*Washington: *US envoy Nikki Haley has accused the UN of “bullying” Israel,saying she will not tolerate a situation where the world body of 198countries spend half their time attacking the Jewish nation.
Referring to her Indian-American heritage and some of the bitterexperiences she endured while growing in her home town in South Carolina,Ms Haley said she has zero patience for bullying.
When I grew up, we were the only Indian family in a small southern town inSouth Carolina. On the whole it was a great friendly community. But thatdidn’t mean every day was great. My parents were immigrants. My father worea turban, my mother wore sari. There were times that we got bullied, the USambassador to the UN said.
I stood up to bullying then, and I will stand up to bullying Israel at theUN, said 46-year-old Haley, the first Indian-American to serve on a Cabinetrank position in any presidential administration in the US.
“We will not tolerate a situation that a world body of 198 countries canspend half their time attacking one country: Israel. What used to be amonthly Israel bashing session now at least has more balance. But we’renever going to put up with bullying,” she said amidst a standing ovationfrom the audience.
She alleged that in the UN and throughout the UN agencies, Israel does getbullied.
“It gets bullied because the countries that don’t like Israel are used tobeing able to get away with it. That just doesn’t sit well with me, MsHaley said in her address to the powerful American Israel Public AffairsCommittee (AIPAC).
The UN spends more than half of its time singling out one country. We willnot stand for it any longer,” Ms Haley said as she reiterated the pledge ofthe Trump administration for its commitment to the Israeli.
If we want to talk about security in the Middle East we should talk aboutIran or Syria or Hezbollah, Hamas, ISIS, the famine in Yemen. There areprobably 10 major problems facing the middle east and Israel doesn t haveanything to do with any of them,” she said.
Defending the decision of President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem asthe Israeli capital, she said America did not make Jerusalem as IsraeliCapital, it was, is and always will be Israel’s capital.
“What President Trump did, to his great credit, was recognise a realitythat American presidents had denied for too long, she said.
Mr Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December and announcedthat the US embassy would move to the city in May, shortly after Israel’s70th anniversary.
The decision caused uproar in the Arab world and led Palestinian leaders toreject a US role in mediating a resolution to the decades oldIsraeli-Palestinian conflict.
Trump yesterday said he might even the visit Jerusalem in May this year toopen the new American Embassy there.