Donald Trump with Nikki Haley – Reuters

After former UN Ambassador and governor of North Carolina, Nikki Haley, chided Democrats for attempting to impeach President Trump, calling the move a “waste of time,” and said people needed to calm down in order to allow the incoming administration to assert itself and deal with real threats presented by international human rights violators like China, Russia, and Iran, she attacked President-elect Biden on his economic policies.

In a series of tweets targeting the Democrats’ agenda of “free giveaways” and a move away from America’s capitalist values, Haley accused Biden of placing excessive financial burden on American taxpayers while channeling their money to groups and individuals who hadn’t earned it.

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• ‘Obama-Biden administration wanted to just buy their friends’

“Biden released details on a $1.9T spending bill (on top of $3.5 trillion Congress [has] already spent) that includes $1,400 government checks regardless of employment status, giveaways for state and local government,  and unemployment benefits regardless of how the economy or workers are doing,” tweeted Haley

“Time to face the harsh reality, socialist Bernie Sanders will become the chairman of the Sen Budget Committee. He has vowed to use his position to enact his progressive agenda on healthcare, climate, infrastructure spending, & cutting defense spending.”

Haley referred to a USA Today story about a student-run grocery store in a small Texas town. The article claims a school principal who initiated the project as saying that “About 43% of students in the Sanger Independent School District are considered economically disadvantaged. About 2,750 students are enrolled in the school district, 3.6 percent of whom are considered homeless.”

The idea behind the project is that it allows students to use “points” to purchase real-life items based on family size, with points “replenished” on a weekly basis.

“A Texas school district opened a free grocery store to help disadvantaged students. The student-run store allows students to “buy” essentials without money. “If we can make our food pantries look like a grocery store…we can keep dignity in people,” Haley tweeted regarding the article.

“Biden’s plan to double the federal minimum wage would kill between 1.3 and 3.7 million jobs and burden small businesses that are already struggling. We need to remember that government spending isn’t ‘free.’ Ultimately, taxpayers will be called upon to foot the bill,” she added.

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/295017

The post Nikki Haley: ‘Biden will be left of Obama’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: I watch this, and I’m thinking, wow, — do they want to bribe the mullahs again? The Clintons bribed Kim Jong-il. That didn’t work out. Bribing the mullahs didn’t work out.

And, by the way, there was never any place, any time inspections anyway associated with that 10-year deal that expired, for $150 billion.

To me, the Iranians have been at war with the world. They want Iranian hegemony.

Am I wrong?

NIKKI HALEY, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: You know, I mean, you’ve got to look at the fact that the general provisions of the Iran deal were going to end in October. So, we’re going towards a time where we have to bring them to the negotiating table anyway.

But make no mistake, Sean. What the president did left the Iranian regime completely flat-footed. They did not see this coming. They thought they could continue to do their multiple strikes.

But when it got to the lives of Americans, the president is never going to allow that to happen. It happened with the contractor. When they started to threaten our diplomats at the embassy, our military personnel, the president put a stop to it.

You could see the ayatollah crying today, because that was his number one strategist. That was the number one guy that has literally told all of the proxies in all of these countries who to kill, when to kill, how to kill. And that guy is now gone.

HANNITY: And killing Americans.

HALEY: So, Iran is having to regroup and figure out, now what?

So, make no mistake. They’re shaking in their boots. They’re trying to figure this out.

HANNITY: Well —

HALEY: And I think the president showed great decisiveness, great resolve.

And I think that this was a long time coming. If you look back two years ago, I gave a speech at the U.N. on Soleimani, and talked about the threats. The president has had restraint all of this time since we gave that speech.

And I will tell you, we said then, he was not — by the entire Security Council, he was banned from leaving Iran. What was he doing in Iraq anyway?

Trying to move in.

HANNITY: Great question, yes.

What — do you agree with — listen, I have always liked General Petraeus. He’s a great general, patriot, hero in this country. He said, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of this particular action. It’s more significant than the killing of bin Laden, even the death of al-Baghdadi.

And he said Soleimani was the architect, operational commander of the Iranian effort to solidify control, the so-called Shia crescent stretching from Iran to Iraq, through Syria and Southern Lebanon.

I think that’s the reason why the Jordanians, Egyptians and Saudis now are working with the Israelis, which I don’t think anybody saw coming.

HALEY: Well, and I will tell you this. You don’t see anyone standing up for Iran.

You’re not hearing any of the Gulf members. You’re not hearing China. You’re not hearing Russia. The only ones that are mourning the loss of Soleimani are our Democrat leadership, and our Democrat presidential candidates.

HANNITY: That is sad.

HALEY: No one else in the world, because they knew that this man had evil veins. They knew what he was capable of. And they saw the destruction and the lives lost based from his hands.

---

Sources: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/01/06/nikki_haley_only_people_mourning_the_loss_of_soleimani_are_democratic_leadership_presidential_candidates.html?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=mixi&utm_campaign=realclearpolitics 

[Disclaimer]

The post Nikki Haley: Only People Mourning The Loss Of Soleimani Are Democratic Leadership, Presidential Candidates first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

At this point, we can relegate the admonitions and advisories to the small print reserved for the disclaimers about possible side effects on bottles of medicine and past-performance-is-no-guarantee-of-returns notices on mutual-fund prospectuses. Sure, it is possible that Donald Trump will lose the presidential election in 2020. It is also possible that he will choose not to run. Many things are possible. But as I have explained in these virtual pages — taking care to post those cautionary bulletins — it is likely that Donald Trump will run again for the presidency in 2020 and it is very likely that he will win and win by a much larger margin than his victory in 2016.

I set forth my thoughts on the subject at the end of March. Now we are at the end of April and I would say that the odds are even stronger in Trump’s favor. Why? Well, there is that delicious number 3.2, for example. That would be the ‘impossible’ rate of growth the US economy achieved in the first quarter of 2019. If you’re looking for eggs, you are going to have to wait until the hens get around to pushing out a new batch. The current crop is smeared over the faces of ‘experts’ like Michael Hiltzik, who joined the anti-Trump chorus in a rendition of ‘Trump’s-a-moron-and-will-never-get-3-percent-growth.’ He and Paul Krugman can take turns licking the egg off each others faces. The wretched Krugman warned that a Trump victory would bring a ‘global recession’ and then, on November 9, 2016, when his worst nightmare was realized and Trump was elected, said that ‘If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never,’ The markets closed Friday at yet another historic high.

The existence of Paul Krugman at The New York Times reminds us that that former newspaper now functions largely as a large-scale fantasy game in which certain people, like Krugman, pretend to be journalists while others — the paper’s dwindling audience — pretend to be informed.

In any event, now that we’re into the pre-game warm-ups for the 2020 election, there is all sorts of static to cut through. Anyone interested in Robert Francis ‘Beto’ O’Rourke, the DUI survivor and former politician, should act soon. That hissing sound you hear is the air going out of his campaign balloon.

Over the last couple of days, both Trump and Beto held rallies. Beto’s, in Las Vegas, drew 35 people. Trump’s, in Green Bay, drew more than 10,000: every seat was filled and there were throngs outside the auditorium. A collateral benefit of Trump’s rally, as Glenn Reynolds pointed out, is that it drained the life out of one of the most irritating Washington social events, the nauseating White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Many people don’t even realize it took place last night. That is good. Thank Trump.

But the bookies are out in force now. It will take a while to whittle down the Democratic field from the current 5,476 people running. The least embarrassing candidate on that side would be Joe Kinnock — I mean Biden. It is of course charitable not to remind the veteran presidential candidate that he plagiarized a speech by Neil Kinnock, but you know how the media is, especially if you’re a slightly doddery old white guy with an advanced palpation habit. But I suspect that Biden will welcome references to Neil Kinnock, since it will distract attention from his threat, while Vice President, to end $1 billion of aid to the Ukraine unless a public prosecutor who was looking into a business on whose board his son, Hunter, sat be fired. The whole Democrats-in-Ukraine story is just getting going and it is going to be nice — for us spectators, I mean, not for Joe Biden. Here are a few nice paragraphs that I think you’ll see referred to frequently in coming months:

‘As Ukraine underwent dramatic changes in 2014, Vice President Joe Biden played a critical role in the Obama administration’s involvement in the revolution that ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

‘Following the revolution, Biden would use his influence to help force the creation of the troubled National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU). Notably, during the 2016 elections information leaked from NABU on Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort that helped to create the false narrative that Trump colluded with Russia to win the elections.

‘Biden would also use the threat of withholding a billion dollars in American loan guarantees to pressure Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire the prosecutor general. At the time the prosecutor had been investigating Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas giant that Biden’s son, Hunter, was a board member on.’

Kind of says it all, what?

On the other side of the aisle there is Trump and — who? Mike Pence? Other names are being floated, including that of Nikki Haley, which CNN thinks would be a good thing. Maybe it would. Haley has matured noticeably in the last couple of years. She’s gone from being anti-Trump to being an ornament in his administration. She was the most impressive US ambassador to the UN since Jeane Kirkpatrick. Also, for a not inconsiderable portion of the population, she has the right chromosomal configuration and, being born to an Indian Sikh family, is a genuine Indian unlike the beer-swigging (cringe alert!) Elizabeth ‘Fauxcohantas’ Warren.

Who knows what the president will do? Not CNN or their nameless ‘sources.’ If Mike Pence is his running mate, he will win. If Nikki Haley is his running mate, he will win. If you, Dear Reader, are his running mate, he will probably win.

Yes, yes, a lot can happen between now and November 2020. But if these past two years are anything to go by, Trump will crush whomever the Democrats put up. The only real question is by how much.

Source: https://spectator.us/trump-runs-win-2020/

The post It doesn’t matter who Trump runs with: he’ll still win in 2020 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Last month a conference in Warsaw brought together high ranking officials from 60 countries, called to discuss the current chaos in the Middle East, and to zero in on the threat posed to the region by the regime in Tehran.

This year, as Iran observes the 40^th year of its revolution, its geostrategic objectives remain unchanged. But one other constant that has been in place since the fateful day that a triumphant Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini left France for Tehran is Iran’s incessant call for the elimination of Israel.

It didn’t take long for the regime in Tehran to send its message on this subject. I was involved in efforts in 1979 and 1980 to save the lives of Iranian Jewish leaders Habib Elghanian and Albert Danielpour, both of whom were summarily executed because of contact with Israel and Israelis. Among the charges against Elghanian was “friendship with the enemies of God;” against Danielpour it was working to form “the Zionist government in Israel.”

Over these four decades, hardly a day has passed without threats against Israel. The level of vitriol has remained essentially the same over this period, spouted by religious and military leaders at the highest level.

There was former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s “As the Imam said, ‘Israel must be wiped off the map,’” delivered in a speech to a “World Without Zionism” conference in 2005.

This past June, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Israel a “cancerous tumor,” which “must be eradicated,” a favorite theme he has used for years. In August Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, in remarks at an Al-Quds Day rally, organized each year as an anti-Israel-fest, said that “the life of the Zionist regime was never in danger as it is now.”

Mohsen Rezaee, who formerly led Iran’s Revolutionary Guard threatened last February that Iran would “level Tel Aviv” if Israel attacked Iran. And just a few weeks ago, another Revolutionary Guard commander, Brig. Gen. Yadollah Javani, announced that “we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa” should the United States attack.

Underscoring its verbal threats, Iran always makes sure to mark the sides of the missiles it tests with the threat “Israel Must Be Wiped Out.”

Iran’s demonization of Israel extends to Jews generally. For years the Iranian regime has sponsored a cartoon contest focused on Holocaust denial. A 2016 winning entry depicted an old-style cash register topped by the gates and tower of a concentration camp. The register drawer, with the words “Shoah Business” on the outside, was filled with cash, with the number 6,000,000 showing just above the drawer. The key to the register, fashioned into a Star of David, contained the words “B’nai B’rith.”

When the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev famously announced that “we will bury you,” at a 1956 gathering of Western ambassadors at the Polish embassy in Moscow, we took him seriously. To us, the Cold War was very much about Soviet nuclear capability and its desire to bring the West down. The West mobilized all its resources to meet the threat, led by NATO and a consensus among the world’s democracies that the Soviet threat must be met.

Today, Israel is the only country to be incessantly threatened with annihilation. There are numerous border disputes in the world between neighbors, and trade wars which flare up and die down. But where in the world, except for Israel, is any country’s major cities threatened with being razed, or its very existence called a “cancerous tumor?”

Some years ago, there was an attempt by leading Western legal figures to bring Iran to the International Court of Justice on the basis of the militant language against Israel, asserting its threats constituted “incitement to genocide.” That effort, which seemed to have stalled, should certainly be reignited.

In his State of the Union speech this year, President Donald J. Trump called out Iran when he said “We will not avert our eyes from a regime that chants ‘Death to America’ and threatens genocide against the Jewish people.” U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley regularly castigated Iran on its threats to Israel.

Yet in the rest of what we used to call the civilized world, most seem not fazed in the least by Iran’s genocidal language. Some dismiss it as rhetoric for home consumption, and some just see it as Iranian bullying-as-usual, or as just “Israel’s problem.”

The United Nations Humans Rights Council will open its new session next week, and the question of the Iranian threats will not be on the agenda. Countries will simply look away, as many did three generations ago when similar language directed then at Jewish communities in Europe went unanswered. Not completely analogous, but close enough to cause us very deep concern.

Can it be that there are no leaders in the international community worthy of the name who will stand behind Israel? Will Israel have to continue to face these existential threats virtually alone?

Those who continue to swear by Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal) are whistling past the graveyard. The list of concerns about Iran is well known: the support for terrorism, the military build-up in Syria, the rockets shipped to Hezbollah, the theft of Lebanon’s sovereignty and the extension of malign influence in Iraq and Yemen.

The Iranian call for the elimination of Israel never seems to make that list. After all that history teaches us, what a verdict that is on the notion of decency and scruples in the international community.

The Warsaw gathering is an important development in the campaign to develop a consensus on the threat to the region, and beyond, from the Iranian regime. The genocidal talk emanating from Tehran should be placed high up on the agenda when these countries meet again. In the meantime, those who continue to cling to the JCPOA at the expense of all else should be ashamed of their indifference to Israel’s continually being on the receiving end of such hatred.

Daniel S. Mariaschin is CEO of B’nai B’rith International.  He directs and supervises programs, activities, and staff around the world. He serves as director of B’nai B’rith’s International Center for Human Rights and Public Policy, coordinating its programs and policies on issues of concern to the Jewish community. Mr. Mariaschin meets with world leaders, seeking to advance human rights, protect the rights of Jewish communities worldwide, and promote better relations with the state of Israel.

Source: https://thehill.com/opinion/international/433249-40-years-of-iranian-threats-against-israel-and-few-pay-any-attention

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(UPI) — Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, described the world body as “hopelessly biased” against Israel on Tuesday in her last address to the monthly Security Council meeting.

Haley, who will leave her post in January, spoke during the council’s meeting on the Middle East.

“Over the past two years, I have attempted to provide more value in this monthly meeting by using my time to speak about other pressing problems in the Middle East,” Haley said. “I’ve done it to illustrate that most of the region’s problems have absolutely nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And I’ve done it to encourage the U.N. to move away from its obsession with Israel.

But she broke from tradition to address the Israel-Palestinian issue. Two week ago, the General Assembly failed to adopt a U.S. resolution condemning terrorism by Hamas. Yet it has passed passed more than 700 resolutions critical of Israel over the years, she said.

“This U.N. obsession has been entirely unproductive,” Haley said. “It’s actually worse than that. The UN’s obsession with this issue has been counterproductive. It has sent a loud and false message to the Palestinians that they just might be able to achieve their goals by relying on the U.N., rather than through direct negotiations. And it has sent a loud and accurate message to the Israelis that they can never trust the U.N. This biased obsession is not the path to peace. It is the path to an endless stalemate.”

Haley mentioned the Trump administration plans to unveil a Middle East peace plan early next year. Rather than being a few pages “containing unspecific and unimaginative guidelines” she said “thoughtful detail” will be included.

“It brings new elements to the discussion, taking advantage of the new world of technology we now live in,” the U.S. ambassador said. “It recognizes that realities on the ground in the Middle East have changed in powerful and important ways. This plan will be different from all previous ones — the critical question is whether the response to it will be any different.”

In her speech, she noted both sides would benefit with a peace agreement, saying “the Palestinians would benefit more, and the Israelis would risk more.”

“Israel is a thriving, strong, prosperous country,” Haley said. “It has always wanted peace with its neighbors. It has clearly demonstrated its willingness to make big sacrifices for peace, including giving up large areas of land. But Israel will not make a peace agreement at just any price, and it shouldn’t. No U.N. resolutions, anti-Semitic boycotts or terrorist threats will ever change that.”

She noted that Israel has faced threats to its security, saying: “It would be foolish for it to make a deal that weakened its security. And yet, even in the face of constant threats, Israel has become one of the leading nations in the world. Israel wants a peace agreement, but it doesn’t need one.”

Palestinians want peace, she said.

“Like the Israelis, they are a deservedly proud people,” Haley said. “They too do not need to accept a peace agreement at any price. But the condition of the Palestinian people is very different. Economic opportunity, healthcare, even electricity are all scarce in the Palestinian territories. Terrorists rule much of the territory, undermining the safety of all civilians.

She blamed the nation’s leadership on not working toward a peace plan.

“The Palestinian people are suffering terribly while their leadership clings to 50-year-old demands that have only become less and less realistic,” Haley said. “What awaits the Palestinian people with a peace agreement are the prospects of a massive improvement in the quality of their lives and far greater control over their political future.”

During less than a two-year tenure, the United States withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council — which Haley called a “cesspool of political bias” — and has cut funding to the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency.

And in a change from 2017, the United States voted against an annual resolution condemning the “occupation” by Israel of the Golan Heights. Last year, it abstained.

“My hope is that as soon as — I am soon to be an outside observer who has invested so much time on this issue — that we will not still be having the same conversation, the same old speeches, in years to come,” she ended her speech.

President Donald Trump has nominate Heather Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman and former Fox News host, to succeed Haley in 2019.

Source: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2018/12/19/8191545193039/?sl=1

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Haley’s robust comments go further than other Trump administration officials, most notably President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. But perhaps recognizing that the young prince will likely still be around if she pursues higher office in the future, Haley was also calibrated in her assessment.

When I asked her for her view of the prince, she noted, “That’s an interesting question,” and paused for a few seconds before answering. But then Haley cut to the crux of the issue most in the news at present, the crown prince’s culpability in the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. “First and foremost,” Haley said “[the crown prince] owes us some accountability for what happened to Khashoggi. Without question.”

Haley suggested that how the prince addresses the aftermath of Khashoggi’s murder will be “a defining moment” for his leadership. But Haley also noted that Crown Prince Mohammed has “a lot of good ideas,” and “wants to change with the times.” While Haley’s stance on Saudi Arabia is thus somewhat harsher than other officials and certainly implies that Haley believes Crown Prince Mohammed was involved in Khashoggi’s killing, it sits on the same baseline of President Trump’s realism.

Considering American interests, I believe this is the right approach.

Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/nikki-haley-mohammed-bin-salman-has-to-lose-his-thuggish-nature

The post Nikki Haley: Mohammed bin Salman ‘has to lose’ his ‘thuggish nature’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

• Haley: U.S. to oppose UNGA call for Israel to return Golan Heights to Syria
• For first time U.S. opposes UNGA call to return Golan to Syria

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks to the General Assembly before a vote in the General Assembly June 13, 2018 in New York. . (photo credit: DON EMMERT / AFP)

The United Nations General Assembly is set to disavow Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and ignore Jewish ties to its most holy site, the Temple Mount in a highly publicized debate set to take place in New York late Thursday.

According to the text of the Jerusalem resolution, likely to be voted Friday, the UN will call for “respect for the historic status quo at the holy places of Jerusalem, including the Haram al-Sharif, in word and in practice.”

The resolution also states that “any actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem are illegal and therefore null and void and have no validity whatsoever.

Finally the text calls “upon Israel to immediately cease all such illegal and unilateral measures.”

The text on settlement boycott, calls on member states, “Not to render aid or assistance to illegal settlement activities, including not to provide Israel with any assistance to be used specifically in connection with settlements in the occupied territories, in line with Security Council resolution 465

(1980).
It’s expected that during the meeting that starts Thursday and is likely to run into Friday that some six pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel resolutions will be passed.

The debate is part of the UN’s annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. It marks the 71st anniversary of the US passage of Resolution 181, which called for independent Jewish and Arab states on territory that had been under British control since the end of World War I.

At the time it was accepted by Jews and rejected by the Arabs.

The resolutions are cyclical and voted upon annually at the UNGA and in other UN forums. Israel has focused its energy in recent years on similar text in other smaller bodies, such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Executive Board.

Less attention has been given to the UN General Assembly where the Palestinians have automatic support among its 193 member states.

The Trump Administration strong support of Israel, particularly thought is Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has also helped highlight the anti-Israeli resolutions at the General Assembly.

Debates have increasingly become less about hostiles between Israel and the Palestinians and more about acrimony between the United States and the Palestinian Authority.

In an unusual move Hamas called on the United Nations to support its right to bear arms against Israel in a letter the terror group’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh wrote to UN General Assembly President Maria Fernada Spinosa.

He spoke out in advance of UN debate later possibly Friday or Monday on a US back resolution condemning Hamas rocket fire against Israel.

“We reiterate the right of our people to defend themselves and to resist the occupation, by all available means, including armed resistance, guaranteed by the international law,” Haniyeh wrote.

“The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted dozens of resolutions that affirm the right of peoples to independence, self-determination and struggle by all available means, peaceful and non-peaceful, for that right. The UN singled out the Palestinian people for dozens of relevant resolutions, including 2621, 2649, 2787 and 3236,” he said.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said in response, “Hamas speaks about international law while it fires rockets into civilian populations, holds the bodies of IDF soldiers and Israeli citizens, and uses its own people as human shields.”

“A terrorist organization going to the UN for assistance is like a serial killer asking the police for assistance. Israel and the United States will continue to mobilize the countries of the world into a united front against the terrorism that Hamas engages in on behalf of Iran,” Danon said.

Hamas has forcibly ruled the Gaza Strip since it ousted Fatah in a bloody coup in 2007. The international community has solely recognized the Palestinian Authority as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people.

The UN, through its Middle East Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov, is working together with Egypt to reconcile Hamas and Fatah. The US resolution also speak of support for those efforts.

In its letter to the UN, Hamas put itself forward as a legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and also spoke to of rejection of any Israeli claims to any portion of that territory.

It condemned the US for adopting the Israeli narrative of the conflict and for its support of Israeli “aggression” against the Palestinian people.

“The last of these efforts is the attempt by the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, in the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People which is held on November 29 each year, to submit a draft resolution condemning the Palestinian resistance and the right of our people to defend themselves against this racist and continuous occupation for more than seven decades.

“There had been not only that, but it has taken a turn when the US President Donald Trump administration sought to reduce the number of UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue claiming that “many biased resolutions against Israel are not helpful,” Haniyeh said.

“We greatly count on the members of the UN General Assembly and their stand by international legitimacy in support for the right of peoples to defend themselves and thwart these aggressive American endeavors,” he added.

Source: https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/UNGA-to-disavow-Jewish-ties-to-Jerusalem-call-for-Golan-withdrawal-573196

The post UNGA to disavow Jewish ties to Jerusalem, call for Golan withdrawal first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, April 13, 2018.AP/Julie Jacobson

The post WATCH Nikki Haley to Fox News: World Leaders Laughed at Trump at the UN Out of ‘Respect’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The meeting to discuss the Islamic Republic will be attended by the heads of state of the UN Security Council’s members. As it holds the presidency of the Security Council for this month, the US has the leverage to direct talks toward specific topics and in a specific direction, which is deemed critical.

Without a doubt, the US decision to lead a meeting on Iran is a blow to the theocratic establishment. The timing is significant because it coincides with the 73^rd session of the UN General Assembly.

As a result, Iranian leaders from across the political spectrum have been enraged. Messages from several hardline and moderate leaders echoed what Iranian foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter: “There’s only one UNSC resolution on Iran. Donald Trump is violating it and bullying others to do same.” Zarif added: “Now he (Trump) plans to abuse presidency of SC to divert a session — item devoted to Palestine for 70 years — to blame Iran for horrors US and clients have unleashed across the Middle East.”

First of all, Iran’s accusation that the US is abusing its presidency is absurd. The presidency of the Security Council rotates among its members every month and the role of the president is to examine the secretary general’s provisional agenda, to approve it, to preside over meetings, to speak to the press as a representative of the Security Council, and to discuss any other major global crisis or conflict.

Shouldn’t Iran’s destabilizing behavior and military adventurism across the Middle East be one of the topics discussed by the Security Council?

Considering the Iranian regime’s involvement in terrorism, support for militias and human rights violations, its leaders should not be surprised the US wants to discuss their government at the United Nations.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh

Iran’s reckless drive to extend its influence throughout the region provides Syria’s Bashar Assad with extremist reinforcements, it funds the weapons he needs to massacre Syrian civilians, drive millions of Syrians from their homes, and turn city after city into wastelands. None of those resources have been turned on Daesh.

In Yemen, Houthi rebels armed and financed by Iran spread death and destruction. In Iraq, militias led by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps incite sectarian strife and thwart efforts by the central government to unite the nation in a campaign to isolate and drive out Daesh. The Iranian leaders have even frequently boasted about currently controlling four Arab capitals: Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa.

With respect to human rights and global terrorism, the Iranian regime is top in the world when it comes to the number of executions per capita, is the world’s leading executioner of juveniles — according to Amnesty International — and is the top state sponsor of terrorism in the world. Shouldn’t the brutal activities of such a regime be at least one of the topics discussed in the UN body?

Secondly, it is ironic that the Iranian leaders are accusing the US or other regional powers of bullying nations to turn against Tehran.

Since its establishment in 1979, one of the fundamental pillars of the Islamic Republic has been linked to Ruhollah Khomeini’s revolutionary principle of undermining the US and Gulf states, as well as threatening any state or non-state actor that the Iranian leaders perceive to be an ally of Washington or the likes of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain.

Iran has not solely relied on political posturing or incendiary rhetoric. Tehran has resorted to asymmetrical warfare and terrorist attacks, as well as the assassinations of those who disagree with the regime.

While several of Iran’s plans, such as a plot to assassinate Riyadh’s ambassador to Washington, have failed, many other measures succeeded in significantly scuttling foreign policy objectives and damaging the national security of the US and its allies. Examples of such schemes with the direct or indirect involvement of Iran’s leadership include the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, the Riyadh compound bombings of 2003, the suicide bombing in Lebanon in 1983 that killed 241 American servicemen, the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, as well as involvement in the 9/11 attacks on the US mainland in 2001. In 1994, it carried out the bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina, which is still under investigation.

Taking into consideration the regime’s deep involvement in terrorism, support for militias and terrorist groups, as well as human rights violations, Iranian leaders must not be surprised that the US wants to discuss their government at the UN Security Council.

But, by investing significant political and financial capital, the ruling ayatollahs have long pressured the international community into turning a blind eye to Iran’s foreign policy.

To confront the Iranian regime’s threat to the region and the world, the international community must cut off the flow of funds and forces from Tehran. This means that discussing the Iranian regime’s destructive behavior and military adventurism in the region ought to be on the top of the UN Security Council’s agenda.

• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. He is a leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, a businessman and president of the International American Council. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

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