The United Nations was founded for noble purposes, but for many years it has been an organization devoid of morality while filled with hypocrisy.
From the moment I arrived at the U.N. as Israel’s ambassador, I sought to raise awareness and change this culture. When U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley arrived in January 2017, she immediately made this an important goal as well.
In one of her first meetings, Haley came to my office to discuss the U.N.’s obsessive focus on Israel, while it ignores wars and atrocities elsewhere in the world. To her, this was unacceptable.
In such a dark place, Haley has brought moral clarity and, in doing so, changed the culture and agenda of the U.N.
Haley instinctively understood that the U.S. and Israel are natural allies, united by our common moral values. Her arrival – just weeks after the U.S. abstained from the December 2016 Security Council Resolution 2334 that condemned Israel’s presence in much of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall – was a welcome relief.
Haley assured all of us, and put the world on notice, that there is “a new sheriff in town.”
Not long after she took up her post, I hosted the American U.N. ambassador on her first trip to Israel. There she toured the Old City of Jerusalem, saw firsthand the security challenges we face on our northern borders, and met entrepreneurs from Israel’s leading high-tech companies.
Haley brought these experiences and knowledge to the United Nations, returning more determined than ever to join me in enacting real change at the organization.
While we knew that the U.S. and Israel would often have to fight alone, we decided to work together to fight back against the U.N.’s hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy, both privately and publicly.
In March 2017, the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) issued a report that labeled Israel an “apartheid state” with “racist” practices. The day the report was published, Haley and I met and decided to publicly fight it.
The U.S. ambassador has called out evil wherever it takes hold. America and Israel have worked together to change the climate of the United Nations from one of ignorance to one of truth.
Within a few hours, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced that he would not accept the report, and ESCWA’s Undersecretary-General Rima Khalaf resigned after realizing her biased position would not be tolerated.
We have taken principled stands against the Human Rights Council and UNESCO. Haley made good on her threat to leave the Human Rights Council after it refused to end its absurd fixation on condemning Israel, while ignoring human rights abuses in Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, and other countries.
And Haley considered UNESCO’s distortion of historical and cultural facts – such as omitting the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and referring to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron as a Palestinian heritage site – a “chronic embarrassment … (and) hostile to our values.” Shortly thereafter, the U.S. left UNESCO, with Israel soon to follow.
Our approach focused on both defense and offense. Every time a biased resolution against Israel was voted on in the Security Council, I knew I could count on Haley, even if it meant she would stand alone.
Whether it was an attempt to reverse the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem, or the resolution intended to condemn Israel for defending itself from Hamas’ attacks from Gaza, Haley bravely held up her hand to veto the resolution – even when she was the only one in the room to do so.
Our efforts did not end in the Security Council, where the U.S. has veto power. We took on the General Assembly and its automatic voting majority against Israel.
We built a coalition of the “moral majority.” These are countries that share our common values, with whom we are proud to stand together, even if we make up a minority of member states.
At first, the moral majority was silent, often continuing to support resolutions that ran counter to our collective common morals. But as we approached these countries behind the scenes, we began to chip away at the ingrained biases, prejudices, and double standards that have characterized the U.N. for so many years.
We are now beginning to see the impact. In August 2017, Haley and I sharpened the mandate of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, requiring it to report incidents involving Hezbollah. In June, we worked together to include new language in the U.N.’s Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy that condemned terrorists’ use of human shields.
Later that month, after Hamas instigated thousands of Gazans to riot along our border for weeks on end, to burn our agricultural lands with flaming kites and threaten to murder our civilians, we achieved an unprecedented success.
For the first time in the U.N., a plurality of states in the General Assembly voted in favor of condemning Hamas and its actions.
This was quickly followed the next month by Ambassador Haley including language in an Economic and Social Council resolution about holding soldiers’ bodies and civilians captive, to pressure Hamas further.
Haley has also taken an unequivocal stance against the Iranian regime’s regional adventurism and nuclear ambitions. She has joined us in speaking out against Hamas’ terrorism, and she has exposed the Palestinian Authority’s terror payments.
The U.S. ambassador has called out evil wherever it takes hold. America and Israel have worked together to change the climate of the United Nations from one of ignorance to one of truth.
Today, we have achieved a plurality in the General Assembly. Tomorrow, we will win more votes and the moral majority will prevail.
Haley deserves credit for her hard work to change the agenda and usher in a new era at the U.N. It was an honor to work every day with a woman who led with a strong voice for the American people and was never afraid to stand up for truth and justice, even if it meant standing alone.
Ambassador Haley has been a voice of moral clarity, and I have no doubt that she helped guide the U.N. towards a more just tomorrow.
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