US President Donald Trump's nominee for ambassador to the UN, Elise Stefanik, said on Tuesday that she agreed with the opinion that “Israel has the biblical right to annex the West Bank.” During a hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she expressed views consistent with the Israeli far right, Reuters reported.
Presidential candidate USA Donald Trump as US ambassador at UN Elise Stefanik, during a hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, supported Israeli claims of a “biblical right to the West Bank.”
The British newspaper “Guardian” said that Stefanik's hearing highlighted rifts between the US and the UN over policy. Israel. And while this position puts Stefanik at odds with long-standing international consensus and multiple UN Security Council resolutions regarding Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, it remains largely consistent with the Trump administration's stance.
Candidate for US ambassador to the UN Elise Stefanik JIM LO SCALZO/PAP/EPA
Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee expressed a similar view, stating during his 2017 visit to Israel that “there is no such thing as the West Bank.” Huckabee also rejected Palestinian identity altogether.
Stefanik's statement appeared a few hours after Donald Trump signed an order lifting sanctions on radical Israeli settlers, which was introduced by the previous president. “This coincided with the Israeli military launching a significant operation on the territory of the West Bank,” reports the Guardian.
Van Hollen: peace will be difficult to achieve
Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen said that supporting claims to the disputed territories could undermine the US credibility as a mediator in the region and could complicate efforts towards a two-state solution, which has been the basis of US policy in the Middle East for decades.
“It will be very difficult to achieve peace if you continue to maintain the view you have just expressed,” Van Hollen said.
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Main photo source: JIM LO SCALZO/PAP/EPA