Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) delivered a speech at the Israeli Knesset on Sunday where she slammed President Biden and called for unconditional military support for Israel to support the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.
Stefanik and other Republicans have been furious with President Biden for putting a pause on one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs and threatening to withhold heavy weapons if Israel launched a major attack on “population centers” in Rafah, although he hasn’t taken any action as Israel continues to escalate in the city.
“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 — or 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,” Stefanik told the Knesset’s Caucus for Jewish and Pro-Israel Students on Campuses Around the World.
She was referencing a prisoner swap deal the US made with Iran before October 7, under which Tehran was granted access to $6 billion of its own frozen funds that were transferred from South Korea to Qatar. Republicans claim that President Biden gave $6 billion to Iran, but it’s unclear if Tehran ever had access as the US and Qatar agreed to freeze them again in October 2023, not long after the deal was made.
Stefanik declared that the US should provide Israel with “what it needs, when it needs it, without conditions to achieve total victory in the face of evil.” Despite the Republican outrage at President Biden, his administration has promised that Israel will get every penny of the $17 billion in new military aid that was recently authorized by Congress.
Stefanik praised former President Donald Trump for his “historic support for Israeli independence and security.” Trump has been running on an extremely pro-Israel platform and claimed President Biden “abandoned” the country by issuing a warning about Rafah.
Stefanik also slammed American college students who are protesting the Israeli slaughter in Gaza, as she has been leading the charge in Congress in making accusations of antisemitism despite the fact that many Jewish students are participating in the protests. “I led the charge to expose this moral rot of antisemitism infecting our supposed most elite higher education institutions,” she said.
Ugh, if Trump is elected, this loser of a position (supporting the torture, eg by food deprivation, and killing of Palestinians) will become the “conservative” position.
And Dems will grow more anti-Israel, picking up a winning position. And we’ll see a Dem Congress and a Dem majority post-Trump.
The Trump presidency will be wasted on Israel, another lost cause to ruin oneself over. So ends the MAGA movement, spent to serve a foreign land rather than the US.
Biden is damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. Reminds me of Lyndon Johnson in 1968. Hopefully, he bows out at the convention and they put up someone young and smart to run against Trump.
I’m unsure what I want. I don’t want “conservatives” linked with Israeli crimes.
Democrat or Republican,,, US is gamed.
The MAGA movement was a joke to start with. It has nothing to do with making American lives better and everything to do with making America the dominant force in the world where the rest of the world fears us to the point of cowering to our every demand.
I want to disagree with you, because I wanted the movement to be otherwise. But I suppose you’re correct.
I believe that the Trump followers do have real and justified grievances. I just never believed that Trump was the man interested to help solving them. He never had any coherent domestic, social policies, because he knows nothing about the life of working class American people. That is also true of Biden and the Democrats. Our politicians are members of a millionaire club, totally removed from real American life.
They’re not all rich. Some of them are just dreaming of wealth and perks.
They may have lost their jobs, face medical bills they can’t pay, or can’t pay the mortgage or rent, many working middle class people have slipped in to poverty when they lost good union jobs with benefits for less paying service jobs with less benefits. The nation has a big problem with homeless people our millionaire politicians don’t even notice, they are concerned with transgender issues. Poverty destroys people and families and children.
Well, transgender is just for population reduction. The Greeks would encourage certain behavior that doesn’t result in reproduction, on an island according to Aristotle’s Politics.
I don’t know that politicians ever care much for others. If they do care, the media will paint them badly.
Poor politicians would just be corrupt. And if they receive low pay, they can’t afford to live in DC. Only the rich could afford to be in Congress if the pay were too low.
Maybe removing their benefits is good, but that encourages seeking benefits from selling out, to be rewarded by the revolving door between public and private.
The transgender issue helps politicians to take the voters attention away from the real issues which they are too lazy to deal with. Transgender is a healthcare issue affecting a relative small number of people and should be taken care of by professional people , covered by health insurance. Instead it has been politicized and turned into a campaign issue, used to split the voting population as they did with all sex related issues including contraceptives and abortion. Wedge issues, they are called.
AOC is hilarious. She’s loving her income but is a complete sell out. Rubio is similar.
Ironically, if they have more money to start with, they can better resist temptation. So, you actually want them either rich or very well paid, in theory.
But if you can’t buy someone, you can bug everything until you get something on him. Everyone slips up. One mistake, and your career is over. Everyone makes mistakes under 24/7 total surveillance.
And it’s fairly common for everyone to have conversations recorded and phones hacked, etc. So, that’s just for regular people; politicians probably have it worse.
Rand Paul has some money; so, he probably avoids surveillance somewhat. But look at Snowden. He can’t use a cell phone easily, and he probably gets recorded anyway on neighbors’ devices.
It’s like how prostitution houses used to record people. Or just like Epstein. If everyone slips up, and DC is full of sin, it’s easier to just indulge and obey.
AOC didn’t “sell out.” She already was what she is before she got to Congress. She was born in the Bronx, moved to a spiffy suburb as a baby, went to Boston College, interned for Ted Kennedy, then went back to the Bronx and worked at a non-profit while tending bar part-time so she could pretend to be a “working class Bronx girl” for her political resume.
We need to balance our values, for some people money is the only value they know, and that is why they never get enough.
In a transient society that lacks nationalism and religion, what does one sacrifice for? Nationalism encourages serving the whole, while also exploiting those outside the structure.
Community ties, “particular ties” of friendship, can bind a people in a small society.
Separately, in US society you have an increasing wealth gap. Everyone wants access to that top layer.
In more conservative areas, money doesn’t matter as much. Character is respected. In more liberal areas, money and status are everything.
Secular humanism I equal to other religions, religion is the moral compass for believing people, only there are the people with no moral values who will misuse religion for their own advantage.
Such people will always be with us.
I remember reading in Chronicles how habit controls us. If we’re raised in the habit of not stealing, we’ll be less likely to steal. You could probably expand that, being raised in an ethos of not stealing.
My point is just that it’s not just ideas. It’s the structure which is founded, justified, motivated by the ideas.
Healthy and strong families are the backbone and foundation of healthy societies. We need to nurse and care for our families as much as the lobbyists do for business.
The current state encourages single parent homes and two-income households.
Profit has priority, your point is well made and proves it.
If I argue in defence of America First, it doesn’t sound as appealing as some expect. Because I attempt honesty.
The US used to offer a better standard of living, and still does, due to a global caste system. There’s not much that’s truly better about Americans. We just pulled the ladder up after WWII; so, others couldn’t follow us up the ladder. It’s not truly fair. But there’s not enough for everyone.
Ironically, it’s the “leftists” who most hate the rich. They want environmental reforms which thwart the global poor from climbing up the bladed ladder of success. And they support wars that crush the poor. The environment matters, but the leftists often don’t understand the poor.
The only way to make it better is to be honest with ourselves. We have to learn to deal with reality, not campaign slogans. There is nothing wrong to learn from others.
I don’t think we have a left, we do have rich people who do exploit the poor and waste our natural resources to accumulate excess wealth while others don’t have shelter and not enough to eat. The rich are wasting our environment for more excessive wealth. We need a more just society, our working middle class is shrinking while the millionaires become billionaires.
What they call left in US, in real world is far-right (exceptionalism, fascist methods, privileges for superrich).
The global poor are seeing improved living standards, for now. Wars destroy them, like in Libya. Sanctions destroy like in Venezuela. But generally there’s improvement.
The elite believe living standards must improve to reduce population growth. So, maybe that’s why we get it. The elite would enslave humanity given the power to do so. But faced with limitations, it just tries to reduce population size. If we ever get an enlightened global left, it will result in Orwellian enslavement. But presently there’s enough balance to see improvement.
I want to disagree with me too. But I don’t get how people could listen to what pours out of Trump’s mouth and think otherwise. His foreign policy in a nutshell is that “this war wouldn’t have happened if I were president” isn’t very hard to understand. I’m sure he’s not talking about other countries fearing our diplomacy. He even says he would have outdone Biden on giving weapons to Israel.
Call a spade a spade, the issue is all about wealth, economics, natural resources and how to get the most. A fight of economic systems, capitalism v socialism.
Our billionaires aim to become trillionaires. Even wars are profitable for the upper crust.
Stefanik should be forced to live a month in Gaza.
Even one week would teach her a thing or two. She is a member of the congressional club of millionaires. What can one expect from someone like that?
The open support of genocide became normal in US. Those who protest against the genocide, are treated as criminals. I think, it is a bit too much for the ordinary citizens of European NATO countries, though it is okay for their elites. It looks, US is the most staunch supporter of Zionism. Also many years US (together with Canada and Ukraine) regularly voted against UN resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism. We can see who is who in this epic confrontation between Good and Evil.
Can we deport all elected politicians or anyone paid by taxpayers money who PUBLICLY take a stand in the halls of a foreign government against US? How on eRth is it legal?
If someone votes down a post, due us the common curtesy of stating exactly what it is you disagree with and that way, we can get to the heart of the matter and keep the conversation going. We learn much more from healthy discourse, with each other and that makes it more interesting to all of us.
I voted myself up because I believe in democratic principles and logically, I support myself. ;-}
Stefanik should not be making such statement in another countries legislature.
This is close to being treasonous, American foreign policy on WAR is not debatable anywhere except in Congress.
She should have stayed over there; she’s done more in the last 6 months to serve the whims of Israel than she will ever do to serve the folks dumb enough to elect her.
And she might as well take 2/3 on Congress and Biden over there with her while she’s at it.
That would perhaps not make America great again, but it might twitch the needle momentarily back slightly in the absurdly abject from the ludicrously evil area. A great improvement nevertheless, but hopelessly inadequate.
Maybe the ICC can add Stefanik to its arrest warrant list, which now includes Netanyahu and Sinwar.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/netanyahu-arrest-warrant-israel-hamas-war-icc-rcna149743
Yes, I read the news.
https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-applications-arrest-warrants-situation-state
They, the ICC, appear to have recognized the problem of their past hypocrisy to their own existence:
“Let us today be clear on one core issue: if we do not demonstrate our willingness to apply the law equally, if it is seen as being applied selectively, we will be creating the conditions for its collapse.”
We will see if this is just some perfunctory lipservice paid to a hopeful audience or if they truly understood the fork in the road for which they stand now.
the fork in the road for which they stand now.
May they be run over by a truck.
There weer several Israeli terrorists wanted for terrorism against UK during the British Mandate in Palestine but when they became primes ministers or ministers in the Israeli government their past was quickly forgotten and were treated with total reverence.
It is very doubtful that the US or its allies will ever dare arrest the Israelis.
For them is much easier to arrest Trump than Netanyahu.
Beyond the pale
The Israeli branch of congress.
It must be time for AIPAC to put the checks in the mail.
ElsieElise should expect an increase.Yes, but her shekels may soon prove worse than worthless. The ICC will, it’s to be hoped, deal with the liders, then will come the turn of the cheerleaders.
Needs a beating.
or to ease sanctions on Iran, paying a $6 billion ransom to the world’s leading state sponsor of terror
No
ElsieElise, that was Iran’s OWN MONEY. And you’re confusing them with Israel, the peerless leader of state sponsored terrorism, and that $17 billion of OUR MONEY that was just ok’d by traitors like yourself.“Elsie” Spot on!
She should stay in Israel and get membership in Knesset as she is a traitor and has done nothing for US public…!
Dual citizen serving duality, the choice is obvious.
She represents our totally corrupt millionaire class of stinking turds in parliament they call congress.
Stefanik deserves KARMA, hopefully she will witness on her own family, what she has done to the mothers, pregnant women and children in Gaza. She is a DISGUSTING American, who should be impeached for War Crimes against Humanity. The Women of America who are in public view, have all shown to be a Tribe of Cannibals. From the Trumps to the Clintons, Obamas to the Blackburns, ETC., especially the Republican Hypocrites stand on Abortion. NO abortion for you, we do the killing!
And they attack whoever question congress members loyalty.
Stefanik is another fiendish hoodlum for sale. America does not need utter traitors lecturing the US from a country knowingly committing genocide, and enjoying it. AIPAC is a cancer that must be stopped, or at least exposed to light…
One can wonder about the real allegiance of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY). Going before a foreign parliament to denounce her own government!
Who pays her salary? And, above all, who are the donors who provided the funds to have her elected?
This sad episode only demonstrates one thing: i.e. American foreign policy is increasingly decided by Zionist neoconservatives within the US government and within Congress and this has been the case since George W. Bush administration invaded Iraq under false pretenses to please Israel.