Who will be the next US ambassador to the UN? ALL ISRAEL NEWS hears two names in mix

Now that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has officially accepted his credentials in Jerusalem and his Israeli counterpart, Yechiel Leiter, has done the same in Washington, D.C., there is one more diplomatic position that remains open with major implications for the relationship between the two countries. 

Who will be President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations? 

The president had originally planned to tap New York Rep. Elise Stefanik for the role, but ultimately withdrew her nomination, citing the importance of keeping her in the House of Representatives to help preserve the Republicans’ narrow majority.

“There are others that can do a good job at the United Nations," he posted. 

The international arena is where the U.S.-Israel alliance often stands out. Especially given the built-in bias in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) against the only Jewish state in the world, and the U.S. veto power at the Security Council that has been used time and again to protect it. 

Between 2015 and 2023, UNGA adopted 154 resolutions against Israel and 71 against other countries – UN Watch reported. In 2024 alone, the UN passed 17 resolutions targeting Israel and only six on the rest of the world combined.

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which sits in Geneva, Switzerland, is another body that tends to demonize Israel. It has a permanent agenda item only for that matter, all while ignoring Hamas’ crimes and praising Qatar, a member of the UNHRC, for its human rights record. Other members of the current session include Cuba, China, Sudan, Algeria and Bangladesh. 

That is, in part, why both the first and second Trump administrations decided to pull significant funding from the United Nations and its various anti-Israel bodies. In February, Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the UNHRC. Along with UNESCO and UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees), the White House announced that it “deserve(s) renewed scrutiny.”

In 2018, then-U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley referred to the UNHRC as a “so-called Human Rights Council” and blasted it for its “disproportionate focus and unending hostility toward Israel.”

Israel’s former ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, used to joke that there is no need to have an Israeli representative at the UN Headquarters in New York if Haley is already there. 

While the former South Carolina governor is not being considered to reassume her previous role, ALL ISRAEL NEWS is hearing that Trump is considering two prominent figures for the appointment.

One is Ellie Cohanim, who served as U.S. Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism at the Department of State in the first Trump administration. The second is former U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman. Both are Jewish. 

Ellie Cohanim

Cohanim was the State Department's first Iranian-born envoy. She is fluent in Farsi and is familiar with Arabic. As part of her work, she led diplomatic initiatives that resulted in forging groundbreaking partnerships in the Arab world to combat antisemitism, as part of the Abraham Accords "Warm Peace" team.

Nowadays, Ellie is a Senior Fellow with the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) focusing on U.S. policy on Iran and the Middle East. She also serves as senior advisor on Global Affairs to World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder. American viewers likely recognize her from various appearances on U.S. media channels, such as Fox News and Newsmax, and as a National Security contributor to the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN).

David Friedman 

Friedman is Trump’s long-time friend and an Orthodox Jewish lawyer, who served as an ambassador in the region for a full four years, between 2017 – 2121. He helped negotiate the Abraham Accords and was nominated for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts alongside Jared Kushner.

That same year, Friedman received the National Security Medal from the president after overseeing the move of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and achieving U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. 

Friedman was very critical of the Biden administration's approach to Israel throughout the war against Hamas and its overall approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Last year, he told THE ROSENBERG REPORT why he is convinced that Israel must have sovereignty over its God-given land and that he is advocating for a one-state solution: The State of Israel. 

Other top contenders reportedly rejected the idea of serving at the United Nations, according to Politico. Among them were Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Richard Grenell, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Germany and as envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations in Trump’s first term.