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 canand 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."
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