Hillel Neuer appeared on Fox Business with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the impact the incoming Trump cabinet will have on the United Nations.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business: President-elect Donald Trump nominating former Arkansas Governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee as the U.S. ambassador to Israel. Huckabee posted on X that he has been visiting Israel since he was a teenager, and is honored to take up this role. Trump also selecting New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik to serve as US Ambassador to the United Nations, and real estate investor and long time Trump-ally Steven Witkoff, chose it as the special envoy to the Middle East. These three will be working together.
Joining me now is United Nations Watch Executive Director, Hillel Neuer. Hillel, it’s great to have you this morning. Thank you so much for being here.
Hillel Neuer: Thank you for having me.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business: Give us your reaction to these appointments. How will these appointments impact the United Nations and specifically Israel?
Hillel Neuer: Look these are very powerful appointments. They send a clear message. We’ve seen a series of appointments in the past 24 hours. Clearly, these envoys understand that Israel is a democracy. It’s sitting in its ancient homeland. It has a right to defend itself. They are confronting brutal terrorists funded and armed by the Islamic regime of Iran, which is fighting a seven-front war against Israel.
Clearly, the soon to be confirmed ambassador, Elise Stefanik knows that. New ambassador Mike Huckabee knows that. So a clear message is being sent to the world. The United States stands by its allies and stands by Israel.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business: This is very, very powerful, the fact that he’s putting these three individuals in these roles, because it’s clear that they are going to have an impact. Elise Stefanik. Tell me about her, and what do you think she’s going to do at the UN?
Hillel Neuer: Look, everyone was amazed by Elise Stefanik in the Congress when she grilled the presidents of Harvard, Penn and the others. She got those two presidents basically fired because of their toleration of antisemitism, which they tried to justify in absurd ways.
And we are hoping that she’s going to bring that fierce pursuit of justice to the UN. I’ve been on the ground for 20 years at the UN. We’re fighting dictators, terrorists and those who are their apologists. For folks like us, activists who have been on the ground, Elise Stefanik is our B-52 bomber, and we’re there to call in the targets.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business: I love that you call her the B-52 bomber. What is wrong with the UN? Why doesn’t the UN see things the way you’ve just laid it out?
Hillel Neuer: Look, the UN was founded with the best ideals. FDR, before he passed away, it was his vision of liberal internationalism in the best sense of the word. Sadly, over the decades, the UN has been hijacked at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, where I’m based.
Sixty percent are dictatorships, the Chinese Communist regime, the Cuban police state, Eritrea, Qatar, which sponsors terrorists-they control 60% of the seats. They appoint absurd anti-Western, anti-American, antisemitic UN experts who openly say that Hamas has “the right to resistance.” So, we need someone to clean house, and I’m confident that Elise Stefanik is a person who could do that.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business: Mike Huckabee also has been talking so much about Israel before even being nominated. What can he do? What can he actually achieve in that role as ambassador?
Hillel Neuer: Well, first thing, the moment he hits the ground, the United States has sent a message to the world. We have the backs of our allies. And sadly, for the past few years, even though Biden, at various moments, did stand with Israel, at other times, he put pressure on Israel to pause its war with Hamas to pause.
Had Israel listened to the Biden administration, they never would have gone into Rafah to get the head of Hamas, who eventually was found and eliminated. They never would have gone into Lebanon the way that they did, incredibly eliminating Nasrallah and the others. So we need America to send a clear message. We stand by our allies and we know who the enemies are: the Islamic regime in Iran, their allies, China, and other dictatorships around the world.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business: Do you think that the Biden-Harris administration and the Democrats understand that part of the reason that Americans have walked away from them is their treatment of Israel? Because I really have found a core group of voters that have become one issue voters, and that is Israel.
And when the Democrats, and you know, so many of them, including, by the way, Bernie Sanders, tried to get Biden to stop sending weapons to Israel, and he did, he threatened, Kamala Harris threatened during the campaign if they don’t do this and they don’t do it this way, we’re going to stop sending weapons. That was the redline for this group of Jewish voters.
Hillel Neuer: Yeah, absolutely. And there were other times when Kamala Harris was challenged by protesters. She said, “well, you have a point” to these protesters who supported Hamas. And so there was this hemming and hawing. And people saw that. And, you know, I just heard Congressman Ritchie Torres. He’s a Democrat here in the Bronx. He gets it, and he says, you know, we sent these dangerous messages. We need to clean house.
The Democratic Party once was not like that. You know, Bill Clinton, certainly, he supported Israel. And, you know, Biden supported Israel. But you, you had these messages at different times, sending confused and contradictory messages. And I think the voters rejected that.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business: President-elect Trump is also reportedly expected to choose Florida Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. This is the top diplomat role in the United States. If appointed, Rubio would be heavily involved in negotiating Israel’s war against Hamas and Iranian terrorist proxies. The Biden administration has been pushing for a cease fire now.
Since this began a year ago they’ve been pushing for the ceasefire. As you said, they told Israel not to go into Rafah although that’s where the terrorists were. Meantime, Iran is now rethinking its relationship with the United States. The New York Times out with this piece titled, “Iran debates whether it could make a deal with Trump”, writing “some of Iran’s new more moderate government think the result of the presidential election provides an opportunity to make a lasting deal with the United States.” Hillel, your thoughts.
Hillel Neuer: Well first, the fact that the New York Times calls the Iranian regime a new, more moderate government, says what’s wrong with our media. To be frank, the New York Times, the author of that piece, reporter Farnaz Fassihi, is a known Iran apologist.
Those who have been targeted by assassination, like Masih Alinejad, the hero who called out the abuse of women, her and others have been abandoned by the New York Times. So I think we have a problem beyond just the government. There are people in society and elite institutions who are giving a free pass to the worst regime in the world. They beat, blind, poison, torture, and rape women for the crime of standing up for their rights.
We need moral clarity, and I think someone like Marco Rubio, he has it. I’ve worked with victims from China, from Venezuela, from Cuba, and Marco Rubio gets it. They meet with him. They like him. They trust him. He’s going to bring the heat on the dictatorships and help those fighting for democracy.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business: Isn’t it incredible that the election was a week ago? I mean, it feels like a month, but it was just last week, and all of a sudden, within days, our adversaries are getting in line. Russia sending a message, suggesting they want to reset. You’ve got Iran saying, well, maybe this could mean a deal with the new leadership in the United States. That’s strength through power.
Hillel Neuer: Absolutely, it’s extraordinary. President Trump has said it, and his envoys are saying it. If we want to get peace, you need peace through strength. You do not get peace through appeasement. Sadly, too often, that was the message sent by Blinken, by Biden, and by their envoys as they tried to appease the UN that was trying to appease the dictators. That doesn’t work. You need to show them strength, moral clarity and resolve. It worked for Churchill. It worked for Reagan. It can work for us now.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business: Well, I’ll tell you one thing, the people are smart, the people saw through this.
Hillel Neuer: Common sense.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business: . Hillel, it’s great to get this your take on this and to have this conversation. Thank you very much.
Hillel Neuer: Thank you.
