President Donald Trump’s choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations became the latest administration nominee to express the belief that Israel exercises “biblical” dominance over the occupied West Bank.
Elise Stefanik’s comment came Tuesday during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where she also pledged to continue Trump’s “America First” mission.
“If confirmed, I stand ready to implement President Trump’s mandate from the American people to provide America First, national security leadership through peace through strength on the world stage.” , she said during her opening speech.
If confirmed as ambassador, Stefanik explained, she would vet U.S. funding for the U.N. and its constellation of agencies. It would also seek to counter China’s influence within the international organization and strengthen Washington’s unwavering support for Israel.
But it was his views on the West Bank that highlighted the starkest contrast between the Trump administration and that of his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
Stefanik was blunt when asked whether she shared the view of far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and former National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir that Israel has a “biblical right to the entire West Bank.
“Yes,” she replied during the exchange with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen.
When asked if she supported Palestinian self-determination, Stefanik evaded the question.
“I believe that the Palestinian people deserve much better than the failures they have suffered at the hands of terrorist leaders,” she said. “Of course they deserve human rights.”
A broader change
Over the past four years, the Biden administration has provided strong support for Israel at the UN. He has repeatedly vetoed UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire to end Israel’s war in Gaza.
However, the administration was prepared to stand up to its “ironclad” ally on the issue of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Such settlements are considered illegal under international law.
Stefanik’s comments are the latest indication that the new Trump administration would take a very different approach.
Trump’s first term saw a rise in settlements, as his administration removed a four-decade-old U.S. policy that recognized expansion in the West Bank as illegal.
Upon taking office on Monday, Trump rolled back Biden-era sanctions against far-right Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of violence against Palestinians.
Trump’s choice to become US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, also supported Israeli settlements in the West Bank, citing the Bible as justification. In a 2017 interview with CNN, for example, Huckabee claimed that the Palestinian territory did not exist at all.
“The West Bank does not exist. This is Judea and Samaria,” he said, using a biblical name.
And in 2008, while campaigning for president, Huckabee claimed that Palestinian identity itself was a fiction.
“I have to be careful saying this because people are going to be really upset. There really is no such thing as a Palestinian,” Huckabee, who has not yet had a confirmation of charges hearing, said at the time.
“Alongside Israel”
Stefanik has long been one of Trump’s staunchest defenders in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In December 2023, however, she reached a new level of notoriety by virally questioning three university leaders from Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, pressuring them over alleged “anti-Semitism” on the campus. Two of the three presidents subsequently resigned.
Critics said his accusations helped prompt other university leaders to suppress pro-Palestinian protests on campus, fearing public backlash.
In her opening remarks at Tuesday’s confirmation hearing, Stefanik hailed herself as “the leader in the fight against anti-Semitism in higher education,” citing her 2023 interaction with university presidents.
“My oversight work led to the most-watched testimony in congressional history,” she said. “This hearing of university presidents was heard around the world and viewed billions of times. »
Responding to questions from bipartisan lawmakers, Stefanik pledged to continue – and expand – America’s legacy of support for Israel at the UN. The United States is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and therefore has veto power.
She reiterated the US position that Israel is unfairly targeted by the UN, denouncing what she called “anti-Semitic rot” within the organization.
The United States currently funds about a fifth of the UN’s regular budget, regularly drawing Trump’s ire.
On Tuesday, Stefanik promised “a comprehensive assessment of all UN sub-agencies” to ensure “every dollar (goes) to support our American interests.”
She added that she would oppose any US funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
Legislation passed by the US Congress last year bans funding until March 2025 for the agency, which humanitarian groups say provides irreplaceable support to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
During his hearing, Stefanik also defended Israel, despite criticism from UN experts that its methods in Gaza are “consistent with genocide.”
“It is a beacon of human rights in the region,” Stefanik said of Israel.
Stefanik’s hearing came just hours after former Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, became the first member of the new administration to be sworn in.