In a speech one critic likened to “a bully throwing a temper tantrum on the world stage,” U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday slammed U.N. member states for refusing to line up in support of President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and threatened to withdraw funding if America continues to be “disrespected.”
“The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation,” Haley declared in a speech at U.N. headquarters in New York. “When a nation is singled out for attack in this organization that nation is disrespected. What’s more, that nation is asked to pay for the privilege of being disrespected. In the case of the U.S. we are asked to pay more than anyone else for that dubious privilege.”
Watch:
.@nikkihaley: “The United States is by far the single largest contributor to the @UN… We’ll be honest with you: when we make generous contributions to the UN, we also have a legitimate expectation that our goodwill is recognize and respected.” pic.twitter.com/yjzeG06Ttu
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 21, 2017
Despite Haley’s threats—and her complaint that the U.S. isn’t seeing sufficient return on its “investment”—the U.N. General Assembly voted 128-9 to declare Trump’s Jerusalem move “null and void.” Guatemala, Togo, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, and Palau voted with the U.S and Israel against the resolution. Canada was among the 35 nations that abstentions.
The General Assembly’s overwhelming rebuke of the Trump administration came just a day after Haley warned in a Facebook post that “yes, the U.S. will be taking names” during the vote.
128 countries (out of 172) cast UN vote demanding US withdraw recognition of Jerusalem
If @NikkiHaley is taking names, that’s a lot of ‘em.
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) December 21, 2017
In a statement following Thursday’s vote, Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, applauded the 128 nations that “stood up to U.S. pressure, which could not obscure the urgency of speaking out against the recklessness and injustice of declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel.”
Nikki Haley misrepresenting what the people of the US want in a UN speech that sounds like it was written by Tony Soprano. JVP statement to follow soon. pic.twitter.com/AO8E5EGRDO
— JewishVoiceForPeace (@jvplive) December 21, 2017
“Despite threats from the Trump administration, the U.N. General Assembly vote today showed once again that the U.S. and Israel are increasingly isolated from the global consensus regarding Israel’s appalling disregard for Palestinian rights,” Vilkomerson concluded.
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