On Thursday, speaking at U.N. Watch’s Inaugural New York Gala Dinner, former U.N. Ambasador Nikki Haley blistered the Justin Trudeau-led government of Canada for supporting a U.N. resolution offered by North Korea, Egypt, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe and the Palestinians that denied the legitimacy of the state of Israel, calling Canada’s action a “deal with the devil.”
The resolution explicitly referred to contested lands between the two countries as “Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
As The National Post reported, Haley lashed out with fiery rhetoric, blasting:
It’s just easier not to rock the boat when the crowd is all going one way. It’s hard to be the only one going the other direction. But standing alone on behalf of American interests and values is not something to be embarrassed by. Standing alone for freedom and human dignity is something to be proud of. In America, we don’t celebrate the mob. We celebrate the person who has the courage and conviction to stand up to the mob. Now we’re seeing an example of this cultural corruption playing out in real time.
Haley pointed out the self-serving cynicism of Canada’s move:
But Canada is now seeking one of the rotating two-year seats on the Security Council. It faces a vote in the General Assembly. Two weeks ago, Canada surprised Israel’s friends by voting for a North Korean resolution that challenges the legitimacy of Israel. This is a resolution that Canadian governments for years have voted against. One observer said Canada is making a “Faustian bargain,” trading its integrity for a seat on the Security Council. I speak from experience when I say the United Nations presents many such opportunities to strike a deal with the devil.
Haley also stated, “If we want to talk about security in the Middle East, we should talk about Iran or Syria or Hezbollah or Hamas or ISIS or the famine in Yemen. There are about ten major problems facing the Middle East, and Israel doesn’t have anything to do with any of them,” as The Jerusalem Post reported.
Haley addressed the Trump administration’s decision to leave the U.N. Human Rights council, explaining, “Many encouraged us to remain on the council because the United States, they said, provided the last shred of credibility the Human Rights Council had. And that was precisely why we decided to leave. The United States should not lend any credibility to this cesspool of political hypocrisy and corruption.”
Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Nimrod Barkan, told the Globe and Mail:
We regret the Canadian change and we will express our regret officially to the Canadian representative in Israel, hopefully next week. We think the resolution is not a substantive resolution, but an attempt to delegitimize Israel and is part of the whole package that should be rejected out of hand. It was a surprise … we had no inclination or hint that Canada would change its vote on the regular annual UN resolutions and we trusted Canada, knowing that this is a circus of anti-Israeli resolutions. The UN is not court. It is an exercise in public relations and they have an automatic majority that votes against Israel … so we don’t think Canada should co-operate with this exercise.