Elise Stefanik pledges support for Trump, Israel at UN ambassador confirmation hearing

Rep. Elise Stefanik pledged to represent Trump's "America first" agenda and be an unwavering supporter of Israel at her confirmation hearing for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday, a day after President Donald Trump was sworn into office.

Stefanik told senators on the Foreign Relations Committee that, if confirmed, she would clamp down on U.S. funding for humanitarian entities that are "counter to American interests." She closely echoed complaints against the U.N. lodged by Trump and other Republicans – namely, that the international body takes advantage of the U.S. – its largest funder – and is biased against Israel.

Stefanik, a Republican representing New York, was the first administration nominee Trump announced after he won the election, underscoring her tight relationship with the president.

Stefanik also won broad praise from conservatives for her questioning of the presidents of Harvard University, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania over their policies on antisemitism at a congressional hearing held while mass rallies against Israel's war in Gaza swept American college campuses. Two of the three presidents later stepped down.

Stefanik blasts U.N. for 'antisemitic rot'

Throughout the hearing, Stefanik lambasted the U.N. for "antisemitic rot," saying it had failed to appropriately condemn Hamas' Oct. 7 attack and that its resolutions against Israel were baseless.

"If you look at the antisemitic rot within the United Nations, there are more resolutions targeting Israel than any other country, any other crisis combined," she said. "We need to be a voice of moral clarity... for the world to hear the importance of standing with Israel," she said.

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The U.N.'s human rights office said Israel may be guilty of multiple war crimes related to its military assault on Gaza in June of last year. Its Human Rights Council said the devastation wreaked on Palestinian civilians of the enclave amounted to "extermination."

Barely a single senator, Democrats included, asked Stefanik about Palestinian civilians in Gaza. But Sen. Chris Van Hollen asked if she agreed "that in order to achieve long term peace and stability in the Middle East, that we have to secure the human rights and rights of self determination for both Israelis and Palestinians."

"I support human rights for all, and I think it's a disgrace that Hamas Hezbollah have stripped human rights of the Palestinian people."

Stefanik also touted her vote in Congress to defund UNRWA, the UN's organization for Palestinian refugees. UNRWA was the largest humanitarian aid organization in Gaza and ran around half of the enclave's schools before Israel banned its operations after nine of its employees were found to have involvement in the Oct. 7 attack.

Stefanik defends Elon Musk's gesture compared to Nazi salute

Sen. Chris Murphy pressed Elise Stefanik on a gesture Elon Musk made at a speech after Trump's inauguration on Monday that many compared to a Nazi salute. Antisemitism should be called out "on both sides of the aisle," Murphy said.

But Stefanik said the gesture was nothing of the kind.

"No, Elon Musk did not do those salutes," she said. "The American people are smart and they see through it. They support Elon Musk."

The Anti-Defamation League later said the gesture was not a sieg heil, calling it an "awkward" move during a "delicate moment" in a statement met with some derision and disagreement.

Murphy read several comments from Christian nationalist and white supremacist groups, including the Proud Boys, praising Musk's gesture.

"I simply don't believe that if a member of the squad made that same gesture last night, that there wouldn't be commentary from you and others," he said, referring to the "squad," a group of Progressive Democratic congressmembers.

Stefanik says Israel has 'biblical right' to West Bank

Asked by Van Hollen if she agreed with the view held by some far-right Israeli officials, including finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and ex-national security minister Ben Gvir, that Israel has a "biblical right to the entire West Bank," Stefanik said she did.

"Peace and stability" in the region would be "very difficult to achieve...if you continue to hold the view that you just expressed," Van Hollen shot back.

It came as Israel launched what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "large-scale and significant military operation" in the West Bank on Tuesday, killing at least eight Palestinians and wounding 35, after groups of Israeli settlers violently attacked Palestinians, and vandalized property in the area the day before.

In a raft of executive orders he signed hours after taking office, Trump revoked a set of sanctions on nationalist Israeli settlers who had attacked Palestinians in the West Bank.

The UN passed a resolution last year that deemed Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal.

Stefanik says she supports pulling out of WHO

In a raft of executive orders Trump signed hours after his inauguration, he removed the U.S. from the World Health Organization, part of the U.N. Trump has long criticized WHO, which prepares for global health emergencies, for its response to the Pandemic.

Stefanik said she supported the decision. "WHO failed on the global stage in the COVID Pandemic, for all the world to see."

Trump first started to pull out of the WHO in 2020, but former President Biden reversed the decision.

Stefanik accused WHO of being "taken over by CCP propaganda," referring to China's communist party.

Health experts have expressed concern that the U.S. pulling out of the organization could have global health ramifications.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elise Stefanik stands behinds Trump, Israel at UN ambassador hearing