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.
Stop nursing grudges
New moms, try to relax.
Some mothers can’t, or choose not to, breastfeed babies for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they adopted, had surgery, their milk dried up or they stopped nursing or pumping after returning to work or just don’t want to do it.
It’s none of anyone’s business. But as I’ve witnessed, this can bring them serious guilt trips, usually inflicted by other moms.
A new study by the journal Pediatrics reveals that breastfeeding isn’t likely to make kids smarter and has little impact on long-term cognitive development and behavior.
Researchers do believe breast milk provides health benefits for children.
The Mommy Wars continue.
Make the mite-y fall
Gross! Dust mites — lumpy, hairy, fat-bodied, microscopic bugs that feast on humans’ dead skin and hair, then poop, die and leave their carcasses inside pillows — are irritating the sinuses of allergy and asthma sufferers and are bound to make the rest of us sick, research shows.
The good news is one may defeat the little beasties by washing pillows (yes, pillows) every six months and pillowcases weekly. Be vigilant, people. The little monsters will always return.
What a ditty old man
British crooner James Blunt’s tooth decay-provoking 2004 anthem “You’re Beautiful’’ was worse than I thought.
“It’s about a guy who’s high as a f–king kite on drugs in the subway stalking someone else’s girlfriend when that guy is there in front of him, and he should be locked up or put in prison for being some kind of perv,” Blunt, 43, said in recent interviews.
Give this cloying ditty a rest.