Michael LiPetri Jr.
R · U.S. House, NY-3 · Tier 1/2
Tier 1/2, between “Firmly pro-Israel” and “Mainstream pro-Israel”
“Stand with Israel” is one of his campaign's core planks: “Any attempt to boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel must be shut down, eliminated, and swiftly dealt with,” and “Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the Terror Republic of Iran must know that any acts of terrorism will be responded to with relentless and unmatched force.” In 2024 he backed the “total destruction” of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis and stripping accreditation and federal funding from colleges over campus antisemitism, and was quoted saying “I support the full destruction, complete eradication of Hamas. Period. By any means necessary”; in April 2026 he attacked Suozzi for “a weak tweet” while Mamdani and the Squad “refuse to adequately condemn ‘Free Palestine’ riots and chaos.” At the October 20, 2026 News 12 debate with Rep. Tom Suozzi, asked how he would combat antisemitism, he said “those who have these student visas that are here to learn and now espousing this hatred need to go. They don’t belong here,” attacked Democrats who voted “against providing funding to Israel,” and cited what he heard at a counterterrorism summit in Israel “from the heads of the IDF and the Mossad.”
A 1/2, not a clean 1. His support is zero-daylight — an anti-BDS pledge, force without stated limits against Hamas, Palestine-solidarity protest cast as “riots and chaos”, and no word for Palestinian civilians in any statement found — which rules out a flat 2. But there is no leadership on the issue: no authored Israel measure is on record for him, no anti-BDS enforcement he drove (the BDS line is a pledge), and no marquee pro-Israel fundraising; his hardest line targets Hamas rather than Palestinians as a people. Counter-case for a clean 1: Israel is a named pillar of both his 2024 and 2026 campaigns, and “by any means necessary” comes close to the hardline brand that marks a clean 1; in October 2026 he also said student-visa holders “espousing this hatred need to go.”
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elect26 places 2026 midterm candidates on a six-tier spectrum, from 1 (most pro-Israel) to 6 (most critical of Israel).