Choice for U.N. Post Gets Israeli Vote of Confidence By MARK LANDLER Published: June 7, 2013 WASHINGTON — Samantha Power, President Obama’s choice to be the next ambassador to the United Nations, is encountering resistance from pro-Israel groups for remarks she once made about Israel and the Palestinians. But on Friday, she got an unexpected vote of confidence from Israel’s representative in the United States. Michael B. Oren, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, said in an interview that Ms. Power, a journalist and academic who has written and spoken widely about human rights abuses, had a deep understanding of Israel’s security issues and sympathy for its concerns. Normally, Mr. Oren said, an Israeli government official would not comment on a presidential nomination that required Senate confirmation. He said he decided to make an exception in her case to dispel an impression that the Israeli government had qualms about her. On Wednesday, Mr. Oren posted Twitter messages welcoming the appointment of Susan E. Rice as national security adviser — a job that does not require Senate confirmation — and praising her predecessor, Tom Donilon. He remained silent on Ms. Power. On Friday, Mr. Oren said that Israel “will welcome whomever the president nominates and the Senate confirms as ambassador to the United Nations.” But he added: “Samantha Power and I have worked closely over the last four years on issues vital to Israel’s security. She thoroughly understands those issues and cares deeply about them.” Mr. Oren’s comments could quell the lingering effects of comments that Ms. Power made before entering government about American policy toward Israel. Among other things, she said the United States would need to make a “mammoth” commitment to secure a Palestinian state — a move that could mean alienating American Jews, a group she described as having “tremendous political and financial import.” The Republican Jewish Coalition and the Zionist Organization of America expressed their opposition to Ms. Power. In a statement, Morton A. Klein, the national president of the Zionist Organization, said, “Ms. Power’s record clearly shows she is viscerally hostile to Israel.” Chuck Hagel, Mr. Obama’s choice for defense secretary, was also accused of being anti-Israel. He defended his record and won a relatively narrow Senate confirmation vote. White House officials said they were not concerned about Ms. Power’s prospects, noting that she was not involved in the dispute over the attack on the American Mission in Benghazi, Libya, and that her advocacy of military intervention in Libya would endear her to hawks like Senator John McCain of Arizona. Indeed, Mr. McCain said in a statement on Wednesday, “I believe she is well-qualified for this important position.” And on Friday, another Republican hawk, Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, said Ms. Power was a “solid choice” to represent the United States in “an increasingly hostile body.” Ms. Power has several prominent Jewish defenders, including Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard Law School professor, and Joseph I. Lieberman, the former Connecticut senator. Some pro-Israel leaders said they viewed Ms. Power’s remarks as the indiscretions of a young woman in an academic milieu. They said her work in the Obama administration, where she was a senior director in the National Security Council, had been consistently supportive of Israel and the American-Israel alliance. Ms. Power has also cultivated American Jewish groups, meeting in 2011 with 40 leaders of these groups, where she expressed regret for some of her remarks and defended herself in emotional terms against charges that she had an anti-Israel bias. “Her views came out of the political and cultural environment she was in at the time,” said Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “But that’s in the past. She’s matured and moved on, and I look forward to working with her at the U.N.”
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 03:00:02 +0000
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