Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), chair of the House Republican Conference, promised U.S. support for Israel’s fight to eradicate Hamas during an impassioned speech Sunday before the Jewish state’s parliament, saying that the only acceptable outcome is "total victory" over the terror group.
Stefanik, the highest ranking House member to visit Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7th terror attack, blasted the Biden administration’s bid to hold up weapons sales to Israel and said Republicans in Congress will fight back against Democratic efforts to sever the historically close alliance between the United States and Jewish state.
"I have been clear at home and I will be clear here: There is no excuse for an American president to block aid to Israel—aid that was duly passed by the Congress," Stefanik said. "There is no excuse to ease sanctions on Iran, paying a $6 billion ransom to the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, or to dither and hide while our friends fight for their lives. No excuse. Full stop."
Stefanik’s remarks highlight the growing divide between the White House, its Democratic allies, and the Republican Party over support for Israel as it fights to finish its war against Hamas and destroy the terror group’s ability to continue controlling the Gaza Strip. The House leader billed Republicans as the last line of defense against anti-Israel Democrats and pro-Hamas agitators who have been fomenting unrest on college campuses for months. The American people," Stefanik said, "stand firmly behind you."
"Those [anti-Israel] views, though given airtime by some radical Democrat members of Congress, those views do not reflect the views of the American people," Stefanik said. "And we’re already seeing the majority in the body in which I serve, the United States Congress, fight back and turn the tide. Let me repeat: America is firmly behind Israel and the Jewish people."
As anti-Israel college students hijack America’s elite institutions, Israeli youths are taking to the front lines as the country works to defend itself against Iran-backed terrorists in Gaza, Lebanon, and a slew of other Arab nations on Israel’s border.
"What a striking comparison: Young Israelis heeding the call of duty, fighting for their families, their people, and their homeland while the pro-Hamas apologists on so-called elite campuses across America are, in a paroxysm of blood lust, cosplaying Hamas, calling for ‘intifada’ and genocide with signs saying ‘Final Solution.’ Chanting ‘Death to Israel.’ And chanting ‘Death to America,’" she said.
Israel’s allies in Congress will not be swayed by the pro-Hamas propaganda, Stefanik said, adding that "total victory" against terrorism is the only acceptable outcome to the nearly seven-month long war.
The lawmaker warned that without the total eradication of Hamas, a fresh wave of terrorism could arrive in America.
"When the genocidal zealots running Iran lobbed missiles at this very city [Jerusalem], they removed any doubt as to their hideous intentions," Stefanik said. "Chants of ‘Death to America’ are not hollow slogans. They are a promise that what happened here on October 7 could happen in the United States—unless Hamas and its Jihadist accomplices are eliminated."
Due to this threat, the fight against Hamas "is not Israel’s fight alone. It is also our fight, the West’s fight. In truth, total victory is about more than responding to one attack, it’s about restoring a way of life. It is about securing the Jewish State so that it no longer faces threats of annihilation from any actor, whether from Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, or any other. And it is the United States’ high honor, and high responsibility, to support Israel’s effort."