Ambassador Nikki Haley's work to cut millions of dollars from the United Nations' budget sends an important notice that it has become a "place of hate" when it comes to the United States and Israel, Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Monday.
"As far as what Nikki Haley has done I think it's terrific," Dershowitz told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "It's about time we sent a message to the U.N., which has become a place of hate when it comes to the United States and Israel."
On Sunday, the United States applauded a $285 million cut that had been made in the U.N.'s core budget, after the General Assembly adopted a $5.396 billion budget for 2018-2019, just below the $5.4 billion that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had sought.
The United States provides for 22 percent of the U.N.'s core budget, and Haley commented in a statement that "inefficiency and overspending" were "well known" at the world agency.
"You know that Israel's representative to the U.N. once said that if Algeria introduced a resolution that the Earth was flat, and that Israel flattened it, it would win by a vote of 120 to 63, with 28 abstentions," Dershowitz said Monday. "There has to be consequences for this kind of voting."
President Donald Trump did the right thing in recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Dershowitz said, as it "struck the balance that President [Barack] Obama had undone when he changed the status quo at the end of his presidency by declaring the Western Wall, the Jewish quarter."
"What President Trump did was to restore balance and everybody should have recognized that," he said. "That vote at the Security Council and the General Assembly should be responded to and Nikki Haley, who has become a real hero, did exactly the right thing."
Dershowitz said he also believes more countries will decide to move their embassies to Jerusalem following Trump's action. Already, Guatemala has decided to move its embassy.
"There will be a lot of pressure not to do it," Dershowitz predicted. "Israel has established very good relations with some central and South American countries. African countries, India, China, they are not going to vote with Israel right away. But they are seeing a closer relationship."
Many of the Arabian Gulf states are also now seeing Israel as a possible ally against Iran, he continued, blaming Obama for creating a stronger Iranian regime by "handing over so much money" during the nuclear agreement with that country.
"Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and America's strongest ally in the Middle East," Dershowitz said. "The United States and other countries ought to be supportive. The capital of Israel has always been Jerusalem. There can also be a Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem if the Palestinians come to the bargaining table, and make the kind of compromises that are essential to secure Israel's security, and want to make peace. The Palestinians want there to be a Palestinian state more than a Jewish state . . . we will see peace."
Dershowitz also commented Monday on the announcement Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe will be retiring at the beginning of the year.
"Everybody tells me who knows McCabe, and has worked in the FBI, that he is a very decent guy and was an excellent deputy director," Dershowitz said. "Having said that, he should have recused himself immediately from any investigation involving Hillary Clinton because of his wife's connection to Hillary Clinton."
Such actions are a "big problem" with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, Dershowitz added.
"Whether there actual bias or not, we will only know in the end," he said. "It should never be there when you are conducting an investigation of this importance involving people who so high in government or intend to be so high in government, candidates for president of the United States."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.