by Ben Weingarten
If you admired Rep. Stefanik’s takedown of college presidents coddling Hamas sympathizers, you’ll relish her readiness to confront adversaries on the world stage as the next U.S. Ambassador to the UN.
If you like what Rep. Elise Stefanik did to Hamasnik-coddling college presidents before Congress, you’ll love what Ambassador-Designate Stefanik is poised to do to leaders of America’s like-minded adversaries at the United Nations.
That was one takeaway from the New York congresswoman’s compelling confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
There, Stefanik made clear that she would speak and act boldly to advance President Trump’s America First agenda at an institution that has all too often proven subversive of its stated purpose, hostile to America and its allies, and exploitative of our nation’s generosity.
In her opening remarks, Stefanik asserted that the “UN has not lived up to” its “founding mission” to foster peace and security. Instead, the organization has served as something of a global affirmative action promoter of the adversarial and corrupt, abiding if not inviting war and the trampling of human rights while portraying itself as an international DEI bastion.
Indeed, as Stefanik and senators on the panel detailed and concurred, Turtle Bay has often served as a platform to elevate, empower, and treat as equivalent adversaries like China and Russia, alongside regressive regimes the world over; enabled foes to exploit and co-opt its internal organs to advance interests antithetical to our own; run cover for gross human rights abusers; executed programs rife with waste, fraud, and abuse; and perhaps above all else, as Stefanik testified, been marked with “anti-Semitic rot…pervasive within the UN system,” reflected in the singling out of Israel for isolation, delegitimization, and destruction.
Recognizing these failings and outrages is the first step to overcoming them. Stefanik did so and vowed to advance America’s national interest, pursuing peace through strength as a corrective.
America would demonstrate this strength, she emphasized, not just by speaking with the moral clarity illustrated in Stefanik’s forthright calling out of the UN’s depredations and defects or in standing with the Jewish state against what late UN Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan referred to as the UN’s “jackals,” but through leveraging all elements of U.S. power within the institution.
First among those tools, Stefanik suggested, is the U.S.’ vote on the Security Council—one that Democrat administrations have deviously manipulated to undermine allies like Israel in the past.
Perhaps the second most potent tool the U.S. has to wield influence at Turtle Bay comes in the form of our funding. America provides upwards of $18 billion in largesse, comprising nearly one-third of the body’s collective budget—making it by far the largest donor of the 193 members.
Stefanik vowed that she would engage in a systematic review of all such funding to ensure that it only flows to initiatives that make America “stronger, safer, and more prosperous.”
“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,” the ambassador-designate said.
The U.S. would seek to tie its funding to programs and initiatives with controls for transparency and accountability and tailor cuts accordingly, Stefanik indicated.
This is consistent with President Trump’s opening executive actions freezing foreign aid for review—which would seem to have implicated the Hamas-captured United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East that Trump I had defunded; once again withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party-promoting World Health Organization; and rescinding a Biden administration executive order that had shielded the UN-affiliated, America-and-Israel-targeting International Criminal Court from Trump I-imposed sanctions.
Stefanik also vowed to work with allies and partners at the UN to thwart America’s adversaries and defend our allies.
A major focus during her testimony was Communist China. The ambassador-designated indicated the U.S. would band together with partners to elect UN leaders and staff internal entities with like-minded personnel as part of a comprehensive “strategy to ensure that the CCP is not able to make inroads at the most senior levels of…technical organizations…and agencies across the UN.”
Relatedly, Stefanik asserted that she would endeavor to ensure that Taiwan “has the most maximum meaningful participation within the UN system, as it should in all international organizations.”
With respect to Iran, the ambassador-designate suggested imposing snapback sanctions in order to help box the regime and prevent it from dashing towards a nuclear weapon “will be an important tool to consider” as part of an anticipated maximum pressure campaign against the mullocracy.
As part and parcel of such a campaign, in order to build a broader bulwark against Tehran, Stefanik said America “should consider starting an Abraham Accords caucus within the United Nations to build on” the efforts to normalize relations between Israel and its former Sunni Arab foes successfully achieved during President Trump’s first term.
In one exchange illustrative of the kind of heat Stefanik would face at the United Nations, the ambassador-designate showed her mettle. Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland pressed the ambassador-designate on whether she would support “self-determination” for Palestinian Arabs—a seeming euphemism for the creation of a Palestinian state.
Stefanik refused, noting that she supported the rights of Palestinian Arabs but that Hamas had taken advantage of U.S. aid to violate those rights. Unacknowledged by Van Hollen was that Palestinian Arabs had “self-determination” in a Gaza ceded to them by Israel, elected Hamas, and turned it into a tyrannical terror state.
The senator followed up by asking Stefanik if she shared the view of much-maligned-by-the-left figures of the Israeli right, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and outgoing National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, that Israel has a “Biblical right to the entire West Bank”—i.e., Judea and Samaria, Israel’s ancient and biblical heartland.
Stefanik said, “Yes,” she did, a position in stark contrast to the UN’s jackals, who not only reject this view but cast the area as Israel “occupied” and seek to make it part of a future Palestinian state.
Stefanik’s testimony is backed up by her service in Congress. As she noted, she has “legislated on a number of critical issues ranging from military readiness, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and cybersecurity to missile defense. I have worked to enhance American intelligence capabilities, strengthen our alliances and partnerships, and deter our adversaries”—with a focus on combatting Communist China and Iran and defending Israel.
These foci are critical because, as Stefanik testified, the PRC presents “the most significant national security challenge” of our generation. Likewise, she called Iran “the most significant threat to world peace and specifically to the [Middle East] region.”
Israel, the heart of the Judeo-Christian West, meanwhile, has neutralized what Stefanik referred to as the Iran-led “axis of terror” in decimating Hamas and Hezbollah. Indeed, the benefits of a secure, sovereign, and strong Israel redound to the U.S. in the form not only of military, intelligence, and technological cooperation and development, or commerce, but also regional stability that allows us to extricate ourselves from the region on sound footing.
Ambassador-designate Stefanik recognizes the threats America faces and will doggedly fight to neutralize them while advancing our interests at the United Nations. The record shows she has demonstrated the tenacity and smarts to successfully execute the America First agenda at a forum that has been most hostile to it.
The ambassador-designate alluded to Moynihan, who spoke out against the notorious “Zionism is racism” resolution at the UN, as her model. Stefanik’s testimony and time in Congress reflect that she is poised to follow successfully in his footsteps.
The Senate ought to confirm Congresswoman Stefanik, alongside President Trump’s other nominees in the national security, defense, and foreign policy spaces, posthaste.
Ben Weingarten
Source: https://amgreatness.com/2025/01/25/stefanik-will-stand-stalwart-against-the-uns-jackals/
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