Rep. Elise Stefanik denounced President Joe Biden and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to the Middle East nation this weekend. 

Stefanik, who serves as the GOP Conference chair, said she conveyed to Netanyahu the “House GOP’s unwavering support for Israel, our most precious ally,” according to a social media post. 

Their meeting came a day after Stefanik openly criticized Biden during remarks at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. “There is no excuse for an American president to block aid to Israel, aid that was duly passed by the Congress,” she said.

What You Need To Know

  • Rep. Elise Stefanik, who serves as the GOP Conference chair, said she conveyed to PM Benjamin Netanyahu the “House GOP’s unwavering support for Israel, our most precious ally,” according to a social media post

  • Stefanik also spoke at the Knesset, denouncing Biden's decision to pause a shipment of military assistance to Israel

  • During her trip, Stefanik also visited a kibbutz and the site of a music festival that were attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7

Biden recently paused a shipment of bombs to Israel and threatened to withhold additional aid over Israel’s strategy in Rafah, a city in the Gaza strip where more than a million people are estimated to be sheltering amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. 

(Biden is not the first president to hold back the delivery of military assistance to Israel. Ronald Reagan did so in the 1980s, for instance.)

Stefanik, who represents New York’s North Country, has become one of Donald Trump’s most ardent defenders on Capitol Hill. As of earlier this year, Trump was reportedly eying her as a potential vice presidential pick.

During her remarks at the Knesset, Stefanik also invoked recent hearings on Capitol Hill focused on antisemitism on college campuses. Stefanik grabbed headlines in December with her questioning of the leaders of Harvard, Penn, and MIT. Two ultimately resigned.

“What a striking comparison: young Israelis heeding the call of duty, fighting for their families, their people and their homeland, while the pro-Hamas apologists on so-called elite campuses across America are … cosplaying Hamas, calling for Intifada and genocide with signs saying final solution,” Stefanik said.

During her trip, Stefanik met with other Israel leaders, and visited a kibbutz and the site of a music festival that were attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7.

“I am heartbroken for the families who faced unimaginable loss at the hands of the heinous barbaric Hamas terrorists,” she said in one social post.