RJC Statement on the Nomination of Samantha Power to be U.N. Ambassador

Washington, D.C. -- The Republican Jewish Coalition released a statement today in response to the announcement that President Obama intends to name Samantha Power as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said, “Samantha Power has a record of statements that are very troubling to Americans who support Israel. We urge members of the U.S. Senate to question her closely about her past statements and writings. She must respond to the strong doubts about her views raised by that record. Senators should also examine her tenure as head of the President’s Atrocity Prevention Board to see what results, if any, came out of her time there.

“The U.S. has an important role to play in the United Nations to defend freedom, Western values, and our democratic allies. We need an ambassador who will fight for U.S. interests in the international arena. Samantha Power must show the Senate and the American people that she can fill that role.”

Background:
In 2008, as an academic who taught at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Samantha Power suggested  that the U.S. should invade Israel militarily to impose a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and protect “a new state of Palestine.” Her writing and public appearances reflected her views that special-interest lobbies in this country (read, the “Israel lobby”) have too great an impact on our foreign policy in the Middle East.

More recently, she served as the first director of President Obama’s new Atrocity Prevention Board. In her months in that role, the APB was silent about the thousands of civilians killed by the Syrian government, the attacks by the Sudanese government of the Nuba tribes in South Sudan, and other crises around the world. The APB has no web site or social media presence, and has not responded to letters from human rights activists and genocide scholars regarding ongoing atrocities.