Trump’s pick for secretary of state says sanctions on violent settlers to be lifted
US Senator Marco Rubio doesn’t give timeline for reversal of Biden policy, says he expects Trump administration ‘will continue to be perhaps the most pro-Israel administration’
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration will end the sanctions regime that the Biden administration rolled out last year against violent Israeli settlers, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Wednesday.
Rubio, speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a confirmation hearing that focused heavily on Israel, also said he supported revoking visas of anyone in the country who supports the Hamas terror group and backed an expansion of the Trump-era Abraham Accords.
“Without speaking out of turn, I’m confident in saying that President Trump’s administration will continue to be perhaps the most pro-Israel administration in American history,” Rubio said after affirming that the Trump administration would roll back the outgoing president’s sanctions on violent settlers.
US President Joe Biden unveiled the sanctions on February 1, 2024, as US frustration mounted over Israel’s failure to crackdown on rampant settler violence targeting Palestinians throughout the West Bank.
Since the executive order, 17 individuals and 16 entities have been designated in eight separate batches.
A handful of other Western countries have joined the US in implementing such sanctions, which have been the subject of criticism among the Israeli far-right.
Rubio did not provide a timeline for the sanction reversal.
An Israeli official speaking to The Times of Israel last month speculated that Washington could dangle the prospect of reversing the sanctions as leverage in its ties with Jerusalem. Trump himself has not publicly commented on whether he will rescind the order.
Rubio also responded in the affirmative when asked whether the Trump administration will cease the policy of granting waivers that allow Palestinian Authority officials to hold political meetings in Washington.
Rubio also said he intended to be “very forceful” in making sure that Hamas supporters in the US are deported.
“If you apply for a visa to come into the United States and in the process of being looked at, it comes to light you’re a supporter of Hamas, we wouldn’t let you in,” he said. “Now that you got the visa and [are] inside the US and we realize you’re a supporter, we should remove your visa. If you could not come in because you’re a supporter of Hamas, you should not be able to stay. That’s how I view it.”
The issue has been a hot topic since the explosion of pro-Palestinian activism, particularly on US college campuses, since October 7, which in a handful of high-profile instances has included open shows of support for Hamas.
Trump has vowed to deport students engaged in such activities, a controversial measure that opponents say infringes on the right to freely protest.
Rubio himself had previously called for similar measures in a joint op-ed with Republican Sen. Dave McCormick, who teed him up to make the declaration about losing visas during the hearing. McCormick made a reference to “pro-terrorist violence on our college campuses” during his questioning, though Rubio himself did not define what he meant by the description “a supporter of Hamas.”
In addition to being notably friendlier than Tuesday’s confirmation hearing for defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, Rubio’s hearing was also overshadowed by news of the ceasefire and hostage return agreement reached between Israel and Hamas, which was announced midway through his questioning.
Rubio said he was “hopeful” about the agreement, while noting he didn’t have more complete details about it. He praised both the Biden administration and Trump transition team for working “side by side” on the deal.
When discussing the agreement and other matters, he defended Israel’s conduct in Gaza, which has drawn fierce global criticism, and insisted that the Israeli army does not deliberately target civilians, a charge its critics advance that Israel denies.
While vowing strong US support for Israel would continue, he also issued a fiery denunciation of Hamas, whose terror atrocities against Israel in October 2023 sparked the 15 months of fighting in the Gaza Strip that the multiphase deal signed Wednesday is meant to end.
“How can any nation-state on the planet coexist side by side with a group of savages like Hamas?” Rubio said.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who asked about reversing the sanctions on settlers, also questioned Rubio on whether he would commit “to ending discriminatory policies, including Biden administration secret boycott policies against Jews in Judea and Samaria [West Bank].” Cruz did not elaborate on what he was referring to, but Rubio responded “yes.”
Biden’s first ambassador, Tom Nides, declared he would not visit any West Bank settlements during his tenure, but broke the self-imposed ban to pay a condolence call at a settlement home for a victim of a terror attack in November 2022.
The Florida senator hit out at the International Criminal Court over the ongoing “genocide” case against Israel over the war in Gaza, slamming the “moral equivalency” created between Hamas and the Jewish state.
“I think the ICC, if they don’t drop this, will find its credibility globally badly damaged and I think the United States should be very concerned, because I believe this is a test run for applying it to American service members and American leaders in the future,” he said.
In response to a question about Iran, Rubio vowed that Tehran’s obtainment of nuclear weapons “cannot be allowed under any circumstances.”
“Any concessions we make to the Iranian regime we should anticipate that they will use as they have used in the past to rebuild their weapons and to try to restart their sponsorship of Hezbollah and other related entities around the region because they seek to become the dominant regional power,” Rubio said. “That’s their stated goal and its been clear by the actions that they’ve taken.”
Repeatedly throughout the hearing, Rubio highlighted what he called “opportunities” in the Middle East, including the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and the weakening of Lebanon and Iran, and noting that such developments could benefit Israel. When asked at one point about the Abraham Accords, Trump’s historic normalization agreements between Israel and some of its neighbors, the senator said he hoped to push Saudi Arabia to soon join them.
He vowed to quickly appoint a State Department special envoy for antisemitism to the position currently held by Deborah Lipstadt, though he did not indicate who that person would be. In his first term, Trump did not immediately fill the position, drawing criticism.
JTA, agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
