Nikki Haley, the former US presidential candidate turned Trump supporter, spent Memorial Day not honouring fallen US servicemen but visiting Israel, which is waging a brutal massacre in the Gaza Strip, The New Republic reports.
On Monday, Haley released photos from a visit to southern Israel, where she met with survivors of the 7 October Hamas attack. Haley told reporters that the US “must do what Israel needs to do and stop telling them how to fight this war.”
She also travelled to Israel’s northern border with Israeli Knesset member Danny Dannon, who on Tuesday posted a photo on his X account with the text “Finish them!” The post also included a photo of Haley signing Israeli artillery shells with the message: “Finish them! America loves Israel!”
Dannon’s post also included a Hebrew message hinting at military strikes on southern Lebanon, referring to two Lebanese cities, according to Google Translate. He wrote:
“This is what my friend, the former ambassador, Nikki Haley wrote today about a shell during a visit to an artillery post on the northern border. The time has come to change the equation—the residents of Tyre and Sidon will evacuate, the residents of the north will return. The IDF can win!”
A report by an Israeli peace activist suggested that Haley had visited settlements in the West Bank that are considered illegal under international law.
Israel’s offensive continues
At a time when the International Criminal Court is condemning Israel for possible war crimes in Gaza, the appearance of endorsing military strikes on another country goes against America’s efforts to prevent a wider war in the Middle East.
On Monday, an Israeli strike on a motorbike in southern Lebanon struck a hospital compound, killing the motorbike driver and a hospital guard. But more explicitly, Haley supports Israel’s war in Gaza, in which official figures show that the Israeli strikes have killed at least 36,096 people, including 15,000 children – figures that probably do not include Israel’s latest attack on Rafah.
Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis condemned Haley’s actions on his X page:
“Nikki Haley in Israel scribbling “FINISH THEM”on the shells that the IDF is about to fire into Rafah in defiance of the International Court of Justice. Biden provided the shells, Republicans autograph them. The US political class is united in its complicity with this genocide.”
