Elise Stefanik tells right-wing Israelis that Trump will ship them all the weapons they need

Rep. Elise Stefanik, a rising GOP leader and staunch Trump ally who has used her platform to conflate pro-Palestine activism with antisemitism and called for harsh crackdowns against protesters, declared before a group of Israeli lawmakers that America, and particularly Donald Trump, "is firmly behind Israel and the Jewish people."

"When the enemy is inside the gates of the United Nations, America must be the one to call it by its name and destroy it," Stefanik continued, referring to calls for recognizing Palestinian statehood at the United Nations. "President Trump understood that, and b’ezrat hashem, we will return to that strategy soon."

Stefanik spoke at the Knesset, Israel's unicameral legislature, at the invitation of Speaker Amir Ohana, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition. Although she described her own remarks as a "historic address," Stefanik's audience was limited to members of the Knesset Caucus for Jewish and Pro-Israel Students on Campuses Around the World rather than to the entire Knesset.

Despite speaking on foreign soil, Stefanik condemned President Joe Biden for wavering on unconditional military aid to Israel, halting a shipment of bombs that could be used on Rafah even as his administration moves forward with other weapons shipments.

"There is no excuse for an American president to block aid to Israel — aid that was duly passed by the Congress," she said. The only justifiable approach, she continued, is to "crush" antisemitism and supply "the State of Israel with what it needs, when it needs it, without conditions, to achieve total victory in the face of evil."

Though she has sidestepped questions about the Trump's VP sweepstakes, Stefanik's public reverence for the former president, frequent pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago and potential electoral appeal have prompted speculation about her political future. Some observers, including Fox News host Shannon Bream, have suggested that her speech in Israel, inflected with Trump praise, was part of an audition to be his running mate.