TEL AVIV – U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley wrapped up a three-day visit to Israel on Friday with a tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, where she emphasized the importance of always “choosing a side.”
“We must always honor and remember the lives lost during one of the most horrible times in history. There is a lesson here. Leadership is not about power. Leadership is the acknowledgment and value of human dignity. We must always choose a side,” Haley wrote in the Yad Vashem guest book before laying a wreath in memory of the victims of the Nazis.
On Thursday, Haley crossed the country by helicopter accompanied by IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi and her Israeli counterpart Danny Danon, who briefed her on the security challenges posed by Gaza-based terror group Hamas.
“Hamas pours its resources into arms and digging murderous terror tunnels instead of investing in a better future for the residents of Gaza,” Danon said. “They educate their youth to hate Israel instead of providing them with the opportunity to grow and flourish.”
Haley also toured a Hamas-dug terror tunnel and spoke with residents of a kibbutz nearby who told her that despite the threat of rockets and terrorist infiltrators, they wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
“We finally feel we have someone protecting us at the UN,” said Diana Ben David, a teacher at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, the Times of Israel reported.
Haley also received security briefings along the border with Lebanon. While in the north, she visited another kibbutz, met with UNIFIL head Maj.-Gen. Michael Beary and spoke to female IDF soldiers responsible for monitoring developments directly across the border.
Earlier in the day, Haley visited a UNRWA school in the Aida refugee camp close to Bethlehem, posting later that the visit gave her the “chance to talk with [Palestinian] girls and women about their lives, their hopes and their dreams.”
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