed bipartisan legislation, backed by AIPAC, advocating the increasing of non-nuclear-related sanctions on Iran for testing nuclear missiles and backing terrorism and other disruptive activities.

Slash and Burn?

Today at the conference, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the House Minority leader, read aloud a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to reaffirm support for the two-state solution signed virtually only by Democrats – and drafted by AIPAC’s rival, J Street, the Jewish Middle East policy group.

In his speech, McConnell condemned the Obama administration for diminishing the U.S.-Israel alliance and leaving Israel less secure. “We’ve got to rebuild our partnerships,” he said. “The past eight years gave witness to a serial degrading of our alliances and partnerships all across the globe.”

He also pitched Trump’s proposal to increase the military budget, although McConnell did not address one of AIPAC’s three legislative asks — namely, sustaining the budget for overall foreign assistance against Trump’s proposal to slash it by nearly a third.

AIPAC has long argued that assistance to Israel, which Trump wants to maintain at current levels, should never be separated from foreign assistance. Foreign assistance is a positive way to project U.S. power, the lobby says, and helps open doors for Israel in countries that might otherwise be wary of ties with the Jewish state.

Calls to sustain that assistance were central to the speeches of Pelosi and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the minority leader in the Senate. Pelosi cast support for foreign assistance as fulfilling a responsibility to Israel. “A strong America in the world is good for Israel,” she said. “I fiercely oppose proposals that would slash our State Department funding by 28 percent.”

Pelosi also decried Trump’s “presidential campaign with hate speech that went unchallenged, an atmosphere that emboldened anti-Semites to desecrate Jewish cemeteries, white supremacists that feel emboldened and connected to the White House.”

Pelosi, like other Democrats who spoke throughout the conference, emphasized two states as the preferred outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Republicans pulled support for two states from their platform last year, and Trump earlier this year said he was agnostic on the issue, ending 15 years of U.S. policy favoring the solution.

But Pelosi took it a step further, taking out her phone to read aloud a letter sent last week asking Trump to reaffirm U.S. support for two states, emphasizing twice that the vast majority – 189 of its 191 signatories — were Democrats.

What she left unmentioned was that J Street drafted and lobbied for the letter; AIPAC did not have a position on it.

“I wanted you to hear it as written, not out of context. I wanted to read it to you in the spirit of strong support for a Jewish, secure and democratic Israel,” Pelosi said. “An Israel that recognizes the dignity and security of the Israelis and Palestinians.”

That line earned her only moderate applause.

Peter Arnold is an Olney, Md.-based freelance writer. Contributing to this report was Ron Kampeas of the JTA international news agency and wire service.

Top photo: Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Above: Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate minority leader, at the AIPAC policy conference (Courtesy of AIPAC)