President Obama's nomination for UN ambassador, Samantha Power, made it through a 'confirmation hearing lite' with few Senators bothering to ask her any tough questions. As Senator Rubio discovered when he pushed harder, the responses were duck, laugh, talk about kids/husband, and repeat "I love America." Apparently, that will be enough. In the meantime, her administration handlers concocted a
story for the Israeli paper Haaretz explaining how terrific she is on Israel. As proof, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting, Ben Rhodes and an anonymous "senior official," explained that she was the one signing off for the White House on Israel-related UN policy decisions and statements all along. Rhodes said: "Sam had been the point person at the White House on all issues related to Israel at the UN." "Samantha has been the White House official in contact with our team in the Human Rights Council..." Her products were said to include the U.S. decision to boycott the Durban II conference in 2009, the handling of the Turkish Mavi Marmara flotilla crisis in May 2010, and "stopping" the unilateral Palestinian statehood initiative in the United Nations. So by the administration's own admission, Samantha Power is already responsible for the following. Power advocated joining the UN Human Rights Council and bestowing it with the human rights legitimacy that comes with U.S. membership, despite it being Israel-delegitimization headquarters. The administration refused to boycott Durban II until 48 hours before the conference and only after public pressure. The indecision ruined the ability of Israel and Jewish organizations to build a major coalition against the Durban Declaration. On the Turkish flotilla incident, the administration allowed the matter to blossom into a UN Security Council presidential statement with almost unheard of speed. Twenty-four hours after the event, the Council issued a statement which eventually subjected the Israeli defense forces to a UN-driven investigation – something the U.S. defense establishment would never have accepted. Turkish-Israel relations still suffer from the Turks having been encouraged to believe that they were wronged. And the Palestinians - now officially called at the UN "the state of Palestine" - upgraded their status to that of non-member observer state. Power is now out of the closet. At the UN, Israel is out of the frying pan - and into the fire.