Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: EMET
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) speaks at an Endowment for Middle East Truth event in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 19, 2024
(JNS) — Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) vowed to fight Jew-hatred at the United Nations on Tuesday in one of her first public addresses since being named by President-elect Donald Trump as his choice to be the U.S. ambassador to the global body.
Speaking at the Endowment for Middle East Truth’s annual awards dinner in Washington, Stefanik, the chair of the House Republican Conference, called the United Nations a “den of antisemitism.”
“Even before the barbaric terrorist attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7, the U.N. has continuously betrayed Israel and betrayed America, acting as an apologist for Iran and their terrorist proxies,” Stefanik told attendees.
“You have my commitment, as I have led this fight in Congress against vile antisemitism, I will stand up for President Trump’s America-first, peace-through-strength policies and bring moral truth and crystal-clear moral clarity at the United Nations on day one,” she added.
Stefanik touted her record confronting university presidents about campus Jew-hatred on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and said that she would bring renewed focus to securing the release of the hostages that Hamas holds in Gaza.
“There are still over 100 hostages, including seven Americans, being held by Hamas,” she said. “We must not stop, and we will not stop until every hostage is brought home.”
EMET honored Stefanik with its Speaker of Truth Award for her advocacy for Israel and the Jewish people.
Another honoree, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), called on Democrats and Republicans to condemn antisemitism within their own parties.
“I don’t need Republicans to call out Democrats, and I don’t need Democrats to call out Republicans. That’s easy. That takes no courage,” the Jewish congressman said. “It’s much harder to do it when it’s within your own tent, when it’s within your own party. I want to see Republicans call out Tucker Carlson when he has a Holocaust denier on.”
“Democrats have to call out the dozens of people that are in our party and the people that are in the streets and the people that are on Twitter treating us like second-class and third-class citizens,” Moskowitz said. “Students who are walking to class, who nobody knows if they support the war or support Netanyahu, but they have a Jewish star around their neck and are assaulted.”
“Does anyone actually believe if that wasn’t a Jewish student, but it was a minority student, that any of this stuff would have gone past lunch on the first day?” he said. “You can be sure if it was a minority student or an LGBTQ student, my party would have led the effort, and they didn’t.”
Moskowitz told JNS after his speech that combating Jew-hatred and supporting Israel needs to remain a bipartisan focus.
“On this issue, on antisemitism and Israel, we have to come together, because we can’t fight amongst ourselves while we’re the target,” he told JNS.
Moskowitz added that he was not concerned about the Biden administration making anti-Israel moves in the closing days of the administration, as the Obama administration did when it allowed the passage of Security Council Resolution 2334 in December 2016.
“It’s not going to matter. I’ll be undone in two months,” he said, referring to Trump’s impending inauguration.
“It’s a mistake if they do that because I think they’ve had a really good record on this,” Moskowitz said. “If it’s announced all of a sudden to sully that record — which I don’t think they’re going to do, I don’t think that’s what Joe Biden’s going to want as a proud Zionist — if there are things that happen in the next couple of months on this issue, they’ll be undone.”
The United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Wednesday that would have called for an immediate Israeli ceasefire because the resolution did not directly condition the halt in hostilities on the release of hostages.
All of the 14 other members of the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution.
