Power to the [chosen] people
Israel Hayom | Power to the [chosen] people.
Samantha Power tells Senate confirmation hearing she promises to end what she termed “unacceptable bias and attacks” against Israel, and will push for Israel to have a seat on the U.N. Security Council.
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Samantha Power testifies before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation, Wednesday
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Photo credit: Reuters
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U.S. President Barack Obama’s nominee for ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power promised to push for action on Syria and fight what she termed “unacceptable bias” against Israel at the world body during her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
“The United States has no greater friend in the world than the state of Israel,” Power told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday. “We share security interests, we share core values, and we have a special relationship with Israel.
“And just as I have done as President Obama’s U.N. adviser at the White House, I will stand up for Israel and work tirelessly to defend it,” she said.
The 42-year-old’s confirmation is expected to win strong support in both the committee and full Senate. The foreign relations panel will likely vote on Power’s nomination next Tuesday, said Senator Robert Menendez (D.-N.J.), its chairman.
Nominated to replace new National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Power took a tough line on attitudes in the United Nations on Israel.
She promised to end what she termed “unacceptable bias and attacks” against the close U.S. ally, and criticized Iran, calling for tightened sanctions.
She also said she would lobby for Israel to get a seat on the U.N. Security Council, a U.S. policy that has been blocked by the large number of countries that are cold or hostile toward the Jewish state. “The Security Council seat is one that has eluded Israel, despite its many contributions across the years, and I commit to you wholeheartedly to go on offense, as well as playing defense on the legitimation of Israel, and we’ll make every effort to secure greater integration of Israeli public servants in the U.N. system.”
She also promised to vigorously oppose any and all efforts by the Palestinian Authority to seek greater recognition in U.N. bodies, something the Palestinian leadership has pledged to continue doing.
“We need to deter the Palestinians in any way we can—and we need to get their attention,” Power said.
Power had been criticized by some conservatives for seeming to suggest, in a 2002 interview with an academic, that the U.S. Army might be needed to police the Middle East conflict if either Israel or the Palestinians move toward genocide.
Power has disassociated herself many times from that comment. On Wednesday, she called it part of “a long, rambling and remarkably incoherent response to a hypothetical question that I should never have answered.”
WarSclerotic 
July 18, 2013 at 6:36 PM
Samantha Power…You’ll need to move your nose more than once for us to buy your sudden pro Israel position.
July 18, 2013 at 6:49 PM
From Wikipedia:
Some individuals have accused Power of being hostile towards Israel, largely on the basis of statements she made in a 2002 interview with Harry Kreisler. When asked what advice she would give to the president if either the Israelis or Palestinians looked “like they might be moving toward genocide.” Power said that the U.S. might consider the deployment of a “mammoth protection force” to monitor developments between the Israelis and Palestinians. She characterized it as a regrettable but necessary “imposition of a solution on unwilling parties,” and “the lesser of evils.”[19] She clarified that remark on several occasions, including in an interview with Haaretz correspondent Shmuel Rosner in August 2008.[20] Many strong supporters of Israel have dismissed the charge that she is not a friend of Israel, including Alan Dershowitz,[21] Rabbi Shmuley Boteach,[22] Martin Peretz,[23] and Max Boot.[24] Boteach, who recently ran as a Republican congressional candidate in New Jersey, recalled that “she rejected utterly the notion she had any animus toward Israel [during their conversation]. She acknowledged that she had erred significantly in offering hypothetical comments that did not reflect how she felt.” In an article that he published after her nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the UN, he stated that “as a Jew I am in awe of Samantha’s achievement in emerging as the foremost voices against genocide in our time and I absolutely believe in her strong commitment to Israel’s long-term security.”[25] According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “[a]fter joining the Obama team in 2009 as a member of the National Security Council — a post she left in February — she assuaged many concerns [about her commitment to Israel], first by joining [Susan] Rice in taking the lead against the singling out of Israel at the United Nations. It was Power’s call, ultimately, to keep the United States out of Durban II, a 2009 reprise of the 2001 conference on racism in South Africa that devolved into a festival of Israel bashing.”[26] Power’s best known book, A Problem from Hell, does not discuss Israel.
From Louisiana Steve:
She’s driven entirely by the bogus international human rights movement in this world.