Trump's pick to replace Nikki Haley in UN pledges to follow in her footsteps
"There will be no stronger ally than Kelly Craft for Israel on behalf of the United States," she said. "There is no room whatsoever for anti-Israel bias or antisemitism."
By OMRI NAHMIASKelly Craft testifies before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on her nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in Washington(photo credit: KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS)
WASHINGTON - Kelly Craft, US President Donald Trump's nominee to replace Nikki Haley as the ambassador to the UN, promised on Wednesday to follow in the footsteps of her predecessor when it comes to Israel.She made the comments during a confirmation hearing in Washington."Without US leadership, our partners and allies would be vulnerable to bad actors at the UN," she said at the hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."This is particularly true in the case of Israel, which is the subject of unrelenting bias and hostility in UN venues. The United States will never accept such bias. And if confirmed, I commit to seizing every opportunity to shine a light on this conduct, call it what it is and demand that these outrageous practices finally come to an end."Haley left her post at the end of December. Since then, the US mission to the UN is working without a permanent ambassador. Craft, a major GOP donor from Kentucky, currently serves as the ambassador to Canada.Asked about the efforts by the BDS movement to push for a "blacklist" of companies who are doing business with the West Bank, Craft said that "there's no place to be able to release [a list of] American businesses - or any other businesses for that matter - that could be harmed by a list being released."She also vowed that "if confirmed, there will be no stronger ally than Kelly Craft for Israel on behalf of the United States. There is no room whatsoever for anti-Israel bias or antisemitism, and with the strength of this committee, I am certain that we can defeat any areas whether it's a human rights council and bringing up anti-Israel bias every opportunity they have, or any place in the UN, there is no place for that.""I think that we really need to stress to Israel and promote them," she said. "They're the best promoters themselves, they have startup nation, and they need to be promoted to push themselves and normalize within the UN system because they have a lot to offer."
