Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in her confirmation hearing on Tuesday that if confirmed, combating antisemitism and anti-Israel bias at the U.N. would be a central goal for her.

She also affirmed that the Trump administration aims to dismantle the scandal-plagued United Nations Relief and Works Agency and work with U.S. allies to re-impose snapback sanctions on Iran before they expire later this year.

Stefanik said that anti-Israel and antisemitic bias at the U.N. was a major factor that drove her interest in the Turtle Bay role, pointing to issues — especially since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel — at agencies such as the U.N. Security Council and U.N. Women.

“It’s one of the reasons why, in my conversations with President Trump, I was interested in this position,” Stefanik said. “We need to be a voice of moral clarity on the U.N. Security Council and at the United Nations at large, for the world to hear the importance of standing with Israel, and I intend to do that.”

Stefanik said she wanted to emulate former U.N. Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan in his stand against the body’s “Zionism is racism” debate 50 years ago.

Stefanik vowed that she would not allow U.S. taxpayer funds to support terrorism, touting her leadership on efforts in Congress to defund the UNRWA. She said the agency needs to be dismantled and replaced by services from agencies such as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and World Food Programme, in collaboration with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Stefanik said those agencies, too, need reform, but don’t have ties to terrorism and have proven track records.

The former House GOP conference leader emphasized the role of U.S. deterrence and sanctions pressure in countering Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which she called “the most significant threat to world peace and specifically to the region.” 

She said that convincing U.S. allies to implement snapback sanctions under the 2015 nuclear deal this year would be an “important tool,” and that she’d work with allies to develop a strategy on the issue. She said some U.S. allies are already considering the option.

Stefanik, as a House member, joined a letter to European signatories to the nuclear deal urging them to pursue snapback sanctions.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in written testimony that he also supports snapback sanctions.

Stefanik also suggested starting an Abraham Accords Caucus at the U.N., inspired by the Abraham Accords caucus in the U.S. Congress, to capitalize on and build international support for the normalization agreements between Israel and its neighbors.

Stefanik invoked the House Education and Workforce Committee hearings with college presidents that made her a household name in the Jewish community, saying that she’d take a similar approach to combating antisemitism at the U.N. — using her platform to speak out and bring the issue to Americans’ attention.

“We saw over the course of exposing, frankly, the failed leadership at college campuses, the importance of providing a spotlight when there is a lack of moral clarity, because the American people strongly support the U.S.-Israel relationship,” Stefanik said. “They understand the moral case and the importance of Israel and how we should not be funding or supporting or giving any platform, frankly, like the standing agenda item.”

In her opening remarks, Stefanik highlighted her work on the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, as well as her leadership in combating antisemitism on the House Education and Workforce Committee.

“I have been the leader in combating antisemitism in higher education. My oversight work led to the most viewed testimony in the history of Congress,” Stefanik said. “This hearing with university presidents was heard around the world and viewed billions of times. It exposed the antisemitic rot in colleges and universities and was a watershed moment in American education.”

Despite having voted in the past to defund the U.N., Stefanik indicated at her hearing that she supports continued U.S. engagement with the international organization, and suggested making more targeted cuts of U.S. funding and support for various U.N. agencies and programs.

She said that threatening to withdraw U.S. funding, and carrying through on threats, would be a lever to push for reforms and greater transparency from U.N. programs.

Stefanik said that UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, “has failed,” and that the U.S. will need to assess and plan for reforming it going forward, without providing further specifics. She said that successful Israeli operations against Hezbollah and Hamas provide a foundation to eliminate the power of terrorist groups in the region.

In Syria, Stefanik said that a decade-old U.N. Security Council resolution on the conflict in the country could provide a starting point for work on post-Assad Syria, but also said that the country has seen a substantial change with the fall of the prior ruling regime. She called the regime’s downfall a “major blow” to Iran and “an opportunity” for the Syrian people.

“We need to be cautious and judicious with the new leadership in Syria,” Stefanik said. “We cannot allow it to be a den of terror against its own people … I want to work with Secretary Rubio and President Trump to ensure we have a real verification process. To go back to Reagan, ‘Trust, but verify.’”

She said she was also concerned that U.S. adversaries like Iran and Russia would seek to fill the power vacuum in the country, especially if the U.S. disengages. 

Stefanik said the U.S. will need to have “strong conversations” with allies including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia about their supply of arms to groups involved in the genocide in Sudan.

Asked whether the second Trump administration would again withdraw from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as the first Trump administration did over concerns about UNESCO’s elevation of the Palestinians, Stefanik said the issue would be a decision for Trump.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) argued in his questioning that the U.S. should seek to renegotiate its headquarters agreement with the U.N. to prevent it from hosting an office of the International Criminal Court at the U.N. headquarters in New York. Stefanik said she’d have to examine the issue.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said he was taken aback by Stefanik’s belief, which she confirmed at the hearing, that Israel has a “biblical right” to control the entirety of the West Bank.

Stefanik declined to endorse a Palestinian right to statehood, though she said she supports human rights for Palestinians, describing Hamas and Hezbollah as the key violators of those rights and Israel as a champion of human rights.

“I think President Trump is uniquely positioned, at this very challenging moment, to bring peace to the region, to eradicate terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah, to protect Israel’s national security,” Stefanik said.

She also argued that U.S. humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians had been abused by Hamas.

Some other Democrats on the committee indicated they had reservations about Stefanik’s nomination and her commitment to fighting right-wing antisemitism.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) pressed Stefanik to condemn Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump advisor and X owner, for a repeated gesture at a rally on Monday that Murphy described as “Heil Hitler salutes.”

Stefanik defended Musk and denied that he’d made a Nazi salute, criticizing Murphy for raising the subject and saying that the Trump administration has been clear about its opposition to antisemitism, earning Trump record Jewish support.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) highlighted past Stefanik comments he said echoed the antisemitic great replacement theory on the campaign trail, though he said that he did not view such campaign rhetoric as disqualifying, and did not ask her about it. They ultimately sparred over border security issues, with Stefanik saying she stands by her past comments.