Tel Aviv, Israel — House Republican Leader Ellis Stefanik, who is considered a possible running mate for Donald Trump, delivered a speech to the Israeli parliament on Sunday criticizing President Joe Biden’s approach to the Gaza war.
Stefanik, the fourth-highest-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, is the latest of several U.S. politicians from both sides of the aisle to visit Israel since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack sparked the Gaza war. But such visitors rarely speak at Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset.
Speaking at a session on combating anti-Semitism around the world, Stefanik pledged to “crush anti-Semitism at home and help give Israel what it needs when it needs it, without conditions.”
She was referring to Biden’s decision to hold up the delivery of about 3,500 bombs weighing up to 2,000 pounds each and his refusal to provide offensive weapons for Israel’s long-promised invasion of the southern city of Rafah. The administration fears such an operation would plunge Gaza into a deeper humanitarian catastrophe.
“There is no excuse for the President of the United States to block aid to Israel that has been duly passed by Congress, and there is no excuse to ease sanctions against Iran,” she said.
Stefanik, a representative of upstate New York and a strong supporter of President Trump, is mentioned as a candidate for his running mate.
In December, she addressed college presidents at a five-hour congressional hearing on anti-Semitism on campus. Two presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania resigned soon after.
“Complete victory is not physical self-defense, but ideological self-defense,” Stefanik said during the session, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s frequent claims that Israel must achieve “complete victory” in its war against Hamas.
