‘What would we do?’: Nikki Haley reflects on how US would react to an Oct. 7
Haley continues to note her belief that the United States "owes one of our dearest friends in the world, Israel, support, and the fact that they've been through what was our 9/11 moment.
Former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley spoke about Israel, the condemnation it has received for its conduct against Hamas and other Middle East terrorist organizations, and reflected on how the US would respond in a similar circumstance.
Haley's comments came in a conversation with Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon in a video titled "Israel's 9/11," uploaded to her YouTube channel on Thursday.
"Just imagine if, in America, one day there were thousands of terrorists that came into our country and went through communities and killed, robbed, burned, destroyed everything," Haley said. "Went to our military bases, took female soldiers hostage, killed other soldiers, went to Madison Square Garden... and killed so many people who were having fun at a concert."
"What would we do?" she asked. "Would we want a country telling us 'don't fight back'? Would we want countries in the UN telling us 'you don't deserve to have your hostages home?'" she asked, creating a parallel scenario of the Hamas attacks happening in the United States.
"...We wouldn't listen to a single person if that happened in America," Haley said, explaining the US would not take guidance on who, when and where to fight to return its people.
Haley noted her continuous belief that the United States "owe[s] one of our dearest friends in the world, Israel, support, and the fact that they've been through what was our 9/11 moment."
"The last thing we need to see on American streets are protests against a country who's still trying to heal from all that death and praise of a country that is named the number one sponsor of terrorism." Haley also said that her prayer is that Israel will no longer need to fight but that it can "continue to stand as a beacon of hope and that all this antisemitism goes away."
Status of the remaining hostages
During her conversation with Danon, Haley also asked about the status of the remaining 100 hostages still held in Gaza, to which the Israeli official responded by saying that many of them are living in tunnels and gave his estimate that at least half of the hostages are still alive. Still, he noted that Israel did not know who was alive or dead.
Danon also noted that the Red Cross has not visited the hostages throughout their entire time in captivity. The UN ambassador noted Israel "is willing to pay a heavy price. We are negotiating with those horrible terrorists because if we don't do it, we won't get them alive.
Bring them home ️ pic.twitter.com/ibebj5zdiH
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) December 27, 2024
"In the Jewish tradition, if we save the life of one person, it's a miracle, then we can deal with the bad guys afterwards," Danon said.
He concluded by saying that Hamas has been preventing a deal moving forward for the hostages' release with excuses.
Jerusalem Post Store
`; document.getElementById("linkPremium").innerHTML = cont; var divWithLink = document.getElementById("premium-link"); if (divWithLink !== null && divWithLink !== 'undefined') { divWithLink.style.border = "solid 1px #cb0f3e"; divWithLink.style.textAlign = "center"; divWithLink.style.marginBottom = "15px"; divWithLink.style.marginTop = "15px"; divWithLink.style.width = "100%"; divWithLink.style.backgroundColor = "#122952"; divWithLink.style.color = "#ffffff"; divWithLink.style.lineHeight = "1.5"; } } (function (v, i) { });