Trump’s UN ambassador pick says Israel has ‘biblical right’ to West Bank | News about Donald Trump
President Donald Trump’s choice to be the one United States Ambassador to the United Nations became the latest administration nominee to express his belief that Israel has “biblical” dominion over the occupied West Bank.
Elisa Stefanik’s comments on Tuesday came during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where she also pledged to promote Trump’s “America First” mission.
“If confirmed, I stand ready to carry out President Trump’s mandate from the American people to provide America First national security leadership on the world stage, through peace through strength,” she said during her opening remarks.
If confirmed as ambassador, Stefanik explained that she would conduct an audit of US funding of the UN and its group of agencies. It would also seek to counter China’s influence in the international organization and strengthen Washington’s unwavering support for Israel.
But it was her stance on the West Bank that signaled the biggest contrast between the Trump administration and that of his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
Stefanik was definitive when asked if 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 a conversation with Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen.
When pressed on whether she supports Palestinian self-determination, Stefanik sidestepped the question.
“I believe the Palestinian people deserve much better than the failures they have experienced from terrorist leaders,” she said. “Of course they deserve human rights.”
Wider shift
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 stop Israel’s war in Gaza.
However, the administration was willing to stand up to its “armored” ally on the issue of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Such settlements are considered illegal under international law.
Stefanik’s comments were the latest indication that the new Trump administration will take a very different approach.
Trump’s first term saw a surge in settlements, with his administration scrapping a four-decade-long US policy that recognized expansion into the West Bank as illegal.
Upon taking office on Monday, Trump canceled Biden-era sanctions on far-right Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of violence against Palestinians.
Trump’s pick for US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has also supported Israeli settlements in the West Bank, citing the Bible as justification. In a 2017 CNN interview, for example, Huckabee claimed that the Palestinian territory did not exist at all.
“There is no such thing as the West Coast. It’s Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the biblical name.
And in 2008, when he was campaigning for president, Huckabee asserted that Palestinian identity itself was a fiction.
“I have to be careful when I say this, because people are going to get really upset. There is no such thing as a Palestinian,” Huckabee, who has yet to face a confirmation hearing, said at the time.
“With Israel”
Stefanik has long been one of Trump’s most ardent defenders in the US House of Representatives.
In December 2023, however, it rose to a new level of prominence with her virus testing three university leaders from Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, pressuring them over alleged “anti-Semitism” on campus. Two of the three presidents resigned after that.
Critics say her accusations helped prompt other university leaders to crack down on pro-Palestinian protests on campus, fearing a public backlash.
In her opening remarks at Tuesday’s confirmation hearing, Stefanik hailed herself as a “leader in the fight against anti-Semitism in higher education,” citing her interactions with university presidents in 2023.
“My oversight work led to the most watched testimony in congressional history,” she said. “This hearing with university presidents was heard around the world and watched billions of times.”
Answering questions from bipartisan lawmakers, Stefanik vowed to continue — and expand — America’s legacy of support for Israel at the UN. The US 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 being unfairly targeted at the UN, condemning what she called “anti-Semitic rot” within the organization.
The US currently pays about one-fifth of the UN’s regular budget, a regular sticking point for Trump.
On Tuesday, Stefanik promised “a full assessment of all UN sub-agencies” to ensure “that every dollar [goes] support our American interests”.
She added that she would oppose any US funds going to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
Legislation passed by the US Congress last year bars funding until March 2025 for the agency, which aid groups say provides indispensable support to Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza.
In her hearing, Stefanik also defended Israel, despite criticism of UN experts that his 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 choice for secretary of state, became the first member of the new administration to be sworn in.
