Staunch Israel supporter Nikki Haley to arrive on solidarity visit next week

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Former U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley will arrive in Israel next week on a solidarity visit.

Haley, who is also a former challenger of Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is scheduled to meet Israeli leaders and officials and tour the communities on the border with Gaza. In addition, she will visit the mostly evacuated communities along Israel's northern border.

Danny Danon, Israel’s former ambassador to the UN and a current Member of Knesset in the Likud party, will accompany Haley on her visit. Both politicians served as ambassadors to the United Nations simultaneously from 2017 to 2018.

In March, Haley left the primary race for the Republican nominee, after losing 15 out of 16 states to Trump.

The former ambassador is known as a staunch supporter of Israel and immediately following Oct. 7, said that Israel should not hesitate to defeat Hamas.

“I say this to Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu: Finish them. Finish them. Hamas did this. You know Iran is behind it. Finish them,” she said at the time.

“When [Hamas] did this, when they made this surprise attack, when they took these hostages when they murdered these families, they were celebrating. And what were they celebrating? They were saying: ‘Death to Israel,' ‘Death to America.’"

“This is not just an attack on Israel. This is an attack on America,” Haley added.

During her bid for the Republican nominee, she also advocated for dealing with the master behind the terror proxies.

“They (Iran) only respond to strength. You’ve got to punch them and punch them hard. The way you do that is to go after their infrastructure in Syria and Iraq…that’s when they’ll back off,” she said during the final Republican presidential debate.

Haley has also stated that while she was UN ambassador, the Palestinian Authority and the Islamic Republic of Iran had no interest in the oft-touted answer to the Middle East conflict.

“It was always the Palestinians and Iran opposing a two-state solution. They never wanted that because they wanted to eliminate Israel altogether,” she said.

“Whatever Israel says they feel like will keep them safe, I will support.”

In December, she condemned the anti-Israel bias of the United Nations.

“The worst-kept secret at the UN is that antisemitism is operating just beneath the surface. I saw it in my first few days on the job as US ambassador to the UN, after I met with Israel’s ambassador,” she wrote in an op-ed for The Jerusalem Post.

“Only Israel is denounced for choosing its capital. Only Israel is censured for defending itself from rocket attacks and suicide bombers. Apparently, it would be better if Jews let themselves be killed," she continued.

“The double standard clearly indicates something deeper at work – something far more hateful. This veiled antisemitism continues to this day. Last year, the UN General Assembly passed 15 resolutions condemning democratic Israel. It passed 13 resolutions condemning all other countries combined, in a world that includes murderous tyrannies like North Korea, Communist China, and Vladimir Putin’s Russia.”