“Finish Them”

On May 29, 2024, while Israel was in the process of attacking Rafah, failed U.S. Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley  wrote “Finish them” on an Israeli artillery shell.

Criticism rightly followed from around the world.

The excuse was given that Israel intended to fire the shell in question at the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel have been systematically shelling each other in response to the assault on Gaza. Lives have been lost and citizens have had to evacuate homes on both sides.

Haley later added to her singular pro-Israeli stance by stating that Israel accepting a ceasefire in Gaza would be the same as accepting defeat, that Israel must finish the job and defeat Hamas.

Nikki Haley is likely best known for her unsuccessful attempt to win the Republican presidential candidate nomination against Donald Trump. Among earlier ventures, she served as Governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017, and as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under the Trump regime from January 2017 through December 2018.

Haley has long expressed her support for Israel and against Palestinian issues, particularly during her time as U. N. Ambassador. She led efforts in the U.N. to stop funding for the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.  She played a key role in facilitating the U.S. withdrawal from the U.N.’s Human Rights Council. She actively supported the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. And one of her first actions as U.N. Ambassador was to block the nomination of former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as U.N. envoy to Libya on the grounds that it showed unfair bias in favour of the Palestinian Authority to the detriment of Israel.

Perhaps no one has better expressed the heartfelt international reaction to Nikki’s Haley’s callous publicity stunt in Israel than Dr. Alice Rothchild with her poem Finish Them.

Finish Them – a poem

DR. ALICE ROTHCHILD
JUNE 05, 2024

she crouched in front
of an array of artillery shells
Nikki Haley’s left hand
holding the tapered tip
of a grey-green missile
her right, a blue pen
a gold bangle sliding towards her elbow
as she wrote
“Finish them
America [heart emoji] Israel.”

signed her name
this former UN ambassador.

“Finish them.”

the burned body of a headless child in Rafah
clutched by her horrified father
the premature babies huddled together
no oxygen
no warmth
no heartbeat
the pregnant woman
bleeding to unconsciousness
in a ramshackle tent
on the shores of
the glittering Mediterranean Sea.

finish them?

when Kristi Noem
governor of South Dakota
shot her puppy
the outrage was palpable.

but killing innocents
in Gaza?

It is a tragedy that Nikki Haley’s barbaric conduct and her indifference to the sufferings of innocent Palestinian civilians are not aberrations but in fact reflect the views of a large segment of the political elite in America and around the world.

It is up to each and every one of us to expose and denounce these abhorrent and genocidal actions and mindsets.

 

Daily atmospheric CO₂ [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]

Latest daily total (June 17, 2024): 426.83ppm

One year ago (June 19, 2023): 423.75ppm