By Jim Banks via RealClearDefense,
Over the course of four years, we’ve seen the consequences of weak leadership in the White House: a world full of conflicts, a foreign policy that has encouraged adversaries like Communist China and Iran, and abandoned allies like Israel, further worsening America’s security.
Last fall, the American people voted to usher in an era of renewed American power. President Trump campaigned with a promise to restore American leadership on the world stage and appoints the right team to ensure that promises made are kept. Especially in international institutions like the United Nations, this first American leadership can’t come fast enough. Elise Stefanik is the perfect choice to implement President Trump’s agenda as ambassador to the United Nations.
His commitment to bring ‘transparency and reforms’ to the international body is urgently needed. For too long, American interests have been in the background at the UN.
The UN is plundering billions of American taxpayer dollars while actively undermining our interests. It allows the worst violators of human rights to sit in the so-called Human Rights Council, pushes through a radical climate plan that would destroy our energy industry and persecutes our greatest ally, Israel, while turning a blind eye to bad actors such as China and Iran.
Elise understands that our support for our greatest ally, Israel, cannot be ambiguous. As a fellow member of the Armed Forces Committee at our common time in this House, he joined me in pushing for legislation in the wake of legislation that guarantees Israel’s right to defend itself and to combat the rampant anti-Semitism that pollutes our institutions, including the United Nations.
At a time when we are facing upheavals around the world, Elise understands that security and peace can only be achieved by force. Gone are the days when we allowed our adversaries to act uncontrollably. And under President Trump’s historic national security team, filled with my former colleagues and friends, we are restoring Americans’ position on the world stage.
During his first administration, President Trump successfully launched a historic campaign of maximum pressure to hold Iran accountable for its violent actions. Working with Congress and President Trump at the White House, Elise will use her position at the United Nations to strengthen international pressure on the Iranian regime and hold them accountable again.
In addition to resisting Israel and fighting Iranian aggression, another important pillar of restoring America’s strength is to resist China, which continues to be an urgent threat to our country’s security.
Elise summed up the extreme need for UN reform, and especially the influence of Communist China, when she wrote: “We must strive for a UN where no nation is expected to pay the bill, but in return it receives no responsibility or transparency, where no despot or dictator can judge others while diverting attention from its own human rights violations, and where no organisation corrupted by the likes of the Chinese Communist Party can dictate broad conventions and international standards in its membership.”
As we have seen from their activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations and its World Health Organization are in the pockets of Communist China and its leadership. Throughout the UN body, the agencies have become the mouthpieces of communist Chinese talking points, turning a blind eye to their nasty human rights violations when they hypocritically punish other countries on this issue from their seats on the Human Rights Council. Under the leadership of America First and Elise, the United Nations is eradicating this corruption by ensuring that the taxpayer dollars sent to the United Nations serve the American people first and foremost. Elise has proven time and again that she is a fighter who will not stand idly by when these international organizations make Chinese offers.
During her time in public service, Elise has shown that she fights to protect the interests of the American people, defends American sovereignty, and strengthens American security by giving power to our allies like Israel, and discouraging the malicious actions of our adversaries such as Communist China and Iran.
Now this fighting spirit is needed more than ever at the UN. I look forward to voting in support of his candidacy in the Senate Chamber and encourage my colleagues to follow suit.
Senator Jim Banks (Rep., Ind.) previously represented Indiana District 3 in the U.S. House of Representatives.
