At a hearing, Elise Stefanik pledged to continue the US’s defence of Israel and advance Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda.

Summary

Elise Stefanik, President Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the UN, stated during her confirmation hearing that Israel has a “biblical right” to the occupied West Bank, aligning with far-right Israeli officials.

Stefanik sidestepped support for Palestinian self-determination, blaming their leadership for failures.

Her stance signals a shift from Biden-era opposition to Israeli settlements, with Trump lifting sanctions on Israeli settler groups and nominating pro-settlement figures like Mike Huckabee for key roles.

Stefanik also vowed to audit UN funding and block aid to Palestinian refugee agencies.

    • towerful@programming.devEnglish
      72·
      11 days ago

      Kamala would’ve nuked it.
      You know, hormones and the predisposition to genocide, or whatever.
      Great work everyone.
      As a bonus, we get to:

      Edit: bullet points

      • rigatti@lemmy.worldEnglish
        23·
        11 days ago

        Correction on your one point - they declared that everyone is neither male nor female, since no one at conception produces reproductive cells. That starts happening later.

      • Gloomy@mander.xyzEnglish
        22·
        11 days ago

        Declare everyone as biologically female (because at inception, all embryos are female. It’s only after 6-7 weeks that the y chromosome kicks in an makes it biologically male. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK222286/, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/ - note the “at conception” points)).

        As somebody who has done courses in gender studies it is painful how plain wrong and unscientific this is. Sure will be true for a lot of the other ones (especially climate). The sex ideology one (and contrary to their claim they of course are the ones with an ideology, because that is what you have when you ignore reality and make up your own truth based on falsehood) will do a lot of harm on the short term. There are real people out there who’s whole existence just got denied. My heart goes out (without a Sieg Heil, but in an empatic way) to all the Transpeople, Intersex People, Non-Binary People and all others who just got their identity denied. Please stay safe and hold tight. There are sane cis people out here who know you exist and stand by your side. For what ever that will be worth in the time to come.

        • proleEnglish
          5·
          11 days ago

          As somebody who has done courses in gender studies it is painful how plain wrong and unscientific this is

          And this is exactly why they’re doing everything they can to make sure people can’t learn this stuff in the future.

      • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.catEnglish
        23·
        11 days ago

        I’m surprised you’re still here, to be honest. Yes, I know what Palestine is like right now. I care a lot about it. I wrote my congresspeople, back when they were approving the aid, trying to tell them not to do it. I didn’t think it would do anything, and it didn’t. That’s why I didn’t want Trump to come, and make things quite a bit worse than even Biden’s already war-criminal level of performance.

        Around 85% of the Palestinians in Gaza are still alive right now, as far as I know. How many once Trump is done with them?

        50%?

        80%? Will he solve the Middle East during his term, and bring an end to the killing? It seems unlikely.

        Less than 10%, with a lot of it annexed to Israel?

        That last one seems pretty probable to me. I think better than 50/50 odds. I don’t want to bet.

          • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.catEnglish
            13·
            11 days ago

            I had a feeling you wouldn’t really want to engage with that conversation. It’s pretty fucking upsetting.

            • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldEnglish
              10·
              11 days ago

              You’re so sure of yourself. A little humility goes a long way:

              But those caveats should not obscure the fact that it was a Democratic president who so thoroughly failed in pushing Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to accept a ceasefire deal—and that Biden’s incompetence is what has allowed Trump to take a victory lap before even taking office.

              This failure had catastrophic consequences. According to the official death toll, Israel’s onslaught has killed more than 46,000 people in Gaza. Public health researchers estimate the actual death toll, which will only be known after buried bodies after pulled from the omnipresent rubble, is far higher.

              I’m sure the Palestinians sleeping in tents tonight are wistfully reminding themselves that Biden was better because Trump might be worse.

              • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.catEnglish
                11·
                11 days ago

                I actually commented at more length on this exact article a while back, when one of my bots posted it:

                https://ponder.cat/post/1337717/1524546

                Now that the Israeli military has done several more attacks in Gaza since the ceasefire (including by a sniper who killed a child), and attacked a refugee camp in the West Bank for good measure, I stand even more so behind my assessment that taking the cease-fire seriously without having a reason to think it will continue is just poor pattern recognition.

                You could have had Kamala Harris, who you could say might have been worse or might have been better than Biden. Instead, we have Trump, who is catastrophically worse, in every objective sense, by such a wide margin that I don’t want to think about it. Congratulations, I guess.

                I don’t want to talk about this any more. I’m not sure why I engaged with it for this long.

                Edit: I was thinking to myself, what the fuck? What are all these weird comments, why am I back in this experience of having this type of conversation?

                And then I thought, ooooohhhhh, I resubscribed to !world@lemmy.world for some one-off reason, and this came up in my feed without me realizing that was where it’s from. There’s a reason I unsubscribed, because it is filled with an unusually high proportion of this stuff. Okay, peace. I’m back to unsubscribing, because I remember how infinitely more pleasant my Lemmy experience is without quite so many of the aggressively wrong people who always adhere to exactly one viewpoint and never stop replying. Cheers, you can carry on without me with what you’d wanted to say.

                • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  8·
                  11 days ago

                  I’m sorry if I make you feel like you need to leave, it’s just a different way of viewing the world. I understand your sentiment about the threat of Trump, but I don’t excuse the Democrats role in allowing this to happen.

                  • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.catEnglish
                    16·
                    11 days ago

                    it’s just a different way of viewing the world

                    No it isn’t. It’s a different way of holding the conversation. I’m fine with different ways of viewing the world, I’ve been in contact with quite a few of them on and offline.

                    You’re filling in both sides of the conversation. We’re talking about what a catastrophic fuck-up Trump is for the Palestinians, somehow managing to be incredibly worse than Biden was, and you’re over here pretending that someone is “excusing the Democrats role in allowing this to happen,” and deflecting away from what we’re talking about into literally probably the 30th time I’ve had some variation, yet again, of this exact same conversation. As far as I know, no one was making excuses for Democrats or anything remotely like it. I called Biden a war criminal. It literally doesn’t matter what I say. You have a tailor-made imaginary opponent you are debating, who’s trying to make excuses for Democrats, and so you’re out here debating against that imaginary person. And as far as I can tell, you’ll keep replying forever, always against that imaginary person, always saying the same 4 or 5 different counter-points to the things no one said, never admitting any kind of error, or listening to anything.

                    That’s a waste of time for me to be a part of. It’s not your way of viewing the world. It is your absolute refusal to take part in the conversation on any kind of genuine basis.

                  • octopus_ink@lemmy.mlEnglish
                    1·
                    11 days ago

                    Now that the Israeli military has done several more attacks in Gaza since the ceasefire (including by a sniper who killed a child), and attacked a refugee camp in the West Bank for good measure, I stand even more so behind my assessment that taking the cease-fire seriously without having a reason to think it will continue is just poor pattern recognition.

                    You could have had Kamala Harris, who you could say might have been worse or might have been better than Biden. Instead, we have Trump, who is catastrophically worse, in every objective sense, by such a wide margin that I don’t want to think about it. Congratulations, I guess.

                    No matter how I try to express this it’s never eloquent enough for folks who don’t already see this to see it. I hope you are having better luck, you definitely crafted your argument better than I often do.

          • proleEnglish
            3·
            11 days ago

            Are you fucking for real dude? That’s your defense?

            I’m not even going to ask you to elaborate on how you believe that just invoking the term “realpolitik” explains your position, because frankly I just don’t care enough to know.

            • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              11 days ago

              Absolutely:

              Realpolitik prioritizes practical considerations over ideological or moral concerns. This can involve making alliances or compromises with states that may have conflicting values or interests.

              How else could we explain America allowing a genocide with 46,000+ deaths? It’s the reason people supported the Democrats, and a genocide, despite the threat of Trump and fascism. The ends justify the means.

      • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.catEnglish
        31·
        11 days ago

        As recently as yesterday, someone on Lemmy was showcasing to me the cease-fire Trump skillfully engineered in Gaza, with his straight-talking diplomatic skills, as an example of what Biden could have been doing any time he felt up to getting on Trump’s level, and a reason why Trump was better.

        • Sturgist@lemmy.caEnglish
          3·
          10 days ago

          I had the same thing happen. The idiot then quoted Sartre at me, the one about anti-Semites, as a sorta gotcha. Called me a BlueAnon, and told me that it was even more shameful I was one because I’m Canadian. Literally all I’d said was that the Biden administration negotiated the cease fire. Honestly? It was kinda funny watching them wind themselves up to a froth.

        • proleEnglish
          3·
          11 days ago

          Lol right? They didn’t even wait for the fucking ink to dry…