Trump nominee: I’ll use role to combat UN ‘antisemitic rot;’ Israel has biblical right to entire West Bank

Trump nominee: I’ll use role to combat UN ‘antisemitic rot;’ Israel has biblical right to entire West Bank

Jacob Magid

US President Donald Trump’s nominee to become the ambassador to the United Nations says she will use the role to combat “antisemitic rot” at the UN.

“Combatting antisemitism is something I am deeply committed to doing in this role, and it’s one of the reasons why I was interested in this position during my conversations with President Trump,” Elise Stefanik tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her confirmation hearing.

She says she used her current role as a House lawmaker to combat “antisemitic rot” in the US, an apparent reference to her tough questioning of university heads regarding their handling of anti-Israel protests. Stefanik says she hopes to take the same approach at the UN.

“The US is the largest contributor to the UN by far… Our tax dollars should not be complicit in propping up entities that are counter to American interests, antisemitic, or engaging in fraud, corruption or terrorism,” she says. “As the world faces crisis after crisis, with hostages including Americans still held in Hamas captivity, to national security challenges ranging from China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran… it has never been more critical for the United States to lead with strength and moral clarity.”

She highlights that there are more resolutions at the UN condemning Israel than any other country and blasts the UN agency for women’s lackluster and delayed condemnation of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, which included sexual violence against Israelis.

Stefanik characterizes the UN Relief Agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA as a “program that is not meeting the mission of the UN. We need to roll our sleeves up, deliver reforms and make sure our dollars are going to programs within the UN that work and have a basis in rule of law, transparency, accountability and strengthen our national security.”

“We should never tolerate any US taxpayer funds going toward terrorism. I was one of the members that voted to defund UNRWA… We can look to organizations within the UN which are proven organizations such as UNHCR, the World Food Program – which still need reform efforts and modernization – but don’t have the terrorist ties that UNRWA had that were exposed during October 7,” she says.

Stefanik declines to endorse a two-state solution or Palestinian rights to self-determination, Haaretz reports. “I believe they deserve so much more than the failures they’ve had from terrorist leadership,” she says.

Asked whether she agrees with far-right lawmakers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir that Israel has a biblical right to the entire West Bank, Stefanik responds in the affirmative.

She calls for an assessment of the UNIFIL observer mission role, following mounting allegations that it didn’t do anything to stop repeated Hezbollah violations of Security Council Resolution 1701 in Lebanon.