[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 95 (Wednesday, July 19, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H5451-H5480]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONDEMNING THE RECENT ATTACKS AGAINST THE STATE OF ISRAEL
Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the
resolution (H. Res. 921) condemning the recent attacks against the
State of Israel, holding terrorists and their state-sponsors
accountable for such attacks, supporting Israel's right to defend
itself, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read as follows:
H. Res. 921
Whereas on September 12, 2005, Israel completed its
unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, demonstrating its
willingness to make sacrifices for the sake of peace;
Whereas more than 1,000 rockets have been launched from
Gaza into Israel since Israel's disengagement;
Whereas in a completely unprovoked attack that occurred in
undisputed Israeli territory on June 25, 2006, Israeli
Defense Forces Corporal Gilad Shalit was kidnapped and is
being held hostage in Gaza by a Palestinian terrorist group
which includes members of Hamas;
Whereas Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal, in Damascus,
Syria, has acknowledged the role of Hamas in holding Corporal
Shalit hostage;
Whereas in a completely unprovoked attack that occurred in
undisputed Israeli territory on July 12, 2006, operatives of
the terrorist group Hezbollah operating out of southern
Lebanon killed three Israeli soldiers and took two others
hostage;
Whereas Israel fully complied with United Nations Security
Council Resolution 425 (1978) by completely withdrawing its
forces from Lebanon, as certified by the United Nations
Security Council and affirmed by United Nations Secretary-
General Kofi Annan on June 16, 2000, when he said, ``Israel
has withdrawn from [Lebanon] in full compliance with Security
Council Resolution 425.'';
Whereas United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559
(2004) calls for the complete withdrawal of all foreign
forces from Lebanon and the dismantlement of all independent
militias in Lebanon;
Whereas despite the adoption of United Nations Security
Council Resolution 1559, the Government of Lebanon has failed
to disband and disarm Hezbollah, allowing Hezbollah instead
to amass 13,000 rockets, including rockets that are more
destructive, longer-range and more accurate than rockets
previously used by Hezbollah, and has integrated Hezbollah
into the Lebanese Government;
Whereas the Government of Israel has previously shown great
restraint despite the fact that Hezbollah has launched at
least four separate attacks into Israel using rockets and
ground forces over the past year;
Whereas the failure of the Government of Lebanon to
implement all aspects of United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1559 and to extend its authority throughout its
territory has enabled Hezbollah to launch armed attacks
against Israel and recently to kidnap Israeli soldiers;
Whereas Hezbollah's strength derives significantly from the
direct financial, military, and political support it receives
from Syria and Iran, and Hezbollah also receives important
support from sources within Lebanon;
Whereas Iranian Revolutionary Guards continue to operate in
southern Lebanon, providing support to Hezbollah and
reportedly controlling its operational activities;
Whereas the Government of the United States has enacted
several laws, including the Syria Accountability and Lebanese
Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-175) and
the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-
172), which call for the imposition of sanctions on Syria and
Iran for, among other things, their support for terrorism and
terrorist organizations;
Whereas the House of Representatives has repeatedly called
for full implementation of United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1559;
Whereas section 1224 of the Foreign Relations Authorization
Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107-228) withholds certain
assistance to Lebanon contingent on the deployment of the
Lebanese armed forces to the internationally recognized
border between Lebanon and Israel and its effective assertion
of authority in the border area in order, among other
reasons, to prevent cross-border infiltration by terrorists,
precisely the criminal activity that has provoked the current
crisis;
Whereas President George W. Bush stated on July 12, 2006,
``Hezbollah's terrorist operations threaten Lebanon's
security and are an affront to the sovereignty of the
Lebanese Government. Hezbollah's actions are not in the
interest of the Lebanese people, whose welfare should not be
held hostage to the interests of the Syrian and Iranian
regimes.'', and has repeatedly affirmed that Syria and Iran
must be held to account for their shared responsibility in
the recent attacks;
Whereas the United States recognizes that some members of
the democratically-elected Lebanese parliament are working to
build an autonomous and sovereign Lebanon and supports their
efforts; and
Whereas both Hezbollah and Hamas refuse to recognize
Israel's right to exist and call for the destruction of
Israel: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) reaffirms its steadfast support for the State of
Israel;
(2) condemns Hamas and Hezbollah for engaging in unprovoked
and reprehensible armed attacks against Israel on undisputed
Israeli territory, for taking hostages, for killing Israeli
soldiers, and for continuing to indiscriminately target
Israeli civilian populations with their rockets and missiles;
(3) further condemns Hamas and Hezbollah for cynically
exploiting civilian populations as shields, locating their
equipment and bases of operation, including their rockets and
other armaments, amidst civilian populations, including in
homes and mosques;
(4) recognizes Israel's longstanding commitment to
minimizing civilian loss and welcomes Israel's continued
efforts to prevent civilian casualties;
(5) demands the Governments of Iran and Syria to direct
Hamas and Hezbollah to immediately and unconditionally
release Israeli soldiers which they hold captive;
(6) affirms that all governments that have provided
continued support to Hamas or Hezbollah share responsibility
for the hostage-taking and attacks against Israel and, as
such, should be held accountable for their actions;
(7) condemns the Governments of Iran and Syria for their
continued support for Hezbollah and Hamas in their armed
attacks against Israelis and their other terrorist
activities;
(8) supports Israel's right to take appropriate action to
defend itself, including to conduct operations both in Israel
and in the territory of nations which pose a threat to it,
which is in accordance with international law, including
Article 51 of the United Nations Charter;
[[Page H5452]]
(9) commends the President of the United States for fully
supporting Israel as it responds to these armed attacks by
terrorist organizations and their state sponsors;
(10) urges the President of the United States to bring the
full force of political, diplomatic, and economic sanctions
available to the Government of the United States against the
Governments of Syria and Iran;
(11) demands the Government of Lebanon to do everything in
its power to find and free the kidnapped Israeli soldiers
being held in the territory of Lebanon;
(12) calls on the United Nations Security Council to
condemn these unprovoked acts and to take action to ensure
full and immediate implementation of United Nations Security
Council 1559 (2004), which requires Hezbollah to be
dismantled and the departure of all Syrian personnel and
Iranian Revolutionary Guards from Lebanon;
(13) expresses its condolences to all families of innocent
victims of recent violence; and
(14) declares its continued commitment to working with
Israel and other United States allies in combating terrorism
worldwide.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Hyde) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) each
will control 20 minutes.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, if neither gentlemen is opposed to the bill, I
request the time in opposition.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is the gentleman from California opposed to
the motion?
Mr. LANTOS. I strongly support this legislation, Mr. Speaker.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is the gentleman from Texas opposed to the
motion?
Mr. PAUL. I am opposed to it.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under clause 1 of rule XV, the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. Paul) will control 20 minutes in opposition.
Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the time for
debate on this measure be extended for 80 additional minutes to be
equally divided.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 minutes of my time to the ranking
member of the Committee on International Relations, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Lantos), and I ask unanimous consent that he may be
permitted to control that time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
General Leave
Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the world is witnessing yet another violent episode in
the global struggle between civilization and terror.
The cowardly and deadly attacks on Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah have
resulted in a vigorous response by Israel. We shouldn't be surprised. A
history of precarious existence in a violent region has persuaded most
Israelis that wishful thinking carries deadly costs and has convinced
them that their survival depends upon their own willingness to act. And
so Israel has acted.
As a result, Israel is now the subject of criticism around the world.
The standard condemnations will be uttered, the familiar demands
expressed. Israel will once again be excoriated for self-defense by
governments that cannot be bothered to assist others or which are even
the sources of threats themselves.
Instead of offering help to halt these terrorist attacks, too many of
the world's governments will yet again demonstrate their irrelevance to
the region's problems or to any possible solution by restricting their
contributions to making disparaging comments from the sidelines. We can
be certain that terrorism writ large is likely to be verbally
assaulted. But were verbal disapprovals as deadly a weapon as are
missiles and bombs, the violence and slaughter that are the chosen
instruments of the terrorists would be quickly eliminated.
At best, a moral equivalence between the terrorist attacks and
Israel's response will be asserted. But it is profoundly immoral to
equate assault with defense, to erase the bright line between the
deliberate killing of innocents and a determination to protect those
innocents.
Were we in the position of the Israelis, how would we ourselves react
if missiles were launched from Cuba and rained down on Miami? Any
government that would allow terrorists to attack its citizens and do
nothing in response but protest or beg for mercy would betray its most
sacred trust.
{time} 1900
Instead, we should take encouragement from Israel's courageous
example and hope that others sleeping in their protective cocoons awake
and finally see that this conflict holds enormous stakes for us all.
Israel must win its battle against terrorism, or we all will lose.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I have taken the time in opposition to this resolution
because I very sincerely believe that resolutions of this sort actually
do more harm than good. I know that it is very good to condemn the
violence, and I certainly do agree with that.
But I am convinced that when we get involved and send strong
messages, such as this resolution will, that it ends up expanding the
war rather than diminishing the conflict, and that ultimately it comes
back to haunt us.
Generally speaking, I follow a policy in foreign affairs called
noninterventionism. It is not generally acceptable in this current time
that we do this, but I think there is every reason to consider it. It
certainly was something that the founders talked about.
The Constitution really doesn't authorize us to be the policemen of
the world. And for this reason, we should talk about it. And that is
why I take this opportunity to do so, with the sincere belief that we
would be better off with less intervention overseas.
The founders talked about that, about rejecting entangling alliances.
And we have been involved in a lot of entangling alliances since World
War I, especially after World War II, and we have been doing a lot of
things, losing a lot of men and women and costing a lot of money; and
too often, these events have come back to haunt us. There is blow-back
from our policy.
The policy of interventionism, which I object to, really doesn't
work. It is well intended, and we have these grandiose plans and
schemes to solve the problems of the world, but if you are really
honest with yourself and you look at the success and failure, it
doesn't have a good record. I mean, are you going to defend the great
victory in Korea, the great victory in Vietnam? And on and on. The
great victory in Iraq?
And I see resolutions like this step in the wrong direction.
Actually, I believe it is going to expand the war in the Middle East.
The other reason why I strongly object to interventionism is it costs
a lot of money. And someday we will have to deal with that.
Supplemental bills come up now to the tune of tens of billions, and
next year, already, they are planning to come up with another $100
billion for our intervention overseas. But it is off the regular
budgetary process, so it doesn't meet the budgetary restraints that we
are supposed to follow. So it becomes emergency funding, although we
have been in Iraq for 3 years, and with plans to stay endlessly. We are
building permanent bases in Iraq. So there is a lot of cost, and
eventually that will come home to haunt us, and it already has.
And then there is the problem of unintended consequences. We went
into Iraq for all kinds of reasons, some disproven, and all well
intended, and who knows what the real motivations were. But one thing
was that we would gain access to oil, and oil would be produced and
would help pay the bills. Yet oil, when we went into Iraq was $28 a
barrel. Now it is $75 a barrel. That is an unintended consequence.
We have done more to fall into the trap of what Osama bin Laden
wanted in Iraq than anything else. And actually we have helped Iran.
Iran is stronger. They have probably already more influence with the
grass roots, the democratic process in Iraq, than we do. Those are the
kind of unintended consequences that, on principle, I strongly object
to.
[[Page H5453]]
I believe that the founders were correct in advocating avoiding
entangling alliances, to have a strong national defense, to defend this
country, I believe that is just plain common sense. Most Americans, if
you just flat-out put it to them, think we should not be the policemen
of the world. Do you think we should be involved in the internal
affairs of other nations? People say no. We shouldn't do this. The
Constitution doesn't give us the authority to do it.
And we now are in the business of maintaining an empire. A
noninterventionist foreign policy concedes up front that is not our
goal. We are not supposed to be going overseas and building permanent
bases and staying there endlessly. Even the election campaign of 2000
was won partially on the foreign policy issue that, you know, it was
said that we shouldn't be the policemen of the world and we shouldn't
be in nation building.
I think those are good ideas and the American people agree. They
didn't object to it. But each step along the way we dig a deeper hole
for ourselves. And that is the general philosophic reasons why I
believe nonintervention is beneficial. Intervention is very, very
dangerous. Later there will be a lot of specifics that I would like to
mention.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution. The
conflict now raging in the Middle East is between a stable, pro-Western
democracy and the terrorists who seek to destroy it. It is obviously in
our country's interest and that of the civilized world as a whole to
oppose and denounce the vicious war against Israel by Hezbollah and
Hamas. We simply cannot accept a world in which terrorist bands can
trigger cross-border conflicts in violation of international law. Even
the 22 member states of the Arab League have recognized this fact. They
unequivocally denounced Hezbollah for provoking the current crisis
because they know that Hezbollah's nihilism threatens not just Lebanon
but their own stability.
Hezbollah's contempt for human suffering is total, as it showed once
again this morning when its rockets murdered two Israeli Arab children
in Nazareth.
Mr. Speaker, Israel is doing all it can to limit the civilian
suffering as any civilized, responsible, legitimate government would
do. Its air bases, weapons and other military assets are located as far
from population centers as they can be. But Hezbollah and Hamas have
deliberately placed their weapons among the people, in their homes, in
their schools, in their mosques. In a struggle between the two sides,
the risk of civilian casualties is naturally disproportionate. The
terrorists care nothing for human life, and care only to the extent
that they can cynically leverage the damage in their favor in the court
of public opinion.
Of course, Mr. Speaker, Israel is not facing just the terrorists
Hamas and Hezbollah. Those criminal groups are merely proxies for the
real masters of terror, Syria and Iran. If there was ever any doubt as
to whether Hezbollah is a wholly owned subsidiary of Iran, it has now
been put to rest. The unprovoked murder and kidnapping of Israeli
soldiers on undisputed Israeli territory clearly served Tehran's
interests. It occurred just days before the G-8 summit in St.
Petersburg, which was set to focus on Iran's nuclear projects and
transgressions. And, Mr. Speaker, the plot worked. The G-8 was indeed
preoccupied with events in the Arab-Israeli arena, rather than with
Iran's unrelenting march to secure nuclear weapons. But it is a mark of
how alarmed the G-8 members were at the current situation that even
Russia joined in the final communique condemning Hezbollah's actions.
Mr. Speaker, U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, passed in 2004,
declared that all foreign forces should be removed from Lebanon, all
militias dismantled, and the Lebanese Armed Forces be deployed to the
entire border with Israel. In fact, none of this happened. Iranian
Revolutionary Guard troops roam freely. And thanks to Hezbollah, Iran
has established, effectively, a base in southern Lebanon right on
Israel's border.
This is the same Iran that has called for Israel to be wiped off the
map, the same Iran that has armed Hezbollah with 13,000 deadly
missiles.
Meanwhile, Mr. Speaker, the Lebanese Government stands by, helplessly
watching its sovereignty evaporate. Hezbollah and Iran are holding
Lebanon hostage as surely as they are holding the two Israeli soldiers.
Mr. Speaker, there will never be real Lebanese democracy or real
Lebanese sovereignty as long as Hezbollah is armed and occupies
southern Lebanon.
We also know that Syria is the primary culprit behind the Hamas
kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, which also took place, unprovoked, on
undisputed Israeli territory. It strains credulity to believe that the
Syrian regime is merely a passive host for the Damascus-based Hamas
leader, Khaled Meshaal. Syria is his master.
Mr. Speaker, how often have we heard the complaint that there would
be peace in the Middle East if only the Israelis ended their
occupation?
The watchword of this school of thought was land for peace. But as
events of the last week have shown, it should have been land for war.
Israel ended its occupation of Lebanon and of Gaza. There was not one
Israeli citizen in either Gaza or Lebanon when this murderous and
cynical pair of attacks took place. And where did the murderers and
kidnappers attack from when they invaded Israeli territory? The very
places from which Israel withdrew.
How are we ever to establish peace?
How will decent people in the region ever believe in peace if Arab
terrorists interpret every gesture of peace as a display of weakness
and then act accordingly?
{time} 1915
Israel has withdrawn from Lebanon and Gaza. But where is the goodwill
on the other side? Since Israel evacuated Gaza, more than 1,000 Hamas
rockets have been fired at Israeli homes and Israeli schools. Since
Israel evacuated Lebanon, the terrorist gang Hezbollah that occupies
south Lebanon has stockpiled 13,000 rockets. As we have learned in
recent days, these rockets travel farther and are far more deadly than
had been previously believed. No wonder, Mr. Speaker, that Israeli
support for Prime Minister Olmert's plan to withdraw from large areas
of the West Bank has been plummeting even while Olmert himself enjoys
wide support among his people.
Given the stakes, I believe that the United States must support
Israel in combating enemies who will not be mollified by anything less
than Israel's total destruction. Any result of this fighting that
leaves Hezbollah in occupation of southern Lebanon will be a victory
for Iran and for Syria, for fanaticism and for terror, and the defeat
for Lebanon and for Middle East peace.
That, in my view, is the message of the resolution before us today,
Mr. Speaker. And that is why I strongly support this resolution, and
that is why I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to
do likewise.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, at this time I am proud to yield 3
minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), our distinguished
majority whip.
Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for recognition. And
I am grateful to Chairman Hyde and Mr. Lantos for the hard and
thoughtful work they have done on this resolution, for the comments
that they have already made, and many of those comments are not going
to be better made this evening.
Clearly, we stand here understanding that no country in the world
knows more about the importance of a safe society than Israel, knows
more the need to protect its borders and citizens than Israel.
The conflict being waged is not one that Israel asked for. It is
being fought out of necessity and out of self-defense. No country would
tolerate the type of armed aggression that Israelis have witnessed in
recent weeks. These deadly rocket attacks have been launched against
civilians in Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah with the direct backing, as
Mr. Lantos has said, of Syria and Iran.
In fact, just last night word came out of the region that the
Israelis had found and destroyed a truck convoy carrying new deadly
rockets across the Syrian border into Lebanon. Those weapons, which
reportedly were produced in Iran and transported through
[[Page H5454]]
Syria under the knowing eye of that country's government, are the
instruments being used by Syria and Iran to wage a proxy war against
Israel.
All responsible members of the international community must demand
that Syria and Iran immediately cease their financial and military
support for these terrorist organizations or face the kind of global
isolation and action by the Security Council that they deserve.
Innocent citizens of Lebanon have also been the victims. The Lebanese
Government has not been able to gain control over its own security and
disarm Hezbollah, as demanded by the United Nations. I believe the
Cedar Revolution was real, but democracy is still weak, and the
Lebanese Government must resist terrorism or it does not govern.
As Israel engages in a two-front conflict to defend its borders, I am
confident that its government is doing all it can to minimize the loss
of civilian life. Unfortunately, Lebanese and Palestinian civilians are
being caught in the middle. I talked today to friends of mine in
Nazareth who were witnesses to the attacks on Nazareth today where
innocent Arabs living in Israel have been killed by these terrorist
factions. We must put a stop to this. We must stand strong. This is
exactly the kind of Islamic totalitarian view of the world that we
resist today in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 8 minutes to the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. LaHood).
(Mr. LaHOOD asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for
yielding me this time.
I would like to stipulate that in the 12 years I have been in the
House, I have visited Lebanon on 10 occasions, and 2 years ago when I
was there, I called upon the President of Lebanon, who has the same
name as I do, although he is no relation, that he should not extend his
term as President of the country, and that troops should be moved into
the southern part of the country. I want to stipulate that now so
people understand.
I believe this resolution does not go far enough, and I believe the
resolution should stipulate some humanitarian interest in the Lebanese
people who are the ones that are being injured and killed by the
attacks on the country. But I do not believe the current President
should be in office. He has extended his term, and that should not have
been. They should have moved troops into the southern part of the
country and gone after Hezbollah, but that has not happened.
But over the last 10 years, the country of Lebanon, in particular
Beirut, has been rebuilt. It has been rebuilt primarily by the
assassinated former Prime Minister, who did an extraordinary job and
showed extraordinary leadership over the last several years in helping
to rebuild the country and helping to rebuild, in particular, the city
of Beirut.
Late last week I decried the capture of two Israeli soldiers, and I
decried the Hezbollah for doing that. But I also decry the idea that
the attacks that are being made are well beyond the boundaries of where
Hezbollah is at, well beyond the boundaries of the southern part of
Lebanon, to completely shut down the airport, to bomb every road so
there is no way for peace-loving people who have no fight in this
battle at all to exit the country.
Over 25,000 Americans are trapped in Lebanon, many students, many
American students, who go to school at American University of Beirut.
And also many peace-loving Americans who are there, many from my home
community of Peoria, over 300, who traditionally go to the country in
the summertime to visit their mothers and their fathers and their aunts
and their uncles, are trapped there.
Now, I give the administration credit for allowing these cruise ships
now to come to the Mediterranean and help them exit. But the point that
I want to make here is there is nothing in the resolution about the
innocent people that are being killed. Over 300 people have been killed
in the last 7 days who have no fight in this. They do not live in the
southern part of the country. And there are many people that are
trapped there. And I wish the resolution would have allowed for some
idea that you can go into the southern part, you can go after
Hezbollah, you can run them out of the country, and we are well within
our right to do that, but not to shut down every way and every means of
people to escape the country, not to kill innocent people, not to go
into neighborhoods where there are absolutely no Hezbollah.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, will my friend yield?
Mr. LaHOOD. I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. LANTOS. I thank my friend for yielding.
First, let me react to your comment that the resolution does not deal
with the loss of innocent life. The resolution expresses its
condolences to all families of innocent victims of recent violence.
Secondly, it is critical to prevent the resupply of deadly rockets
from Iran and Syria. Unless the airport is closed down, unless the
border with Syria is closed down, these deadly weapons will be
resupplied in no time. That is why the airport was attacked. That is
why the border crossings with Syria were attacked.
Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I would say the
resolution is not specific to the Lebanese innocent people. It mentions
innocent people, but there is no specificity about those Lebanese
people, particularly Lebanese Americans who are there visiting their
families and the students that are there.
The only road that was not bombed, the only road that was not closed,
is the road that goes to Syria. And I know people and I have talked to
them that have exited the country through Syria, and the Syrian
Government is allowing them to go into Syria, go into Damascus, and
take flights out to other parts in order to get back to the United
States.
I have served on the Intelligence Committee now for 8 years. There is
something I think I know. Hezbollah is well armed. They have all the
ammunition they need, and we need to shut them down. We need to
eliminate them from the southern part of Lebanon.
I do not buy this idea that they were going to be able to ship arms
in through the airport. They have all they need. They have the kind of
capability, and they have shown that.
So I have heard that argument that the airport was bombed. I believe
it was bombed so you could close off a way for people to get out of
there. And I do not quite buy the argument that it was bombed so that
they could be resupplied. They do not need to be resupplied. They have
got all they need.
Look, I have said pretty much what I wanted to. I know what the
debate is going to be about. My obligation is to peace-loving people
who live in Lebanon, who have made their homes there. My grandfather on
my father's side came to this country in 1895 to Peoria, Illinois, from
Lebanon. We have a large Lebanese population in Peoria. And I hope
there are others, I think there will be, that will speak up for the
common, ordinary, decent people of Lebanon who are suffering as a
result.
They want Hezbollah out of the country, and there is no argument with
that, but they do not want to see their own neighborhoods, where there
is no presence of Hezbollah, to be bombed and innocent people killed.
If this were going on in Israel, which it is, the resolution
stipulates that our hearts go out to those people. The innocent, peace-
loving people of Lebanon in neighborhoods where Hezbollah does not
exist, they get no recognition in this resolution. With all due
respect, Mr. Lantos, they simply do not. They did in a resolution that
was prepared earlier on, but that language was taken out.
So I think the resolution is inadequate, and I want to stick up for
the people of Lebanon. I want to also compliment the administration for
waiving the fees that they were going to charge innocent people for
getting outside of the country. Obviously, that was a no-brainer. For
getting the cruise ships to come in, to allow helicopters to transport
people from the embassy over to Cyprus, all of these things are good
things.
I have talked to the administration. I have asked Secretary Rice and
her team to talk more about restraint, particularly in the parts of
Lebanon that do not deserve to be bombed, where innocent people do not
deserve to be killed.
[[Page H5455]]
I am just going to wrap up. It is going to take millions of dollars
to rebuild areas of Lebanon that have been damaged. I mean, it is going
to take millions of dollars to rebuild bridges and roads and
infrastructure that have been built over the last 10 years. Beirut was
so well positioned. This year in the city of Beirut, they had more
tourism. The economy was booming. And now when you see what is
happening, not only the innocent life, but so much of the
infrastructure has been destroyed. I hope our government is going to be
willing to step up and provide some of the dollars to help rebuild the
country.
So my objection is that I think the resolution is inadequate, and I
want to speak up for the people of Lebanon.
I thank the gentleman from Texas very much for yielding me this time.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Before yielding to our distinguished whip, I would like to make a
couple of observations. I first visited Lebanon in 1956, in the summer
of 1956.
{time} 1930
It was the jewel of the Middle East. And what has destroyed Lebanon
during the course of the last half century were various terrorist
groups, first Arafat's PLO and now Hezbollah.
No one is in favor of hurting a single innocent human being. The fact
is that with Hezbollah placing its weaponry in the midst of population
centers, collateral damage is unavoidable. Israel has gone to every
length to minimize collateral damage.
As a matter of fact, the difference between the tragedies befalling
the Lebanese people and the tragedies befalling the Israeli people is
very simple: Hezbollah deliberately, deliberately, attacks civilians.
Israel does its utmost not to attack innocent civilians.
Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. LANTOS. I am glad to yield to my friend, the gentleman from
Illinois.
Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I agree with everything you have said, Mr. Lantos. My only problem
is, why not give the same kind of consideration in the resolution to
the common, ordinary, decent people of Lebanon who are being hurt by
these attacks? That is really all we were asking earlier on when we
presented a resolution to the majority leader's office.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to yield such time as he may
consume to the distinguished Democratic whip, my good friend, the
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California.
Mr. Speaker, first let me say that, unfortunately, there wasn't as
much bipartisan drafting of this resolution as I would have hoped.
Hopefully there is no one in this Chamber who does not empathize with
those who want peace, those who work for peace, those who are caught in
the environment of hate, those who are caught in the environment of
attacks on innocent people, those who are harboring in their midst
those who attack a nation because of the religion and ethnicity of
their population. All of us have empathy for innocent people caught in
the grip of terror and terrorism.
But all of us also ought to have the expectation that those people
would exorcise from their societies those who undermine peace, security
and safety, and the Lebanese people have not done that. They have
either not done it because they are incapable of doing it, or they have
not done it, as too often I hear verbalized, I tell my friend, because
of their sympathy for Hezbollah.
Mr. Speaker, I strongly support this resolution condemning the recent
terrorist attacks against our Nation's staunchest democratic ally in
the Middle East and supporting Israel's inherent right for self-
defense, and I urge Members on both sides of the aisle to support this
resolution as well.
Israel is absolutely justified in undertaking the defense of its
territory and its people. As the Israeli columnist Ari Shavit recently
wrote, Israel's actions are ``not a war of occupation, but rather a war
of defense. Not a settlements war, but rather a green line war. A war
over the validity of an international border that was drawn, defined
and recognized by the United Nations.''
No one should be mistaken: The actions taken by Israel over the last
8 days have been a direct response to the premeditated, unprovoked
attacks of Hamas and Hezbollah, terrorist organizations which are
underwritten and encouraged by their sponsors, Syria and Iran.
Palestinian militants, including members of Hamas, dug a tunnel 300
yards inside of Israel territory. And when, on June 25th, militants
emerged from that tunnel, they killed two Israeli soldiers, wounded
three and kidnapped one.
Then last Wednesday, July 12, Hezbollah terrorists crossed Israel's
internationally recognized northern border, and in a brazen daylight
attack killed three Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two. Another five
Israeli soldiers were killed by Hezbollah terrorists when they tried to
retrieve the bodies of their fallen comrades.
Mr. Speaker, these premeditated, unprovoked terrorist attacks on
Israel are indefensible. One can only imagine the American response if
a terrorist group attacked and killed American citizens from just
across our border.
It also must be noted that Israel has exercised great restraint over
the last year, during which Palestinian militants, as has been
referenced on this floor, have launched over 1,000 rockets from Gaza
into Israel and Hezbollah has launched four separate attacks on Israel.
While I am convinced that Israel is using every possible effort to
avoid civilian casualties, it is clear that the terrorists in Hamas and
Hezbollah purposely, purposely, staged their actions from within
civilian communities, thereby putting civilians at grave risk.
Furthermore, while Israel makes every effort to minimize civilian
casualties, it is clear that the terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah
deliberately attempt to maximize such casualties by indiscriminately
firing rockets upon Israeli population centers.
Mr. Speaker, as a first step towards restoring calm, it is absolutely
imperative that Israel's soldiers in Gaza and Lebanon be returned
unconditionally and unharmed and that indiscriminate rocket attacks on
Israeli civilians by Hamas and Hezbollah cease immediately.
It is also long past the time for the international community to
facilitate the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559. If
that U.N. resolution had been carried out, there would be no innocent
citizens on either side being killed this day. The tragedy of our
international community is the United Nations talks a much better game
than it ever plays. That resolution, which was adopted in September of
2004, calls for the Lebanese army to control southern Lebanon's border,
and for all militias, including Hezbollah, to be disabled and
disbanded.
So long as the international community fails to ensure the
implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, I believe Israel as
a sovereign nation with an inherent right of self-defense has every
right to strike armed terrorists which seek her destruction. Disarming
and disbanding terrorist organizations is essential to Middle East
peace.
We empathize, we sympathize, we have deep concern for those caught in
this web of violence and terror, but that will not rationalize nor will
it excuse the lack of action to exorcise those terrorists from the body
politic of the Middle East. Until that happens, innocent civilians will
ever be at risk.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, at this time I am proud to yield 2
minutes to my colleague the distinguished gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Shaw), who is a staunch supporter of Israel and who has been there many
times.
Mr. SHAW. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to associate myself
with the previous speaker and his remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice my steadfast support for Israel
during this time of crisis and escalating violence. In the strongest
possible terms, I condemn Hezbollah's unprovoked attack on Israel.
On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah assaulted northern Israel. This attack
killed eight soldiers and took two others hostage. The kidnapping and
killing of Israeli soldiers symbolizes a clear act of war by Hezbollah,
which the government of Lebanon has failed to take apart and has even
included in its cabinet.
Hezbollah's continued violence against Israel is financed and
supported by Syria and Iran. The United
[[Page H5456]]
States Department of State said that Iran supports Hezbollah with
financial, political and organizational aid, while Syria provides
diplomatic, political and logistic support. Syria and Iran should be
held responsible for the violence that has ensued in the region as a
result of their support of Hamas.
Like the United States and other sovereign nations, Israel has the
right to defend itself and its people from the attacks by these
terrorists. Hezbollah fired at least 100 rockets at Israel just
yesterday, with an estimated 720 Hezbollah rockets reported fired since
the current crisis began. Israel air strikes continue and Israel
defense forces conducted cross-border raids overnight. Over 230
Lebanese and 25 Israelis have been reported killed since hostilities
began. Estimates of Lebanese displaced by the violence vary widely,
from tens of thousands to as many as 400,000.
Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the United States must continue our
efforts to support the State of Israel. These are the same killers who
blew up our Marine barracks in Lebanon and killed 260 of our finest
United States Marines.
An Israeli win is a win for the United States. Our future, as well as
Israel's future, is wrapped up in the future of this conflict. I urge
my colleagues to support this resolution.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to comment just briefly on the comments
made by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood), because I think his
point is well taken about the emphasis on this legislation, and to deny
that would be just trying to fool one's self.
It is very clear that if one were objective and read this resolution,
all the terrorists are on one side and all the victims and the
innocents are on the other side, which I, quite frankly, find unfair,
especially coming from the position that I want to advocate,
neutrality, rather than picking sides.
But he also mentioned the fact about trying to change the resolution.
I would like to emphasize also that being on the International
Relations Committee, I was anxious to see the resolution, but
characteristically it was very difficult to get. We didn't hold
hearings and we didn't debate it and we didn't get a chance to have
amendments to it, and even last night I couldn't receive it. There were
some news articles very early this morning. Lo and behold, they had
copies of it. It took me until about 9 o'clock this morning to get it.
So I think it would be fairer within this Congress to allow us to
have a chance to debate these in the committee, to bring them to the
floor.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 8 minutes to the gentleman from West Virginia
(Mr. Rahall).
Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for
yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, it was 24 years ago almost to this very day that I led
an official congressional delegation to the Middle East, appointed by
then Speaker Tip O'Neill. This six-nation tour included meetings with
heads of state in every one of the countries we visited, including the
Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Began.
We were in Beirut those first days of August 1982 when Israeli bombs
were falling all over the country and all over the city, as they are
this very day. The Israeli aim at that time was to rid Lebanon of the
PLO.
Then President Ronald Reagan got on the phone to then Prime Minister
Menachem Began and said enough is enough. Stop the bombing. President
Reagan had that courage, had that sense.
There immediately ensued negotiations and a peaceful evacuation of
Americans in the area, and we initially sent over marines, maybe a
month later, at which point in time we were considered peacekeepers and
all the Lebanese were welcoming the American presence. That later
turned sour. That is part of history and I shall not go there.
But I have written President Bush last Friday urging him to take this
same action as President Ronald Reagan took 24 years ago.
{time} 1945
I commend him for calling Arab leaders as he is and asking the Arab
leaders to urge restraint upon Hezbollah and to urge the release of the
hostages, which is a proper action. I also asked the President that
should he not be calling the Israeli Prime Minister at the same time.
What is wrong with this course of action?
The point where we are today is a point that is unfortunate. It was
stupid of Hezbollah, Hamas to take the actions they took. I condemn the
hostage taking.
Israel has a right to defend itself. It has the right to pursue to
the nth degree those that abduct their soldiers. The Israeli action of
current days, and as we speak in Lebanon, however, has other
repercussions than just the stated agenda of destroying Hezbollah. That
is not going to happen. We know that there is no military action that
is going to wipe out every member of Hezbollah, that is going to wipe
out every member of Hamas.
That is not the way this problem is going to be resolved. It is time
for cooler heads to prevail if peace is to have a prayer. It is time
for a cease-fire. It is time for Secretary Rice to go to the region. It
is time for Hezbollah to, as the first step, simultaneously with the
calling of a cease-fire release the hostages. That must be done, step
number 1, with the calling of a cease-fire, and then negotiations
should continue.
As to whether there will be future and sequential release of Lebanese
and Palestinian prisoners held by the Israelis, many of whom have not
even had the first charge read against them yet, but that is for later,
Israel has done this in the past, to their credit. Yes, we do not
negotiate with terrorists, but we do. We know the reality.
So I say, Mr. Speaker, that the current actions of Israelis have gone
beyond going after Hezbollah. This resolution that is before us seems
to hint at that pretty strongly. The Government of Lebanon is targeted
in many different points in the resolution before us. The Government of
Lebanon is demanded in this resolution to disarm Hezbollah. That is
something that 18 years of Israeli occupation of Lebanon could not
achieve. The Israelis cannot do that. But we are demanding now that a
year-and-a-half-old Lebanese Government, prodemocracy, pro-American, so
much hope after the Cedar Revolution of a year and a half ago, we are
now demanding that they disarm Hezbollah in this resolution. Not
realistic.
Who are the losers if a cease-fire is not immediately implemented?
Who are the losers in this fighting and the loss of innocent lives and
civilian infrastructure continues? The losers are the moderates. The
losers are the Siniora government in Lebanon, a government that has not
approved, has not condoned the taking of hostages, as a matter of fact
has spoken against it; a government that cannot at this particular
point in time control fully its borders, but was getting its act in
order previous to the current invasion.
In the Palestinian territories, who are the losers? The moderate
Palestinian leader Abu Mazen is the loser, an individual who was
negotiating with Prime Minister Olmert, very close to a deal on
prisoner exchange, when all of a sudden this kidnapping occurred, and
that almost deal went down the tubes. So the moderates are the losers
the longer the fighting goes on, the longer we are without a cease-
fire.
The likely scenario, of course, is that the Israelis will continue.
They did a massive hit just as we speak against a Hezbollah bunker in
south Beirut. It remains to be seen whether they got the head of
Hezbollah or not, but there will be some mopping-up operations in the
next week or so, and then Secretary Rice will go to the region and be
the big peacemaker. I hope that is the scenario and that it is over
that quick. I hope indeed that is what will occur.
But we must request and we must demand that Hezbollah release the
kidnapped soldiers as the first step with the simultaneous announcing
of a cease-fire and let cooler heads prevail if we are going to give
peace a chance.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield for the purpose of making a
unanimous consent request to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gene Green).
(Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and
extend his remarks.)
Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of
House Resolution 921.
Throughout its history, Israel has had to defend itself from groups
that want to wipe it off
[[Page H5457]]
the map. Hamas and Hezbollah do not want to negotiate a two-state
solution, they want to go back to before 1948. That is not going to
happen. The United States first recognized Israel and will continue to
help Israel defend herself.
The recent attacks, murders and seizure of soldiers by Hezbollah and
Hamas are no different, and this House must affirm its commitment to
Israel and stand behind that nation's right to defend itself.
Less than three weeks after the June 25 abduction of Corporal Gilad
Shalit by Hamas in undisputed Israeli territory, Hezbollah opened a
second front against Israel by attacking, killing and abducting more
Israeli soldiers in northern Israel.
Israel's response was no different than the U.S. response would have
been if someone had attacked across our border.
Israel completely withdrew from southern Lebanon in accordance with
United Nations Security Council Resolution 425.
Despite this move to facilitate the peace process in the region, and
despite U.N. Security Council resolution 1559--which required Lebanon
to take control of this region and to disarm and disband any militias
in the country--Lebanon allowed Hezbollah to operate in southern
Lebanon, and receive material and funding from Iran and Syria
Hezbollah launched four separate attacks earlier this year against
Israel.
Israel has been forced to defend itself from these terrorist groups
to protect its borders and its people which have been targeted by
Hezbollah rockets.
Unlike Israel, which has carefully targeted Hezbollah members who
hide and operate among the civilian populations, Hezbollah has
indiscriminately fired rockets at northern Israeli civilian populations
in cities like Haifa, Nazareth, and Nahariya.
Mr. Speaker, these attacks by the terrorist groups Hezbollah and
Hamas on Israel's borders, military, and civilian population have
forced Israel to respond.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution
reaffirming our support for Israel's right to defend itself.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, before yielding to my friend from
Massachusetts, I yield myself such time as I may consume to make a
comment about Mr. Paul's observation as he calls for neutrality.
Calling for neutrality between a democratic ally of the United States
and a gang of terrorists is not worthy of this body. There is no
neutrality between a gang of terrorists who indiscriminately kill and
the democratic state.
May I also say that it was Hezbollah terrorists who killed the
largest number of U.S. Marines in Beirut a quarter century ago. Some of
us were there visiting with them just a couple of weeks before they
were all killed. Lee Hamilton, a distinguished former Member of this
body, and I visited with our marines just days before they were all
killed by Hezbollah terrorist activity.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts
(Mr. Frank), the distinguished ranking member of the Financial Services
Committee.
Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, first, this Israeli
retaliation did not come in the abstract. Let's be clear what happened.
I speak here as someone who has been critical in the past of Israeli
Governments that were, in my judgment, sufficiently willing to take
risks for peace. I have been an advocate of giving up land in the
interests of a comprehensive settlement.
What happened tragically in the last couple of weeks is that Israel
was attacked by entities who do not think there should be any Israel at
all. It was attacked by people dedicated to the abolition of the Jewish
State in the Middle East from two territories from which it had
withdrawn.
What was attacked was not just individual Israelis, but those in
Israel within that democratic nation who have pushed for peace. In
April, after the withdrawal from Gaza, very controversial, the people
willing in Israel to withdraw from territory in pursuit of peace won an
election. Those in Israel who would reject that approach lost. Sadly,
the rejectionists then won in the Palestinian Authority. So you have
people who had risked themselves in a democratic nation for peace now
being undercut by those who use those very territories from which they
withdrew for attacking them. And again these were not disputes over
specifics.
Hamas and Hezbollah both agreed there should be no Israel. These are
people who want to return not to the borders of 1967, but to the
borders of 1947 when there was no Israel. Now, no democratic nation can
be expected to not respond, and that is what we have, a response to
attacks across the internationally recognized border of Israel by
people committed to destroying its very existence from territories from
which they withdrew. So the attacks were clearly justified.
Then the question is, well, how have they conducted the war? I think
there were things that they should not have done. I wish they had not
bombed the power plant in Gaza. But, you know, I look at what Israel is
doing in Lebanon, and I must tell you what it most resembles in my
recent memory, the American action in Yugoslavia when we bombed and
bombed and bombed Belgrade and much of Yugoslavia, much of Serbia, to
get them to withdraw from Kosovo. That was not a conventional military
action. Now, I must note that Israel has not at this point taken out
any embassies. We in the Yugoslav war took out the Chinese Embassy. We
bombed convoys.
Sadly, when people go to war, innocent people die. That is why I am
very reluctant to vote for war. But that happens. But what happened in
Serbia was America punishing the Serbian territory to get them to
withdraw from Kosovo, and it worked.
Now, I understand the pride of the Lebanese Government, but let me
say this, first of all, in response to my friend from West Virginia.
The resolution does not demand that the Lebanese Government disarm
Hezbollah. It demands that the Lebanese do everything within its power,
within its power, to change things.
In contrast, the resolution does make an unconditional demand of
Syria and Iran that they do the right thing. So it does differentiate
between Lebanon and Syria and Iran.
Now, let me say, with regard to Lebanon, I am struck by the pride of
the Lebanese people, but I have to say this. Many of those who are now
critical of Israel and say, what do you want from poor Lebanon, where
were they when poor Lebanon needed them? Where were they when the
Lebanese were unable to get Hezbollah to move? Why did they not get
involved then?
In defense of the Israelis, what they are saying is this: Look, a
U.N. resolution said get Hezbollah away from us, because if they keep
this up, we will have to retaliate, and nothing happened until they
started killing Israelis inside Israel, and then Israel retaliated.
So those who now say, well, you know what, do not blame the poor
Government of Lebanon, I do not. I blame those in the Arab world and
elsewhere who could have gone into that situation and avoided this.
So now the question is what do you do? A simple cease-fire that
leaves Hezbollah on the Israeli border, in violation of a U.N.
resolution, free to continue to kill across that international border
in their pursuit of their effort to destroy the State is not good
enough. I would like to see us be involved.
What the resolution says is have Syria and Iran be pressured by the
rest of the world, including those great humanitarian nations of Russia
and China and elsewhere that have expressed opinions here; let them
intervene not simply to stop the shooting, but to get Hezbollah away
from that border. Then it will be reasonable to ask Israel to stop, and
I believe they want to.
So it is not simply release the soldiers today so four more can be
captured and more people killed tomorrow. Let the international
community show its real concern for the Government of Lebanon by
providing them with the assistance they need to move Hezbollah away.
Let Hamas honor the fact that Israel withdrew at great political
internal cost from Gaza and not use that as a lunching pad for their
efforts to destroy Israel.
So I must say, I think it is justified in terms of the response, in
terms of the way it is conducted. Yeah, it is messy and bloody, and
innocent people die, and that is why you try to avoid those situations,
and why Syria and Iran should be pressured to get Hezbollah to move
back so we can put an end to it.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the
gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays).
Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, Hamas and Hezbollah attacks against one of
our closest friends and best allies, Israel,
[[Page H5458]]
are acts of war, and they have Iran and Syria's fingerprints all over
them.
As chairman of the National Security Subcommittee with direct focus
on the Middle East and the Islamist terrorists that breed there, I am
grateful we are promptly considering this bipartisan resolution to say
to Israel, to the international community, and, most importantly, to
the terrorists and the nations who support them that this Congress
unequivocally stands by Israel.
We condemn the terror attacks against it, and we pray for the
peaceful resolution of this crisis and to the end to the loss of
innocent lives on both sides.
The prisoner exchange called for by some must be put off the table.
Doing so legitimizes Hamas and Hezbollah's actions and will only
embolden them and the Syrian and Iranian Governments that back them to
launch similar attacks in the future. The resolution of this crisis
must include the nonnegotiable safe return of the kidnapped Israeli
soldiers, and the guarantee of the security of Israel's borders,
including the full implementation of the U.N. Security Council
Resolution 1559.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) derogatorily
said there is no room to talk about neutrality, as if it were a crime.
I would suggest there is room for an open mind to another type of
policy that may save American lives.
I was in the Congress in the early 1980s, and then I left Congress,
and I just come back recently. But I was here when the Marines were
sent in to Lebanon, and I strenuously came to the floor before they
went, when they went, and before they were killed, arguing my case. And
then they were killed. Ronald Reagan, when he sent the troops in, said
he would never turn tail and run.
{time} 2000
Then, after the marines were killed, he had a reassessment of the
policy. When he wrote his autobiography a few years later after leaving
the Presidency, he wrote this.
He says, ``Perhaps we didn't appreciate fully enough the depth of the
hatred and the complexity of the problems that made the Middle East
such a jungle. Perhaps the idea of a suicide car bomber committing mass
murder to gain instant entry to Paradise was so foreign to our own
values and consciousness that it did not create in us the concern for
the marines' safety that it should have.''
In the weeks immediately after the bombing, I believe the last thing
that we should do was turn tail and leave. Yet the irrationality of
Middle Eastern politics forced us to rethink our policy there. If there
would be some rethinking of policy before our men die, we would be a
lot better off. If that policy had changed towards more of a neutral
position and neutrality, those 241 marines would be alive today.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr.
Boustany).
Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, let me start by commending the esteemed
chairman of the International Relations Committee and the distinguished
gentleman, the ranking member, for bringing this very powerful
resolution to the floor.
I agree with this resolution. I vehemently, vehemently condemn the
violence and terrorist activity of Hamas and Hezbollah. I also
vigorously support the right of Israel to defend itself against these
terrorist acts and to do what is necessary under these dire
circumstances.
But let me also say that this resolution is incomplete, and I don't
think it is fully reflective of what U.S. policy should be. Much has
been said about Resolution 1559. Much has been said about Lebanon, that
poor small country that has been victimized time and time again.
What of Lebanon? There is a nascent democracy there, despite the
challenges, despite the years of conflict, a nascent democracy that is
budding. I think this resolution should give lip service to those
Lebanese patriots who are trying to build this democracy. The Siniora
government, we should not do anything that would undermine this nascent
democracy and Prime Minister Siniora's attempt to build an economic
country, a country that is going to have opportunity.
Security Council Resolution 1559, whose fault is it? We know that
this nascent democracy in Lebanon doesn't have the capability to defend
itself. It doesn't have a very well-formed armed services. We know that
Israel could not drive Hezbollah out.
How can the small force that Lebanon has do such? Whose fault is it?
The international community, the U.S.? This has been a failure of
policy. One thing that is clear is that this Security Council
Resolution 1559 has to be enforced unequivocally, and Hezbollah must be
disarmed in any way that is possible. This is going to take an
international effort. Once there is international consensus that this
resolution will be enforced, then we need to put together the coalition
to enforce it.
I am going to conclude. I am not going to take the full time, but I
am going to say that America should not turn its back on any of its
allies, and that certainly includes Israel. But it should also include
that vulnerable State of Lebanon.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my good friend from
Louisiana for his very thoughtful statement, and let me just add that
if Hezbollah is, in fact, defanged, the primary beneficiary will be the
people and the State of Lebanon.
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 3\1/3\ minutes to my
distinguished friend from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel).
Mr. EMANUEL. I thank my colleague from California, and I strongly
support this resolution. Mr. Speaker, on June 25, Palestinian militants
from Hamas kidnapped and later executed an Israeli soldier. On July 12,
Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.
In both cases, terrorist militias affiliated with democratically
elected governments, violated internationally recognized borders and
seized three soldiers. In both cases, they were acts of wars. These
acts turned on its head 25 years of agreement that if Israel would
leave territories to internationally recognized borders, there would be
peace.
It is this turning on its head the reason for the reaction by both
Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan because it has violated what happened in
1978 with the giving of the Sinai. It violated what happened in 1993
with the Oslo Agreement, and it violated what happened in 1994 with
Jordan.
What happened here, and nobody should underestimate the consequences,
is it totally violates not only the internationally recognized border
but the bipartisan effort, internationalized effort, to bring peace to
the Middle East, and specifically to the Arab and Israeli conflict.
That is, Israel would move to internationally recognized borders. Those
borders would be recognized and peace would happen.
That effort, if it doesn't end here, and this doesn't get upturned
with the return of soldiers, that effort of giving up peace by giving
up real estate, recognizing internationally recognized borders, will
come to an end. That is why three Arab governments, allies of the
United States, have acted the way they have acted and recognized the
consequences and the deep meaning of what happened here.
That being said, nobody should lose sight for one moment also of what
has happened here. The so-called democratically elected governments on
the West Bank and in Lebanon have militias affiliated with those
governments. So those are democracies. They are not truly democracies,
they are totalitarian entities with militias and terrorists acting as
democracies.
As we talk about bringing democracy to the Mideast, understand that
that button should be paused for a second and understand the
consequences here. That what has happened is Saudi Arabia, most
importantly, Egypt and Jordan, have brought peace and have come to a
peace agreement with Israel. Those who have violated that peace are,
quote-unquote, democracies, as we spread democracy in the Mideast.
Understand what that means here, and the consequences of what has
happened here, is that you cannot allow this violation of
internationally recognized borders, three soldiers to be seized, and
think there will be no act of war. That is what has broadened, and yes,
many of its citizens will be hurt.
I want to see an end to the violence that is engulfing Israel and
Lebanon,
[[Page H5459]]
but it will not end this violence at the ballot box. It will only end
with the emergence of true partners who recognize the importance of
peace and the end of terrorist regimes founded on hate.
I strongly support this resolution, its spirit, as well as its
letter.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight in strong support of the resolution
before us, introduced by our distinguished majority leader and two
foreign policy giants, our International Relations chairman, Henry Hyde
and our ranking member, Tom Lantos. We wish that circumstances were
different in the Middle East, and we regret the loss of innocent human
life.
However, silence on our part in the face of these outrageous attacks
against Israel would only serve to embolden these Islamic terrorists
and their neighbors. Our stance, therefore, must be clear, Mr. Speaker;
we condemned these armed attacks against Israel.
We fully support Israel's right to take appropriate action to defend
itself in the face of these existential threats, and we must hold not
just Hamas and Hezbollah but also Iran and Syria accountable.
Mr. Speaker, the current conflict in the Middle East is not simply
the result of these most recent developments. Rather, it results from
the efforts of the chain of interrelated extremist entities and their
state sponsors who threaten not just Israel but our own security
interests as well.
It stems from a deep-seated desire to destroy the State of Israel,
or, as the Iranian leader has said, to wipe Israel off the map. It
stems from Iran's desire to export its revolution and to exert regional
domination. It is based on a world view that led to the taking of
American hostages in 1979, who were held for 444 days, and that hatred
against the U.S. as not gone unabated.
The events of the recent weeks find their roots in an alliance
between Iran and Syria and their terrorist proxies, which, throughout
the years, have caused the deaths and injuries of countless Israelis
and Americans alike. Current developments are also linked to the
failure of the United Nations to ensure full implementation of Security
Council Resolution 1559 requiring Hezbollah to dismantle and disarm.
Over the past year, Israel has shown tremendous restraint in the face
of continued assault from Islamic extremists. Despite Israel's
withdrawal from Gaza last year, terror attacks targeting innocent
Israeli civilians continued and, in fact, have increased.
In the last year extremists in Gaza have launched over 1,000 rockets
at Israelis. Weapons, money and manpower were smuggled to Gaza through
tunnels, enabling continued terrorism and transforming the areas
controlled by the Palestinian Authority into havens for international
terror groups like al Qaeda.
Hamas and other jihadist groups use such underground tunnels to sneak
into Israel, to kill two soldiers and kidnap Corporal Shalit in order
to exchange him for imprisoned, condemned, Palestinian terrorists. The
situation intensified on July 12 when members of Hezbollah, without a
hint of provocation, went into Israel and killed three Israeli soldiers
and took two others hostages.
Again, this was not an isolated incident by Hezbollah. In the past
year these extremists launched at least four attacks into Israel. One
of these took place on November 2005 when Hezbollah launched rockets
into Israel while a large number of its jihadists infiltrated and
attacked an Israeli village.
The enemy should not and must not be underestimated. Iran and Syria
and other terrorist enablers are engaged in a never-ending struggle to
improve their relative power position. They have declared war on
freedom and democracy, and will use any means available to them to
achieve their ends.
They not only present a threat to Israel and to the U.S., but also to
moderate reforming Arab governments in the region. In turn, we must
resolve, as this resolution clearly states, to work with Israel and
other U.S. allies to fight these extremists worldwide.
As Robert Satloff of the Washington Institute for Near East Policies
recently said, defeat for Israel is a defeat for U.S. interests. It
will inspire radicals of every stripe. It will release Iran and Syria
to spread more mayhem inside Iraq, and make more likely our own
eventual confrontation with this emboldened alliance of extremists.
By contrast, Satloff adds, victory in the form of Hezbollah
disarmament, the expulsion of Iran's military presence from Lebanon,
the eviction of Meshal and friends from Damascus, and the demise of the
Hamas government in Gaza is, by the same token, also a victory for the
U.S. and for Western interests.
Mr. Speaker, this says it all. I urge my colleagues to support this
resolution.
{time} 2015
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time, and I also ask
unanimous consent that the time for debate on this measure be extended
for 40 minutes, to be equally divided between the proponent and
opponent.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Campbell of California). Is there
objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, further, I yield 10 minutes of my time
to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), the ranking member of
the Committee on International Relations, and ask unanimous consent
that he be permitted to control that time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I just want to make a couple of comments before yielding. It has been
well advertised about the three prisoners that have been taken, the
three Israeli prisoners. Everybody in the country knows about it. What
I find a bit interesting is that some people estimate between 8,000 and
10,000 Palestinians and Lebanese are in prisons and under the authority
of the Israeli police and government.
It is also known that one-third of the Cabinet of Palestine have been
arrested and held hostage by the Israeli Government, and once again, I
think this is a distortion of what is going on. It is hard to get the
information out to find out exactly what is happening in this area.
Also, I would like to make one additional point that it is very easy
to criticize the Government of Lebanon for not doing more about
Hezbollah. I object to everything Hezbollah does because I am a strong
opponent to all violence on both sides. So I object, too, but I also
object to the unreasonable accusations that the Government of Lebanon
has not done enough, when we realize that Israel was there for 18
years, and Hezbollah did not get any weaker, and they are stronger than
ever. So I think, again, a little bit of balance is worth considering.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr.
Issa).
(Mr. ISSA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Texas
for yielding, and yielding, I note, time in opposition.
I will be voting for this important resolution, not because it is
perfect. As a matter of fact, I think the one consistent thing that,
Mr. Speaker, you are going to see tonight is not one, not two, not
three, but all four of the Members of Congress on both sides of the
aisle whose families emigrated from Lebanon basically 100 years ago or
more are finding that this resolution does not say enough.
Mr. Speaker, I want to bring to the attention and will be including
in my remarks H. Res. 926, which was submitted as a draft to the
Committee on International Relations and to the Subcommittee on the
Middle East on which I serve on both.
For those who think that Members of Congress who come from Lebanese
ancestry would somehow think differently than many of the rest, I would
like to share just a few short portions.
First of all, the opening of the resolution: ``Condemning the
kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hamas and Hezbollah, affirming the
right of Israel to conduct operations to secure the kidnapped soldiers,
urging all parties to protect innocent life and civilian
infrastructure, and for other purposes.''
Many of the passages are similar, but some notably are different than
the
[[Page H5460]]
resolution being considered tonight. It goes on to blame directly
Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah, responsible for these
attacks and responsible for taking hostages.
It further, in its whereases: ``Whereas Iran, Syria, and elements of
the Government of Lebanon have a well-documented history of supporting
the terrorist groups responsible for these kidnappings.''
And, Mr. Speaker, it is important to note that the Lebanese Americans
were the first to come out and say in no uncertain terms that the
elements in Lebanese society, including those who were elected from the
occupied south, not occupied by Israel any longer, but occupied by
Hezbollah, did send representatives sympathetic to Hezbollah.
But I think what is not said in this resolution and has not been said
well enough here tonight, in my opinion, is that the Cedar Revolution
clearly denounced that direction. It went against the illegally
reelected or illegally extended Presidency of Emile Lahoud, and it made
very clear by backing the so-called Saad Hariri bloc, the bloc of the
assassinated former Prime Minister in securing a multidenominational,
across-the-board, including Shi'a, government that wants a sovereign,
independent and peaceful Lebanon.
Unfortunately, the resolution we are considering tonight does talk
about the failure of the Lebanese Government. I think that is fair, but
it is only fair if we also include the failure of the United States
Government.
We have provided nothing to the Lebanese since they bravely stood up
to Syria, demanded their withdrawal, rioted in the street, were bombed
and killed for their attempt to give themselves that freedom and
liberty. We have not provided them any kind of capability of going to
the south and enforcing. We have talked about it. We have planned to do
it. The administration has prepared to do it. Our committees have
explored it, but today, as of yet, we have not yet done what we must
do.
Mr. Speaker, I call on this committee that is here today on this
floor to dedicate itself to immediately upon us coming back to work in
the morning begin the process of providing the lawful Government of
Lebanon the ability to, in fact, send those troops to the south to, in
fact, displace Hezbollah. It is going to take time, energy, money and
training.
We are spending billions of dollars every month arming the Iraqi
people so, in fact, they can replace a government that we had to
topple. The Lebanese already toppled a government that had been a
puppet of Syria and Iran for a long time, and they, in fact, were the
movement that led to Syria being forced out after decades of
occupation.
The Lebanese have earned the right, and this resolution in part says
that, they have earned the right to have that ability, and we have to
give them that ability.
So I go further than simply say I hope we will. I demand that if we
care enough about the words we say in our resolution tonight and in H.
Res. 926, which is the underlying document submitted by four Lebanese
Americans, if we care enough to denounce Hezbollah for what they have,
and Iran and Syria for what they have done, then we have to be willing
to confront them in Lebanon, something we have not been willing to do.
So, tonight I stand with Israel's right to get its kidnapped soldiers
back. I stand with Israel's right to reduce the ability of Hezbollah to
rain rockets down on Israel, but I also stand with the people of
Lebanon who have been traded like pawns again and again and say, yes,
let us pass this resolution, but let us also start in the morning to do
the job so that the next resolution, when it says the Lebanese
Government has failed to do something, it will not also have the right
to say the Lebanese Government did not have a snowball's chance in a
summer in Hades of actually doing it.
A government with armored personnel carriers donated by the U.S.
Government in the 1970s made of aluminum is not going to take on
Hezbollah, not if tanks from Israel could not do it in 18 years.
So, yes, I am voting for this resolution. I appreciate the gentleman
giving me time from the opposition, but I want to include H. Res. 926
in this debate, and I want to include the statement by the four
Lebanese Americans that, yes, we will support Israel, but we want to
support Lebanon's ability to be free and independent, and that will
take a commitment starting tomorrow morning.
H. Res. 926
Whereas on June 25, 2006, Israeli Defense Forces Corporal
Gilad Shalit was kidnapped and taken hostage by a Palestinian
militant group that included members of the military wing of
Hamas;
Whereas Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal, in Damascus,
Syria, has acknowledged the role of Hamas in holding Corporal
Shalit hostage;
Whereas on July 12, 2006, operatives of the terrorist group
Hezbollah carried out an attack in Israel, killing three
Israeli soldiers and taking two others hostage;
Whereas Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah has
acknowledged Hezbollah's responsibility for the attack and
taking hostages;
Whereas Iran, Syria, and elements of the Government of
Lebanon have a well-documented history of supporting the
terrorist groups responsible for these kidnappings;
Whereas President George W. Bush stated on July 13, 2006,
``[t]he democracy of Lebanon is an important part of laying a
foundation of peace'', that the government of Lebanese Prime
Minister Faoud Sinoria must not be undermined during the
current crisis, and that Syria and Iran must be held to
account for their shared responsibility in the recent hostage
taking; and
Whereas Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated on July
12, 2006, ``All sides must act with restraint to resolve this
incident peacefully and to protect innocent life and civilian
infrastructure.'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) condemns Hamas and Hezbollah for engaging in the
reprehensible terrorist act of taking hostages;
(2) affirms the right of Israel to conduct operations, both
inside and outside its own borders and in the territory of
countries supporting the hostage takers, in pursuit of the
release of hostages;
(3) notes that all governments that have provided continued
support to Hamas or Hezbollah share responsibility for the
hostage taking and urges these countries to use all efforts
to secure the unconditional release of the hostages;
(4) urges all parties to protect innocent life and civilian
infrastructure;
(5) declares its continued commitment to aiding Israel and
the administration of President George W. Bush in battling
terrorism and securing the unconditional release of hostages;
and
(6) expresses its condolences to all innocent victims of
recent violence in Israel, Lebanon, and the Palestinian
territories and their families, including those of the three
Israeli hostages.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my friend from California
for his very thoughtful observations, and I am pleased to yield 3
minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel), the distinguished
ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, my very good friend.
Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for this opportunity.
I stand in strong support of this resolution. Some may say, well, how
could you be against the war and supporting this? Well, I think it is
good historic sense, it is good moral sense, that any sovereign nation
that gets attacked should have the opportunity and be given support for
defending herself.
Clearly, when we went into Iraq, we had no clue as to who the
terrorists were. They certainly were not in Iraq. There were no weapons
of mass destruction, no connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.
But here we have a nation that has been invaded. People have come
into their country, killed their soldiers, kidnapped their soldiers,
and rain rockets on them, and the surprising thing that we find here is
that we find something to that. As an American, I cannot imagine the
hostility I would feel and the support I would give in retaliation if
something like that happened to our country.
What amazes me, however, is that for the first time people have
recognized that the terrorists are not just after the United States and
Israel. The terrorists are after every decent thing that we believe in,
and at long last the Governments of Jordan and Egypt and Saudi Arabia
has seen that these terrorists, that somehow we found out that they
believe that not being at war with Israel is the same as being at peace
with Israel, but recognize in that area some of the Arab countries that
we give support to, economic and trade support, still held hostile the
people in Israel and resented the right for Israel to exist.
I think this is a great opportunity to bring those Arab nations
together, to
[[Page H5461]]
let them know that they are just as vulnerable for the people that they
have supported, and even though the animosity seems to be going toward
Israel, is toward them, is toward the United States, is toward
everything that we believe.
So, if we do have crown princes and kings and Presidents unable to go
to the ranch and discuss whatever they do, and if Israel does not come
up as a place where they teach hatred and anti-Semitism, why not take
advantage of this opportunity to tell the Arab countries in the region
that this is the time for all of us to come together not just in a
willing coalition, but in a coalition for peace, and to make certain
that we cut this cancer out not just because of Israel, but because of
the free world?
The Hamas and the Hezbollah have to really cut this cancer out of our
society now, and it gives us an excellent opportunity to bring the
friends of the United States and the so-called friends of Israel
together to see whether or not we can make certain that these people
are not a threat to Israel and not a threat to the neighboring
countries and not a threat to the great United States of America.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida
(Mr. Foley) for a unanimous consent request.
(Mr. FOLEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman. I rise in support of
H. Res. 921, condemning the recent attacks against the State of Israel.
On June 25th, Israeli soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit was kidnapped and
is still being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas.
On July 12th, Hezbollah in southern Lebanon killed three Israeli
soldiers and took two others hostage and began bombarding Israel with
rockets.
In the past week, over 700 rockets and mortars from Gaza and Southern
Lebanon have hit Haifa (Israel's 3rd largest city) and numerous other
cities and towns.
These unprovoked attacks appear to be coordinated by Iran and Syria--
probably to take the issue of Iran's nuclear development off the front
burner.
When Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon several years ago, it did
so with the understanding that the Lebanese Army would secure the area
from Hezbollah. To this date, the Army has yet to move into the area
and take control.
Some have suggested that the U.S. urge Israel to restrain itself--
that it should negotiate and stop their attacks. The problem is, as
Amb. Bolton said today, there isn't anyone to talk to. The Palestinians
are being governed by Hamas and Lebanon is still being controlled by
Syria--both terrorist regimes.
Israel must take any action it sees fit to defend themselves and
prevent the abducted soldiers from being taken to Damascus or Tehran.
Iran needs to be put on notice. We know what you are doing and it is
not going to work.
I know that the Palestinian and Israeli people are committed to
peace. The Hezbollah and Hamas scourge, who are the only ones
undermining a long-term peace, must be wiped off this earth.
I pray that this situation resolves itself quickly and that we can
continue to move forward with the Middle East peace process.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the chairman of the Subcommittee on
Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for
yielding.
Mr. Speaker, the events in Lebanon during the past week are yet
another wake-up call to those who have perhaps complacently thought or
believed that the global war on terrorism has somehow abated. It has
not. Israel is, in fact, on the front lines of this war as we meet.
Mr. Speaker, we all know there is nothing whatsoever benign or noble
or praiseworthy about the terrorist groups such as Hamas or Hezbollah
and their state sponsors Syria and Iran. They not only refuse to
recognize Israel's right to exist, they want Israel wiped off the face
of the map.
They actively seek Israel's demise, its destruction, by both their
words and their deeds. Their hate-filled, fanatic, perhaps even
psychotic, suicide bombers bomb, shoot and wreak havoc on the lives of
countless unarmed innocent men, women and children through the
terrorist intifada campaign.
It is abundantly clear that Hezbollah has violated the sovereign
territory of Israel by launching unprovoked rocket attacks and ground
forces incursions into undisputed Israeli territory, resulting in the
death and hostage-taking of Israeli soldiers.
{time} 2030
While Israel has withdrawn from Lebanon, in full compliance with U.N.
Security Resolution 425 in June of 2000, and unilaterally withdrawn
from Gaza in September of last year, the Government of Lebanon has been
unable or unwilling to disband and disarm Hezbollah in implementation
of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559.
I want to thank Dr. Boustany for his comments earlier. And I think it
was important that he injected it into the debate that there is this
inability, perhaps, on the part of the government. And I think we need
to do more ourselves to help them to rid themselves of this cancer
called Hezbollah. Hezbollah clearly is not only a grave threat to
Israel, as we all know, but it is a grave threat to the freedom-loving
people of Lebanon as well.
This resolution puts us clearly on the record stating where we stand,
and I am so glad that I think there will be great support for it.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of accusations made about who
precipitated the crisis, the charges made that it all occurred because
three prisoners were taken, and that Hezbollah and Hamas deliberately
provoked the situation. And it may well be true. I have no idea exactly
what is true.
But there are others who have indicated that they believe that it was
precipitated mainly with the intent of our foreign policy, along with
Israel's foreign policy, as an initial step to go into Iran. We have
talked about Iran around the House and around Washington, and there are
a lot of people very, very concerned. Our administration talks about it
all the time; taking out Iran, taking out the nuclear sites. But to do
that, the theory is that these missiles had to be removed and, in a
practical military sense, that seems very reasonable. So there could be
the deliberateness of Hamas and Hezbollah precipitating the crisis for
whatever gain they think, or deliberately precipitated by both the
United States and Israel with the intent to follow up with bombing in
Iran. And I am frightened about that. I think that may well occur.
I have talked to a lot of military people, a lot of CIA people, who
actually believe this is a possibility within months. And this is the
reason I have such great concern about what is happening in this area
of the country, because if us going into Iraq didn't go so well, can
anybody imagine what is going to happen when the bombs start to fall on
Iran? I think it is going to be catastrophic. And there has been talk
on television this past weekend, the beginning of World War III. And
this war is about to spread, and this is the reason that I oppose this
resolution, because, deep down in my heart, I believe that what we do
here helps to provoke things and agitate things and bring us closer to
a greater conflict. And I am just arguing that there is an alternative
other than violence to settle some of these problems.
Now, a lot of bombs have fallen on both sides, and of course, if they
are coming from Lebanon, Syria and Iran are blamed, and they may well
deserve the blame. But we haven't talked about who gets the blame for
the other side. More people are getting killed on the other side. And
as we mentioned before, innocent people are killed, and a lot of
nonmilitary targets have been hit, farms and buildings and electrical
plants and airports that have nothing to do with the military.
And yet the reason I believe this is going to be worse is because we
see it in this country the way we want to see it. And we have no
willingness to think about how it might be seen elsewhere, like how is
it going to be seen by 1 billion Muslims around the world? And you
know, quite frankly, every single bomb that is dropped by Israel, by
their calculation, and they have reason to believe so, those are U.S.
bombs. Those are our airplanes. We paid for them. And they get the
money to buy these weapons. So whether it is deliberate or whatever, it
doesn't matter. It is the perception by the Muslims who are radicalized
by this.
[[Page H5462]]
You can't deny it. There are more radicals today than there were 2 or
3 years ago. And the reason why I am worried about this is we are now
getting the information about the reaction to 9/11. 9/11 occurred, and
the immediate response by many of our leaders and the administration
said, let's go to Iraq. People would say, well, why Iraq? Well, we have
been planning on it all along. This is the opportunity.
As soon as this crisis built, we heard very similar comments. Let's
go to Iran, you know, to go forward.
There are others who suggest that this crisis has come about not out
of our strength, but out of our weakness. If Hezbollah and Hamas has
deliberately done this, they might have calculated we have been
stretched fairly thin around the world and with Iraq, and know that a
lot of the American people and the taxpayers are getting tired of the
war, so they may have seen this as a sign of weakness on our part. But
then the ``neocons'' say, yeah, that may well be true, that is why we
have to be tougher than ever. We have got to unleash the bombs. We have
got to consider nuclear weapons, and back and forth and back and forth,
until one day we are going to get ourselves in such a fix that World
War III will be here and it will be irrevocable.
And there are some people who sort of like this idea. There are some
``neocons'' who thrive on chaos, because their theory is they want
regime change. They want regime change in Syria, and they want regime
change in Iran. They wanted it in Iraq. And we are, by gosh, we are
going to have regime change, and they are going to be our friends and
they are going to be democrats. We are going to have democratic
elections.
So we go to war and our men and women die. We spend all this money,
and we have elections. And then sometimes we don't like the results of
the elections, so we ignore them.
What if we had elections in Saudi Arabia? What if we had elections in
Egypt? And then what if their radicals were elected?
So we are fighting and dying to spread democracy. And it is probably
one of the most dangerous things for us with our current foreign
policy, is that when they do vote and elect Hezbollah and Hamas, then
we have to reject the principle of democracy.
Self-determination is a great principle, and we should permit it and
encourage self-determination. But encouraging elections under these
circumstances, and by force, in hopes that we get our man in charge
just doesn't work.
I think we are going to have regime changes, a lot more regime
changes than most people want around here. I think the regime changes
are coming in Saudi Arabia, and I think there will be a regime change
maybe in Egypt. Who knows? In Libya. And you are going to be very
unhappy with those regime changes.
So, yes, it was well intended to have regime change in Iraq. But what
has it gotten us?
And now we want to spread that philosophy and have more regime
changes, and who knows what the results are going to be? They are not
going to be good. They are going to backfire on us.
You know, when Osama bin Laden responded to why, he had a list of
reasons on why he encouraged or directed the attack on 9/11. And the
one thing that he listed we shouldn't ignore, because as bad as that
individual is, and as violent as he is, nobody has ever proven he tells
lies. Nobody has ever proven this. Nobody says he is a liar. So we
ought to listen to what he says.
And one of the reasons that he listed for this was back in 1982, back
to the problems we had in Lebanon, there were 18,000 Lebanese and
Palestinians killed. And who knows whose bombs and who was doing it?
But you know, we were in there, although our troops weren't fighting
and we left, but Israel was involved, 18,000. But regardless of whether
or not we directed it or wanted it is irrelevant. The conclusion was
that we were participants, and it rallied his troops and helped him
organize to get people so hateful that they were willing to commit
suicide terrorism and come here.
Now, we can ignore it and say, well, he is a liar. That is not the
reason they did it. But we do that at our own peril.
Now, one of the reasons why I believe that it wouldn't be difficult
to put the label USA on these weapons, obviously the airplanes have
been built here. But what about the money? How much money have we given
for weapons?
Between 1997 and 2004, and that doesn't even count the last 2 years,
we gave over $7 billion in weapons grants. It wasn't a loan. It was a
weapons grant.
Now, the neat thing about this, this was an economic deal because it
was beneficial because under the foreign military financing program
that we have, Israel is required to spend 74 percent of that back here.
So you are talking about a military-industrial complex, a pretty good
deal. You know, we subsidize them, send the money over here, it comes
over here, and our arms manufacturers make even more money and then dig
a bigger hole for us in foreign policy and contribute to the many
problems that we have. And that amount of money, they get $2.3 billion
of these military grants, and they automatically increase it $60
million per year. So it is locked in place.
Now, you say, well, that is money for our ally. And fine, if it was
used for defense, maybe. But if it is used to antagonize 1 billion
Muslims and there is no willingness to even consider the fact that we
should look at it in a balanced way, and instead it is ridiculed and
said, oh, this is ridiculous to think of neutrality or balance and
think about both sides, and the innocent people dying on both sides
should be considered.
So we are moving toward a major crisis, a major crisis financially
and a major crisis in our foreign policy. I don't believe we can
maintain this.
So even if you totally disagree with our aggressive empire building
and policing the world, let me tell you, I am going to win the
argument, because we are running out of money. We are in big debt, and
we are borrowing it. We borrowed $3 billion a day from countries like
China and Japan and Saudi Arabia to finance this horrendous debt. And
it won't be, it can't be continued. The dollar will eventually weaken.
You are going to have horrendous inflation. Interest rates are going to
go up, and it is going to be worse than the stagflation of the 1970s.
And domestic spending is never curtailed. We have been in charge of
the Congress and the Presidency for several years now, and the
government gets bigger, probably faster than it was getting before.
So we are facing a crisis that is liable to escalate and get out of
control in the Middle East. At the same time, it has a bearing on our
finances, because when it contributes to the deficit, there is a limit
to how much foreigners will loan to us. We have to print the money. We
have to go to the Fed, create new money. That is the inflation.
And what does it do to the cost of oil? Inflation pushes the cost of
oil up. That should be a concern to everybody. And at the same time,
the production of the oil didn't work. I mean, the oil production went
down in Iraq.
What happens if this happens to be true? I actually pray that I am
completely wrong about this. And you can say, well, you are, so don't
sweat it. But what if I am right? It is frightening, because if this
leads to bombing in Iran, look for oil at $150 a barrel. Then the
American people will wake up. They will say, hey, what's going on here?
Why is gasoline so expensive? It is expensive because we have less
production out of Iraq, and it is expensive because the value of the
dollar is going down. And it is expensive because they are anticipating
that this crisis is not going away, and what we do are antagonizing the
world.
So, once again, I come to this from a slightly different viewpoint
than those who like to pick sides. There is nothing wrong with
considering the fact that we don't have to be involved in every single
fight. That was the conclusion that Ronald Reagan came to, and he was
not an enemy of Israel. He was a friend of Israel. But he concluded
that that is a mess over there. Let me just repeat those words that he
used. He said, he came to the conclusion, ``The irrationality of Middle
Eastern politics forced us to rethink our policy there.''
I would like you to rethink our policy, not only there, but the kind
of policy that led to 60,000 people dying in Vietnam and then walking
away. And what happened after we walked away? We are better off than
ever. We had a naval ship going into Vietnam just recently. We trade
with them. We do
[[Page H5463]]
deals with them. Yet it was a total fiasco and a total loss because of
the way we went to war.
And this is also the reason that I am determined to persist that if
we take our country to war, that we ought to be responsible. We should
never send these kids and young people to war without a declaration,
win the war, and get it over with. When we don't declare it, it goes on
and on and on. We don't win them.
And literally, this Persian Gulf War, and this Iraqi war, it has been
going on since 1990. We never stopped bombing Iraq, never stopped
bugging them, and antagonizing them and inciting them.
So it is not a sign of weakness to talk about neutrality. It is a
sign of strength that you have a little bit of courage and you believe
in your own system. If we want to spread our values, it is a good way
to do it. Set a good example. Put our financial house in order. Treat
people evenly, and trade with people, and talk to people and travel.
But don't think that we can force our values at the point of a gun,
and think they are all going to be democratic elected governments that
we are going to be pleased with. It is not going to happen.
So there is reason to reconsider the total policy that has been
followed in this country essentially for 100 years. And it hasn't been
productive for us. Essentially, Woodrow Wilson started it. We are going
to make the world safe for democracy. And look how safe the world has
been since Woodrow Wilson introduced that. We are less safe than ever.
And our financial condition is worse than ever.
And we are running our program, whether it is our domestic welfare
program or our foreign policy, it is being run on borrowed money. It is
borrowed money from overseas, and it is also from inflated currency.
And we can get away with it for a while longer, but let me tell you,
there is a crisis coming, and it is going to be dealing with the dollar
and it is going to involve our foreign policy. And then we will, as a
sign of weakness, we will have to come home. We will have to come home
because we can't afford the empire. It is not wise to have it, and we
should have more confidence and more belief that what we have in this
country, and what America used to stand for, that we should spread that
message more by setting an example and through a voluntary approach.
And when that time comes, I think that maybe more people will
reconsider it.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to yield 3 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Berman), ranking member of
the International Relations Committee.
Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, imagine for a moment that there was a gang,
an organization of Mexican nationals who believed zealously and
fanatically that the Southwest of the United States had been stolen
from them; and that this group of people committed to murdering in
order to right that wrong, was funded and controlled by countries that
were dedicated to the destruction of the United States; that this group
had stockpiled thousands of offensive weapons that could be unleashed
on our citizens with little or no warning; that it launched an
unprovoked, cross-border attack from Baja, California, kidnapped two of
our border patrol agents and killed several others. And it then
unleashed a massive barrage of missiles on San Diego with the sole
intent of killing innocent civilians. The American people would demand
immediate and decisive action. The Congress would overwhelmingly
approve a resolution authorizing the President to use force, just as we
did after 9/11. And none of us would be satisfied with a cease-fire
that allowed the terrorists to regroup and rebuild their weapons
stockpile. For America at this point, this is just a fantasy. But for
Israel, this is daily reality.
For years Israel has lived with Hezbollah's sword of Damocles hanging
over its head, and it has shown extraordinary restraint in the face of
repeated attacks. But this latest attack and the kidnapping of its two
soldiers is a naked act of aggression. Israel did not seek this
conflict, but it is compelled to take forceful action to defend itself,
just as the United States or any other sovereign nation would do in
this situation.
The loss of innocent lives on both sides is tragic. When I hear Mr.
Rahall and Mr. LaHood and I watch the images on television, one cannot
help but want to cry for the damage and the death and the carnage that
that conflict brings. But there can't be any moral equivalence between
Israel and Hezbollah. Israel goes to extraordinary lengths to minimize
civilian loss, while Hezbollah deliberately targets the innocent.
When we talk of disproportionate response, I would like for someone
to tell me what the proportionate response is in this particular
situation.
Once again, what this does is highlight the central role played by
Iran and Syria in promoting terrorism throughout the Middle East.
As Dennis Ross recently observed when Lebanon was withdrawn from,
when Gaza was withdrawn from, what did Israel get? It wasn't land for
peace, it was land for war.
{time} 2045
I urge this body to speak strongly in support of expressing its
solidarity with Israel in these difficult times, and I urge my
colleagues to support this resolution.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, at this time I am proud to yield 2
minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cantor), the chief deputy
whip.
Mr. CANTOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and I
recognize her leadership and her staff as well as that of the gentleman
from California in bringing this resolution forward, and congratulate
them on that.
Very briefly in response to my good friend from Texas and his view
and addressing so many different issues, I would just like to say this
clearly is not a conflict, I think, that Israel finds itself in by its
own making or its asking.
As the gentleman from California (Mr. Berman) indicated, Israel was
once again attacked. It was forced by its enemies, who wished to see it
wiped off the map, to respond. The actions taken by Hezbollah and Hamas
are tantamount to nothing less than an act of war against a sovereign
country. Israel has the right to use every military tool in its arsenal
to protect its citizens from this invasion and to incapacitate its
enemy to prevent future attacks.
This latest conflict of the waging war against the terrorists in the
Middle East is evidence again that we cannot hope to win that war
against the Islamic fascists if we ignore their state sponsors. Make no
mistake about it, Syria and Iran are to blame for the outbreak of war
in the region, and they must be held accountable. They support
Hezbollah and Hamas both financially and militarily. The line of terror
and violence occurring in Israel today and in Lebanon today runs
straight back to Damascus and Tehran. These state sponsors of terror
must know that their actions are unacceptable and that the free world
will no longer ignore or tolerate their actions.
Mr. Speaker, I support this resolution and stand beside our ally
Israel as it fights the terrorists. This is a battle the free world
cannot afford to lose.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I am going to yield 3 minutes to Mr. Rahall,
but first I would ask how much time I have left after I yield the 3
minutes.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Campbell of California). The gentleman
from Texas has 25\1/2\ minutes remaining.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 25\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman
from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) and ask unanimous consent that she be
allowed to control that time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Dr. Paul for yielding
me that time, and I yield 12\3/4\ minutes to the gentleman from
California (Mr. Lantos) and ask unanimous consent that he be allowed to
control that time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from West
Virginia (Mr. Rahall).
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from West Virginia.
[[Page H5464]]
Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas and the
gentlewoman from Florida for yielding me the time, and I commend him.
The plethora of scenarios that he has just taken this body through,
some of which are scary, are certainly scenarios of which we need to
bring to the American people's attention.
We have seen the neocons have their way much too often in this
administration. They got us into the war in Iraq, with some prodding
from our allies in the region. And now those same individuals would
have us strike at Iran. Yes, Iran, Syria are culprits in this recent
kidnapping. There is no doubt in my mind, although there probably is
not proof out there. Earlier I condemned Hezbollah and Hamas for these
kidnappings. Were they taking their directions directly from Damascus,
directly from Tehran? Probably, or at least some wink along the way. Or
was Nasrallah going off on a tangent on his own? I am sure he did not
expect the Israeli response that he got.
I am sure the Israelis have learned something from this latest
fighting, just what is in the Hezbollah arsenal, missiles that perhaps
both Israeli Army intelligence and our own did not forecast.
So perhaps this current scenario that will play out hopefully over
another week or 2 is a learning experience, a feeling-out experience on
both sides to determine just what other surprises are up one's sleeve.
But regardless of that, the gentleman from California (Mr. Berman)
just accused, and it is a reality, that Hezbollah rockets have hit
civilians in Israel. Unfortunate. Were they targeted? I hardly think
the Hezbollah missiles are of the same guidance technology as Israel
missiles. For the most part, these Hezbollah missiles have been landing
in barren deserts. That does not seem to be a targeting of civilians.
And when they do find a target, yes, unfortunately there have been
civilians that have been hit. Israeli technology and Israeli IDF are
certainly much more advanced, much more advanced in their guidance
procedures and in their ability to target their targets.
The response is Hezbollah has their weapons, their missiles in
civilian populations, in mosques, in innocent civilian homes. I have no
doubt that that is accurate. And where that is proven to be, those
targets are fair game and should be hit. But the Beirut airport, hardly
a hideout for Hezbollah missiles, hardly a place that Hezbollah would
use to receive arms, hardly a place that they would take their hostages
for transportation elsewhere.
Let me say, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this debate, the tenor of the
debate. The quality of the debate has been superb. The time that all
sides have agreed for an extension is great. This is an important
issue, and it should be debated as much as this body wishes to.
But the fact is that the country of Lebanon has never taken any
hostages. Lebanon has never attacked anybody. Lebanon has been used as
a chessboard upon which all other countries in the region play their
games and seek their own motives, whatever those motives may be. The
Iranians have their motives. The Syrians have their motives. The
Israelis have their motives.
{time} 2100
The other Arab countries in the region certainly have their motives.
But Lebanon, the innocent bystander, is the one suffering the damage
here. They have suffered an unmeasured response.
The gentleman from California, Mr. Berman, again asked what should a
response be then if Israel, as I have said, does have the right to go
after their kidnapped soldiers, and how do you measure what is
appropriate and what is inappropriate?
I happen to believe that the Israeli intelligence, as I have said,
and their technologies, are far superior to Hezbollah, are far superior
to any country in the region, far superior, and they can use that
ability, that superiority, to better track where their soldiers may be
and where they are unlikely to be.
It is that type of response that they have the right to pursue to the
fullest extent to go after their soldiers. Not in Christian suburbs of
Beirut that were hit today. I hardly think that is a hiding point for
Hezbollah rockets and missiles. I hardly think you are going to find
Hezbollah there. There were none found there. Yet a very pro-Christian,
previously thought safe section of Beirut was hit just this afternoon
by Israeli missiles. So there can be a better consideration of the
innocent civilians.
The resolution to which Mr. Issa referred, which we Lebanese-
Americans support, H.R. 926, mentions that protection of innocent life
and civilian infrastructure in the very beginning up in the first
paragraph, not the next to the last paragraph, as the current
resolution before us does.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to yield 7 minutes to the
distinguished member of the International Relations Committee, the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Ackerman).
(Mr. ACKERMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, it is an old photograph, tattered and
torn. Its color is sepia, indicating that it is over 90 years old, and
it hung on the wall in my mom's apartment. She would point it out to me
when I was a little boy and say, ``This was your grandmother, who you
never knew. It is a picture of their wedding.'' And the little children
who sat in front of this wedding portrait were 5, 6, 7, 8 years old, a
lot of little kids, and she said, pointing to one of them, ``This is my
Aunt Rachel,'' and to another she said, ``This is my Uncle Joseph.''
I was tiny. I didn't understand. I said, ``Mom, how can that be your
aunt and uncle? They are only children.'' And she said, ``They will
always be children.'' I didn't understand quite what she was getting at
until I was quite a bit older.
When World War II broke out, there were 1.6 million Jewish children
throughout Europe. At the end of the Holocaust, that number became
under 100,000. The Jewish people were almost eradicated from the face
of the Earth by the people of the National Socialist Party of Germany,
the Nazis, who were intent on wiping the Jews from the face of the
Earth, claiming they had no right to live, no right to exist, in their
country or anyplace else, and set out on a pogrom. They were nearly
successful.
Nobody came to the aid of the Jewish people. People were put in gas
chambers, their bodies burnt in ovens by the millions throughout the
world. Nobody came to their aid. Nobody cared. The annihilation of an
entire people by people who were pure evil.
It wasn't until the end of the war when the Jewish people and others
who were in these concentration camps saw their first Americans and
America's allies when they were liberated from those camps, alive
because of happenstance and circumstance.
Our good friend, Tom Lantos, and his wife, Annette, a distinguished
moral force in our Congress, is alive today along with his wife as the
beneficiary of a noble act of Christian charity by somebody who was a
stranger. The luck of the draw.
The Jewish people weren't even organized enough to fight. They
weren't fighters. They didn't know any better. They had no country.
They were scattered.
The world looked at them at the end of the war and said we have to do
something about this, and they took the area of Transjordan and they
divided it and created the country of Jordan and the country of Israel,
a Jewish state, so Jews could have a place to be where they could live
safely within secure borders. And I know many things have happened and
part of those borders are disputed today, but that is beside the point.
Suddenly in this very day and age, what seems to be eons from the
Nazis and that era, another people rise up and make claim to the world
out loud, clearly and unambiguously, that the Jewish people have no
right to be anywhere; that they will wipe them from the region, kill
them, eradicate them, and drive them from the planet. No different than
the Nazis.
Now, those of my friends with such good intentions, and there are
some here and I have spoken to them and I have listened to them, who
talk about proportionality, who talk treating everybody equal, who talk
about measured response, who talk about a cease-fire and going back to
the status quo, they are well-intentioned, but I want them to look me
in the eye and tell me what a proportional response means.
[[Page H5465]]
How do you negotiate with somebody whose goal is your eradication?
Take half my family? Kill every other one of us? What is there to
negotiate? Do we tell the victim of a violent crime that they have no
right to fight back as forcefully as they can? Do we tell the rape
victim that she has no right to fight with all her strength against the
accused rapist? Nonsense.
We don't tell that to any other country. And there is only one Jewish
state on the planet. Don't tell that to Israel. People of the Jewish
faith and everybody else living in Israel have the right to exist, the
same right as anybody else, and they have that right to respond. How
can you deny that?
Thank God Israel doesn't stand alone anymore. It has one good friend
in this whole world, and that is this United States. And we are so
thankful for that. I am very pleased with this resolution. It does have
the right balance.
Innocent people die in wars. Not every German was a Nazi, and yet we
had to fight them because they represented the Nazis. They put them in
power. They elected them in a democratic election. Elections have
consequences. Just because you participate in an electoral process
doesn't absolve of you of your crimes or your sins, especially if you
rededicate yourself to them. That is what we are facing right now.
I urge your serious consideration of this resolution and all that it
implies. Justice demands no less.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to
the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher), the chairman of the
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution.
And let me note to my friend, Mr. Ackerman, that we understand that
quite often throughout history, an accurate description of history and
a look at history will show that there have been many sins committed
against the Jewish people, and perhaps we can say the most recent one
is the one that we are just now discussing with these rocket attacks.
But let us also realize that there have been sins committed against
the Palestinian people as well. They are people, and they were there.
And this is a dispute, this is a dispute between the Palestinians and
the Israeli people that is being exploited by outsiders.
Let me say that in the past when Israel has been in the wrong I have
not hesitated to criticize Israel. This is not one of those occasions.
Israel is not in the wrong. And while we recognize there are people who
have done good things and bad things, that there are heroes and sinners
on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, tonight we are
talking about a situation that was created intentionally by those
people who launched rockets on Israel and left the people of Israel
with no other choice but to respond militarily.
Those people who launched those rockets on Israel knew exactly what
they were doing. In fact, about a month ago the word was spread that
Hamas was on the verge of cutting a deal with Israel. Then elements in
Hamas and Hezbollah ratcheted up the violence specifically to undermine
any opportunity for peace in the region.
Peace will not be achieved in the Middle East unless we are bold
enough not just to condemn terrorism, the terrorism specifically that
leads to the type of violence and bloodshed and chaos that is now
evident in the Middle East, but we must also back those who act when
confronted with this type of violence, and in this case it behooves us
to back Israel in what they are doing today as a result of those
rockets and those attacks that were made upon Israeli citizens.
Our sights, however, should not just be set on Hamas and Hezbollah.
The rockets that slammed into Israel were made in China. They were
provided to the terrorists who launched them by the mullah regime in
Iran.
Long ago, we should have been supporting those pro-democratic
elements in Iran which totally reject the corruption, repression,
incompetence, and, yes, terrorist aggression of the feudalistic mullahs
who rule over them. Now is the time for us to back those democratic
elements in Iran and put the Iranians on the defensive, rather than
letting them supply missiles to undermine peace in the Middle East.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to our
distinguished colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman).
Mr. SHERMAN. Madam Speaker, for 10 years I have come to this floor to
explain Israel's peril and justify its action. I owe a special debt of
gratitude to Hezbollah and Hamas for doing a far better job than I ever
could, for they have announced that their policy is the destruction of
Israel, the ethnic cleansing of the Middle East of all Jews. Ultimately
it is a pogrom of genocide. And they are now using the very territory
from which Israel has withdrawn to kill as many Israeli civilians as
possible.
If their efforts have not yet risen to the level of genocide, it is
only because their rockets often fail to hit their targets. And let's
not mince words, their targets are always Israeli civilians.
{time} 2115
Israel withdrew from Gaza; kidnappers and missiles come from Gaza
into Israel. Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon, and now kidnappers
and missiles come into Israel from southern Lebanon, not just recently,
but continuously over the last 6 years.
Five kidnapping raids, thousands of missiles, 6 years of attacks. If
anyone is going to say that Israel's reaction is disproportionate, let
them say that Israel is doing too little.
Let me speak to those who may be skeptical of this resolution. We all
want peace, and peace can only come if Israel withdraws from certain
territories. Yet the Israelis must know that when they vacate a
territory, that territory will not be used as a rocket-launching pad
against Israel, and that if it ever is, that Israel will have the full
support of the United States and of this Congress. We cannot have
peace, we cannot have any Israeli territorial concessions unless we
show Israel that we will support them when they have made those
concessions.
There are those who urge a cease-fire. I hope we get there soon. But
this all started with rockets and kidnapping, and it would be a phony
cease-fire unless the soldiers are returned, and unless Hezbollah is
disarmed as required by U.N. Resolution 1559.
There are those who talk of prisoner exchanges, but we should not
tell Israel to exchange the guilty for the innocent, nor should we tell
them to release those who would resume their terror.
We in Congress should call every major ambassador from Europe and
demand that Europe list Hezbollah as a terrorist entity and stop
Europeans from sending money to Hezbollah.
And, finally, we all need to call the World Bank and say that it is
time for the World Bank to stop making loans and giving aid to Iran,
which, after all, is the source of the money and the missiles that
Hezbollah is using. It is time for the World Bank to stop its loans to
Iran, and to not disburse funds that have already been approved until
that government changes its policy.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from California (Mr. Royce), the chairman of the Subcommittee on
International Terrorism and Nonproliferation.
Mr. ROYCE. Madam Speaker, as the chairman of the Subcommittee on
International Terrorism and Nonproliferation, I rise in support of this
vital resolution in support of democratic Israel, who is facing
terrorist attacks on two fronts, from Hamas and Hezbollah.
It is important to have a clear focus on the threat posed by
Hezbollah. Former Deputy Secretary of State Armitage testified
Hezbollah may be the A team of terrorists, and maybe al Qaeda is
actually the B team.
The former Director of Center Intelligence called Hezbollah a notch
above al Qaeda organizationally, in part because of its deadly ties to
Iran.
Hezbollah receives $100 million annually from Iran, including 13,000
rockets. These rockets, which have rained down on Israeli citizens, are
hidden in homes of supporters and in small factories scattered across
Lebanon. Hezbollah launches unmanned aerial vehicles.
Hezbollah's TV station, a vehicle for hate which the U.S. has placed
on its terrorists exclusion list, has 10 million viewers around the
world.
Hezbollah is no ordinary terrorist group. Indeed, Israel is
confronting Islamist terrorism's A Team. Before
[[Page H5466]]
9/11, Hezbollah was the terrorist group that had killed more Americans
than any other. It has support cells in Europe, Africa, South America,
Asia and here in North America. Dismantling Hezbollah is critical for
U.S. and Israel's security.
Iran no doubt hopes that the current crisis will distract the world's
attention away from its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Yet today's crisis
shows exactly why Iran's ambition must be thwarted, because an Iran
with nuclear weapons will be even more aggressive in supporting
terrorism in the Middle East and beyond.
Mr. Speaker, Israelis are suffering. Lebanese, some of whom, as this
resolution points out, are being used as human shields, are suffering.
Too many are suffering at the hands of the Hezbollah terrorists.
Hezbollah must be disarmed.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished
Democratic leader (Ms. Pelosi).
Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, Mr. Lantos, it is very hard to capture the
words to express the difficulty that Israel is facing now for all of
us. But for you, it must be particularly difficult. I know that you are
an idealist, I know that you are a realist. I thank you for your
leadership. We could not be better served than by having you here at
this very difficult time for the world really, especially difficult
time for Israel. Thank you for your leadership.
And at this very difficult time for the State of Israel, this
resolution reaffirms our unwavering support and commitment to Israel,
and condemns the attacks by Hezbollah.
I support this resolution because I believe that the seizure of
Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah terrorists was an unprovoked attack, and
Israel has the right, indeed the obligation, to respond.
Hamas and Hezbollah are committed to the destruction of Israel. What
more do you need to know? It is clear that Iran and Syria aid have
helped the effort to achieve that goal.
The United Nations Security Council has already spoken on the issue
of dismantling Hezbollah. The Security Council's resolution must be
enforced by the international community. Syria has repeatedly
demonstrated it is a rogue state, which is why we passed Mr. Rangel's
Syria Accountability Act more than 2 years ago. However, we must now
fully implement all sanctions spelled out in that legislation.
In order to address the Iranian support of the terrorists, I urge the
passage of the Iran Freedom Support Act.
We must ensure that Iran and Syria understand the depth of commitment
of the United States to the State of Israel by using every diplomatic
tool at our disposal. For a time in recent years, there was a hope that
a corner had been turned in the Middle East. The Israeli withdrawal
from Lebanon, the emergence of a democratic process in Lebanon, and the
Israeli withdrawal from Gaza were hopeful signs that the future could
be different from the past.
Those indications of progress, however, were seen as threats by
Hezbollah and Hamas, organizations that have a greater interest in
maintaining a state of hostility with Israel than improving the lives
of the people they claim to represent. Now, the lives of those people
and tens of thousands of others in the Middle East, including thousands
of American citizens in Israel and Lebanon, have been put at risk by
the aggression of Hamas and Hezbollah.
As the fighting rages, it is imperative that the combatants take
whatever steps they can to lessen the risk to innocent civilians. The
world knows too well the horrors of war. It also knows that there are
ways to offer some degree of protection to civilians, and it is right
to insist that those ways be chosen. Using civilians as shields by
concealing weapons in civilian areas, as done by Hezbollah, is
inconsistent with affording those protections. The resolution we are
considering properly condemns that action.
Protecting civilians also means getting our citizens out of harm's
way as quickly as possible. I urge the administration to expedite its
efforts to bring to safety those Americans who want to leave Lebanon.
When the fighting ends, and I hope that that will be soon, the United
States must engage in a concerted, sustained effort with other nations
seeking a joint resolution of the differences between Israel and its
neighbors. Israel's right to exist is the nonnegotiable starting point
for that effort.
I thank again those who were responsible for bringing the resolution
to the floor, and again commend Mr. Lantos for his leadership, for his
compassion, and for his wisdom.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to
the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling).
Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding
me time.
Madam Speaker, tonight I rise in strong support of this resolution
and to condemn the recent attacks upon Israel by Hezbollah. All of us
tonight have the earnest prayer that the current wave of violence can
end quickly.
Innocent civilians are being lost in Lebanon and Israel, and the word
``tragic'' never does the situation justice. But peace can never be
achieved by asking Israel to put at risk its security and the safety of
its people. Let there be no doubt, this latest conflict began with
Hezbollah. Rockets have now rained down upon Israel. Israel has been
forced to defend her citizens and sovereign territory, and I believe
that Israel has the moral, historical and legal right to do so.
Holding the keys to peace in this situation are Hezbollah's state
sponsors in Damascus and Tehran. They can and must use their influence
to convince Hezbollah to return the kidnapped Israeli soldiers. By
doing so, Syria and Iran will finally demonstrate that they are
prepared to join the world community. Should they not, however, the
world community must hold them fully accountable for being state
sponsors of a terrorist organization.
Also critical to achieving a lasting peace in the region is
international support for the full implementation of United Nations
Security Council Resolution 1559. Passed by the United Nations Security
Council in 2004, the resolution calls on all foreign forces to withdraw
from Lebanon, and for all militias within Lebanon to be disbanded. Its
full implementation, Madam Speaker, will promote greater independence
for Lebanon and greater security for Israel, not to mention the rest of
the world.
Since 1948, the United States has stood with and supported the State
of Israel, as it has defended herself from these who seek her
destruction and deny her very right to exist. In return, Israel has
been our staunchest ally in the region as well as a full partner in the
global war on terror. Let us pass this resolution and assure Israel
that we will continue to stand by her side in the face of terror.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to my good friend from
Ohio (Mr. Kucinich).
Mr. KUCINICH. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me
time.
While I share a commitment to the survival of Israel and the right to
security, I am not going to assert that I know more than my good friend
Mr. Lantos or my good friend Mr. Ackerman, that I know more about the
suffering of the people of Israel.
But I can have compassion for those who have suffered and for not
just Israelis, but the Lebanese and the Palestinians as well. And it is
in that spirit that I share with the House my concerns that the
situation in the Middle East is spiraling out of control, and this
resolution may not diffuse this crisis.
I deplore the fact that in the past 8 days, 13 Israeli civilians have
been killed, 2 Israelis soldiers have been captured, and many more
killed in raids. I also deplore the fact that in the past 8 days, 300
Lebanese people have been killed, 1,000 have been wounded, and a half
million have been displaced from their homes.
In the past 8 days, democracy in Lebanon has been attacked, perhaps
grievously. The Prime Minister hinted today in a speech to foreign
ambassadors that his government may not be able to survive. No
government can survive in the ruins of a nation, he said.
The past 8 days of crisis in Lebanon and north Israel follow months
of escalating violence in Gaza. Numerous innocent Palestinians have
been killed. Between June 4 and June 13, 14 Palestinian civilians,
including 5 children, were killed in Gaza.
[[Page H5467]]
On June 9 at a Gaza beach, a blast killed eight Palestinians,
including an entire family of 7-year-old Huda Ghaliya. Numerous
innocent Israelis have also been killed.
On Sunday, July 25, a group of Palestinian fighters, including
members of Hamas's armed wing, attacked an Israeli post near the Kerem
Shalom border, which resulted in four Israeli casualties and the
kidnapping of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
{time} 2130
Israel began an offensive in Gaza on June 28. Since then, Palestinian
militants have fired 17 homemade rockets towards Israel. The Israeli
Army has carried out 168 far strikes and fired more than 600 shells
into Gaza.
The Government of the Palestinian Authority is breaking, as
lawmakers, ministers and members of the police force have been
arrested. In today's Washington Post, Harold Meyerson published an op-
ed called, ``The Guns of July,'' comparing the past week's escalation
of violence in the Middle East to the escalation of violence over the
course of a month in Europe, that began with the assassination of
Austrian Archduke Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist terrorist and led
to World War I.
He said we are in the midst of what ``may be the brink of a
cataclysmic regional war with ghastly global implications.'' He wrote,
``While the two crises and sets of conflicting forces are by no means
parallel, in each the power of nationalism, the sense of national
victimization, the need for revenge, the opportunity for
miscalculation, the illusion of obtainable victory and all-around fear
and rage loom large. More inexplicably, so does the American absence.''
The resolution before us today does not rein in the chaos in the
Middle East. This resolution, it could be said, is limited in its
ability to rein in war and destruction, which unfortunately may
continue. Furthermore, by condemning Syria and Iran, this resolution
threatens to bring the U.S. into a regional war in which everyone would
lose, including Israel, a longtime friend and ally.
Moreover, condemning Syria and Iran closes the door for possible
diplomacy that would be needed to end this conflict. President Bush
himself acknowledged the value of Syria just yesterday, when he said
that Syria has the potential to stop the ongoing crisis.
If the United States wants to help stabilize the region, as we
should, we must act as an honest broker to all parties involved, the
Israelis, the Palestinians and the Lebanese. We can do this without
abandoning our affection and our commitment to the survival of Israel.
Moreover, the United States should bring in equipment, and Jordan to
help to mediate this escalating conflict. Recently, Egypt's President
Mubarak dispatched his intelligence chief to help calm the situation
between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The intelligence chief
demanded that a doctor be allowed to see the captive Israeli soldier
and is trying to mediate between the factions. The U.S. is in a good
position to mediate as well between the Israelis, Palestinians, and
Lebanese.
The U.S. has a history of trying to mediate between the Israelis, our
longtime ally, and the Palestinians.
Regarding the Lebanese, it was just over a year ago that this House
passed multiple bills supporting the people of Lebanon. One bill, House
Resolution 91, condemned the attacks that killed former Prime Minister
Hariri and killed and wounded other Lebanese victims.
The United States stood with the Lebanese people then. Today, nearly
300 Lebanese people have been killed. The government is on the verge of
collapse. The Lebanese people need the support of the United States
now, just as the Israelis need our support.
What they need and all parties need, what the region needs and what
the world needs, is for the U.S. to call upon all sides to quickly stop
the violence. But today's resolution fails to support the Lebanese
people in their hour of need.
Today, I introduced a bill, H. Con. Res. 450, calling upon the
President to appeal to all sides in the current crisis in the Middle
East for an immediate cessation of violence and to commit U.S.
diplomats to multiparty negotiations. Only by acting as an honest
broker can the United States have any authority and success in bringing
peace to the region, which is crucial at this critical time.
Remembering the lessons of World War I, if everyone has taken a side
in a conflict and can't see the need for even-handedness, then
cataclysm can follow. It is important to be a strong ally. It is fine
to be a strong ally, but it is not fine to get pulled into a conflict
because we lacked the vision to be more than one-sided.
This latest conflict in the Middle East will not be solved
militarily. The solution will have to come back to diplomacy. The
current violence makes a diplomatic solution even harder to achieve.
Yet the resolution before the floor doesn't commit the United States to
any diplomatic action that could quell the violence and resolve the
conflict. This is a grave missed opportunity.
I urge my colleagues to cosponsor my bill, H. Con. Res. 450 to bring
about peace in the Middle East before the crisis spirals further out of
control, further damaging the hopes of all people in the region and the
world.
I again want to thank Mr. Lantos for his unstinting and unwavering
commitment to the survival and hopes and dreams of people of Israel,
because I think that, Mr. Lantos, you and everyone who has spoken in
defense of Israel, I think all of us want the same thing. We want
peace, and we want the survival of Israel and all the people.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to
the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth).
(Mr. HAYWORTH asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. HAYWORTH. Madam Speaker, just a few short weeks ago, the Prime
Minister of Israel addressed a joint session of Congress. He said, in
part, and I quote, ``There has not been 1 year, 1 week, or even 1 day
of peace in our tortured land.'' He went on to say, Madam Speaker,
``Over the past 6 years, more than 20,000 attempted terrorist attacks
have been initiated against the people of Israel.''
Madam Speaker, less than 2 weeks ago, the war which has gone on for
more than a half century was rekindled with the kidnapping of Israeli
soldiers, with the strategy manipulated by Iran and Syria, by a
cynical, sick, cycle of violence that diplomacy has not cured.
I listened with great interest to my friend from Ohio who preceded
me, who again said that diplomacy was the solution.
Madam Speaker, Israel was told by the international community, you
must give up land for peace, land for peace. Israel gave up land, and
there is no peace.
Madam Speaker, my colleagues, I rise in strong support of this
resolution, not to embrace war or violence for its own sake, but
instead to pursue a true peace and to reaffirm.
Madam Speaker, I stand in this well at this hour to reaffirm the
basic truth of this resolution and the right of the sovereignty and
existence of the State of Israel from a historical, from a legal and,
yes, from a scriptural perspective. Let it be clear from this, the last
best hope of mankind on Earth, that we stand foursquare with our allies
in Israel, and we understand the nefarious misbegotten schemes of those
who seek to spread Islamofascism and terror around the globe, and we
categorically reject that behavior and those actions as we stand in
solidarity with our ally, a democracy, an oasis of democracy in a
desert of desolation.
Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join us in strong support of
this resolution.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, how much time do we have?
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Miss McMorris). The gentleman has 1\1/2\
minutes.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, in view of the fact that this is one of
the most substantive debates of the year, that colleagues have been
waiting for a long time, I respectfully ask unanimous consent that we
extend the debate by 40 minutes, equally divided between Ms. Ros-
Lehtinen and myself.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. LANTOS. I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to my good friend, the
distinguished member of the International Relations Committee, Mr.
Engel.
[[Page H5468]]
Mr. ENGEL. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and I rise in
strong support of his bipartisan resolution and strong support of the
people of Israel in their fight against terrorism. It makes no
difference where terrorism rears its ugly head, whether its planes
going into the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, or innocent people
being blown up on trains in India, England or Spain, or the bombs
falling on Haifa or the innocent children being blown up on a bus in
Tel Aviv. The fight against terrorism is our fight. Israel's fight is
our fight.
Iran and Syria are fighting a proxy war against Israel using
Hezbollah and Hamas. It has been pointed out that Israel withdrew from
Lebanon 6 years ago, so the myth of any kind of occupation is not
there. Simply speaking, Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as Iran and Syria,
want to, as Iran's President has said, wipe Israel off the face of the
Earth.
We should let Israel finish the job. There should be no precipitous
calls to a cease-fire before Israel could rid itself of a terrorist
threat. We should fully implement my bill, and I was happy that our
Democratic leader mentioned it, the Syria Accountability and Lebanese
Sovereignty Restoration Act, and President Bush should implement those
sanctions which are available to him against Syria.
I care very much about Lebanon. Our bill was called Syria
Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act. The people of
Lebanon are suffering. When this is over, we should do everything we
can to help them rebuild their country.
But the people of Lebanon have suffered by having this terrorist
group, this poison, in its midst, this poison, this militia that is a
lawless militia, and that Security Council Resolution 1559, which
called for the Syrians to leave Lebanon.
I thank my colleague who is my partner in the Syria Accountability
and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act. She knows that when the
Syrians finally left Lebanon, the world community failed to implement
the other part of Resolution 1559, which called for all militias to
give up their arms. Hezbollah continued and, shamefully, even won some
seats in the Government of Lebanon.
My friend and colleague, Mr. Ackerman, spoke before and reminded us
that Israel was born out of the ashes of the Holocaust. The leader of
Iran, while denying the Holocaust, threatens to unleash a new one on
Israel. There is only one country that constantly stands with Israel,
and that is the United States of America.
We ought to be proud of the bipartisan support that we have shown for
Israel through the years. Israel's fight against terrorism is our
fight. We need to support the brave people of Israel in their struggle.
Terrorism over there and terrorism over here is the same thing. Support
the resolution.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. Brady).
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Madam Speaker, I appreciate, first, the
leadership of Ms. Ros-Lehtinen and Mr. Lantos on this important issue
of leadership, not just this critical time, but throughout the years.
Yes, I strongly support the resolution, but listening tonight I think
there has been some odd debate. To suggest, as some did, that Israel
and America have somehow conspired to encourage this attack on Israel
as an excuse to invade or attack Iran, to me, is absurd.
{time} 2145
It is a dangerous claim, and at this important and critical time in
history has no real place in this important debate on this floor in
this Chamber in this democracy.
We reaffirm America's support for the State of Israel. We support
Israel's right to take appropriate action to defend itself not only in
Israel, but in the territories of those who would threaten it in
accordance with the international law.
We condemn Hamas and Hezbollah for cynically exploiting civilian
populations as shields, then locating their equipment and bases of
operations in civilian areas.
We recognize Israel's long-standing commitment to minimizing civilian
loss.
We demand the Governments of Iran and Syria to direct Hamas and
Hezbollah to immediately and unconditionally release the Israeli
soldiers which they hold captive.
And we condemn the Governments of Iran and Syria for their continued
support of Hezbollah and Hamas in these armed attacks against Israel.
Make no mistake, an attack against Israel is an attack against the
peace and security of America. Israel's fight is America's fight.
America will stand with Israel.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 3\1/2\ minutes
to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee), my good friend.
Ms. LEE. Madam Speaker, let me first thank Mr. Lantos for yielding;
also just to say to him that I appreciate the respect and the space
that you provide for all of us who may have a different point of view,
but who all support peace and security and Israel's right to defend
itself. I also have tremendous respect for Mr. Lantos just in terms of
your work and your long history as a champion of human rights not only
on behalf of the State of Israel, but throughout the world, and so I
thank Mr. Lantos for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I join with those who condemn the recent kidnapping of
Israeli soldiers and the rocket attacks into Israel, and also, I rise
in support of Israel's right to protect and defend itself from attacks
in accordance with international law, including Article 51 of the
United Nations Charter.
However, this resolution goes much further than that, and it also
omits any mention, and I think this is so critical at this stage, it
omits any mention of how and why the United States should exert its
leadership in stopping the violence. Too many people, Israelis Lebanese
and Palestinians, have been killed, and there is no end in sight. Very
seldom do I cast a ``present'' vote, but in this instance I will, and
let me explain why.
This resolution reaffirms our support for Israel, demands that the
Government of Lebanon do everything in its power to find and free the
kidnapped Israeli soldiers and to gain control of its borders in order
to prevent future attacks. It also condemns Hamas and Hezbollah for
killing Israeli soldiers and for indiscriminately targeting Israeli
civilians, and it recognizes the plight of the families of the innocent
victims. These provisions warrant our strong support and certainly
sends a strong message in support of Israel, in behalf of Israel and on
behalf of Israel.
But on the other hand, there are provisions in this resolution that
are totally unfinished or missing and leave this resolution very much
incomplete.
Such a course of action, I believe, ought to make it clear that in no
uncertain terms will the United States support a strategy of the use of
force against Iran or Syria. This resolution leaves the door open for
this.
This resolution ought to make it clear that the only way to remove
the threat to Israel and to the larger region is to resolve these
issues through an immediate cease-fire and commit the United States,
through the cease-fire, to high-level and sustained diplomacy. We need
to be doing that right now in support of many of the initiatives such
as the road map. This resolution does not really address how to end the
escalating violence that really, quite frankly, does more violence and
harm to Israel's long-term interests and living in peace and security
with her neighbors.
This resolution should offer concrete steps on how to achieve peace
and security for Israel and the region, and the resolution says nothing
about the peace process.
The bottom line is there is absolutely no military resolution to the
issues confronting the Middle East, notwithstanding the acts of self-
defense to which Israel is entitled in accordance with international
law.
If we do not put a stop to all of the hostilities today, what is to
stop future violence with more technologically advanced weapons
systems, rockets with even longer ranges? Where does it end? Is war the
only answer?
Israel's security and a sustained peace that includes a two-state
solution cannot be achieved militarily. The only option, and the only
hope, is a political solution to this crisis and for a sustained peace.
That is why, Madam Speaker, it is imperative that all parties return
to
[[Page H5469]]
internationally recognized borders and for all parties to resume
urgent, multilateral diplomatic efforts, including a return to the road
map and a full engagement by the quartet.
What we should be doing today is imploring all sides to agree to a
cease-fire, insist on the return of the hostages, and agree to an
international security force.
If we can reach the end of that road that we are walking down right
now, then our ally, I believe, Israel will find the peace and security
that she and her people rightfully deserve.
So, Madam Speaker, I intend to vote ``present'' on this resolution
because, while I believe there are some provisions that warrant our
support, I do not believe it goes far enough in addressing the
immediate security needs and the violence that is taking place right
now in the Middle East.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I am so pleased to yield 1 minute to
the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks).
Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for
allowing me the time to speak on behalf of this resolution, and I will
be very brief.
Madam Speaker, whether we understand it or not, tonight the world
faces an evil, poisonous ideology that threatens the peace and freedom
of humankind. This ideology is not new, Madam Speaker. It is the same
one that murdered Israeli athletes in 1972, that took American hostages
in Iran, that murdered marines in their barracks in 1983, that bombed
the World Trade Center in 1993, Riyadh in 1995, the Khobar Towers in
1996, the embassies in 1998, the U.S.S. Cole in 2000, and then, Madam
Speaker, that same ideology massacred nearly 3,000 Americans on
September 11.
And tonight, Madam Speaker, that same dark, insidious ideology is
launching rockets into Israel to slaughter innocent, freedom-loving
civilians. This is why Israel's war is our war.
If there is hope for peace and freedom in this world, free peoples
across this planet must unite with Israel to defeat this hellish
ideology. The battle Israel fights tonight is a battle to protect all
of humanity. May the people of Israel take comfort knowing that America
stands with you in these difficult days. May you come to victory, and
may the light of God's peace shine down on the streets of Jerusalem
forever.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to
the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley).
Mr. CROWLEY. Madam Speaker, once again I thank my great friend from
the State of California for yielding me this time.
Madam Speaker, I rise to speak out in strong support of a democratic
nation under attack by terrorists, a nation that has been under attack
every day for 58 years of its existence.
As we debate this bill, over a quarter of a million Israelis are in
bomb shelters or awaiting to rush to safety from missiles being
launched specifically at civilian targets. Think about that. As we are
debating this evening, a quarter of a million Israelis are seeking
cover, launched by a terrorist organization, funded by Syria and Iran
waging a proxy war in Israel.
I take some exceptions to some comments made by a colleague earlier
tonight, and that is about the accuracy of rockets being launched by
Hezbollah. The goal of Hezbollah is to inflict as many civilian
casualties as possible, end of story.
Yesterday I read a report from Human Rights Watch that called the
missile strikes on Israel possible war crimes. The rockets launched
against Israel, and specifically in Haifa, contained metal ball
bearings that have limited use against military targets. They probably
will not even destroy a building in and of themselves. They can do
incredible damage to civilian populations, tearing people's bodies
apart.
Hezbollah fires these inaccurate Katyusha rockets that do not
differentiate between Jews, Arabs or Christians or whatever they may be
in Israel. In fact, one of these missiles killed two Israeli Arab
children today when it struck the city of Nazareth, an ancient
Christian city with a majority of Arab inhabitants.
I am saddened by all loss of civilian and innocent life, but I
strongly support Israel's right to defend itself by removing the
threats against her, wherever they may be.
This conflict was preventable. Our allies in Europe and the Middle
East must know that the operation in Lebanon is not an act of war, but
an act of self-defense. Israel is not looking for this fight, but Hamas
and Hezbollah created the events we have been watching by murdering and
kidnapping members of the Israeli Defense Forces and launching over 800
deadly missiles into Israel over the past week.
Israel must do everything in its power to protect all of its
citizens, and I am proud that this Congress stands with our friends and
our allies in Israel by passing this worthy resolution.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, before yielding to my colleague from
Florida, I would like to thank Mr. Dan Freeman, our parliamentarian of
the House International Relations Committee who has steered us
correctly through this debate; and Dr. Yleen Boblete, who spent so many
hours drafting this resolution; and, of course, our staff director for
the committee Dr. Hillel Weinberg, who has been working so many hours
as well.
Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Weldon), who is ever patient.
Mr. WELDON of Florida. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for
yielding, and I rise in support of this resolution, and I commend the
authors, Mr. Boehner, Mr. Hyde and Mr. Lantos, and the staff involved
in drafting it.
I stand to urge our continued support for our ally Israel and to
condemn the actions of terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah, as
well as the complicit Governments of Syria, Iran and Lebanon.
We must clearly understand what is really going on here, the
motivations underneath the surface of these attacks.
As I stated last week in the House, the actions of Hamas and
Hezbollah involve the kidnapping and killing of Israeli soldiers. This
is an act of aggression against our ally Israel, and now they have
widened their continued attacks on innocent civilians with their rocket
attacks.
What is particularly troubling in the case of Hezbollah is that it is
part of the Government of Lebanon, which not only failed to dismantle
the terrorist group, but incorporated the terrorist group into the
nation's official government.
Hezbollah has dragged all of Lebanon into its unfounded quarrels with
Israel. Unfortunately for Lebanon's other factions, Hezbollah's attacks
on Israel will cost the entire nation of Lebanon much, but they should
have thought of that before allowing Hezbollah a seat at the governing
table.
Hezbollah has launched hundreds of rockets at Israel since 2000. It
also has thousands of Iranian- and Syrian-supplied rockets ready to
launch against Israel in the future.
Israel is justly taking strong measures in response to Hezbollah's
aggression, as they have done with Hamas' attacks, in order to deter
further attacks against its soldiers and civilians.
A U.S.-designated terrorist organization, Hezbollah is fully backed
by the Iranian and Syrian regimes. Not only have all of the G-8
countries condemned Hamas and Hezbollah and blamed them solely for the
current crisis in the Middle East, but the Arab League, while
characteristically condemning the Israeli attacks, noticeably failed to
support Hezbollah in its attacks on Israel.
Why is this? Because the members of the Arab League, Saudi Arabia,
Jordan, Egypt and others, are increasingly concerned about the growing
threat of Iran and the amount of influence that Iran has in Syria and
Lebanon and in the region generally.
We should not look at this current crisis as just another page in the
ongoing conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
{time} 2200
This now involves an Iranian regime and the Syrians that are
fomenting this, supporting this financially. I support this resolution
and I again commend the authors of the resolution.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, before yielding, I would like to offer an
opportunity to Mrs. Lowey to ask for a unanimous consent.
[[Page H5470]]
(Mrs. LOWEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her
remarks.)
Mrs. LOWEY. I thank the outstanding chairman for his leadership on
this issue.
Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution. It is a powerful
statement in support of Israel and the Israeli people during this
difficult time.
Let us be clear about what is happening in the Middle East. Israel
has been dragged into battle on two fronts to defend itself against
terrorists who target Israeli civilians and seek the destruction of the
Jewish State. The current hostilities were initiated, in both cases, by
incursions of terrorists across recognized borders and the kidnapping
of Israeli soldiers. As we know all too well, these battles are merely
the latest chapter in a war that has been waged against Israel since
its establishment in 1948.
I join all those who yearn for peace in praying for an end to the
hostilities. I also recognize that the fighting can only be stopped by
the terrorists who initiated it. I believe the U.N. should play a role
in ending this conflict, but the deployment of another force with the
same, weak mandate as UNIFIL will not get the job done. The U.N. and
the international community need to unite to demand an end to this
reign of terror and full implementation of U.N. Security Council
Resolution 1559. The Lebanese government must establish sovereignty
over its own territory instead of allowing Hezbollah and Iranian Guards
to operate freely. And we must keep the focus on Iran and Syria--the
root causes of this conflict.
The last several weeks have demonstrated beyond all doubt why Israel
must maintain its qualitative military edge in the region. Any action
taken by the international community must respect Israel's right to
protect its own citizens and must be aimed at disarming Hezbollah and
Hamas and terminating their ability to attack Israel.
Israel seeks peace and has taken risks to achieve it time and time
again. Sadly, its sacrifices have been met only with escalated threats
and violence.
Israel withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000 in compliance with U.N.
resolutions. In return, it has been continuously threatened by
Hezbollah terrorists on its northern border, allowed free reign by a
reckless Lebanese government with Syria and Iran calling the shots in
violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. In return, it is faced with a
Hamas-Ied Palestinian Authority that supports attacks against civilians
and competes with exiled Hamas members over who can be more extreme.
This latest violence confirms that Iran currently poses the single
greatest threat to regional stability. It has the motivation and
resources to stage a methodical campaign of terror and violence
throughout the Middle East, concentrating on fomenting sectarian
violence in Iraq and supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Syria continues
to shelter Hamas leaders and is widely acknowledged to be complicit in
the kidnapping of Corporal Shalit. Both countries are transit points
and suppliers of weapons to terrorists. The current hostilities are
mere symptoms of the disease Iran and Syria have brought on the region.
And our policies and those of the international community must respond
accordingly.
We have potent tools to deal with Iran and Syria that we have
ignored. The Iran Freedom Support Act passed the House of
Representatives overwhelmingly but has been held up by the Senate
leadership and the Administration. The Syria Accountability and
Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act became law in 2003, but the
Administration has largely ignored the instruments it provides to
pressure Syria. Sending Secretary Rice to the region may indicate our
concern, but developing a strategy to join with like-minded nations to
force Iran and Syria to abandon their campaigns of terror should be our
ultimate goal. Until we have such a strategy in place, a high-level
visit will accomplish nothing.
I join my colleagues in Congress in standing in solidarity with
Israel during this difficult time. The American people understand what
it feels like to be targeted on our own soil. As children in Haifa,
Safed, and Nahariya remain trapped in bomb shelters, we reaffirm our
support for Israel's effort to defend itself against terrorists
stationed on its borders.
I urge support for this resolution.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to my good
friend, a distinguished member of the International Relations
Committee, Mr. Blumenauer.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy in
permitting me to speak and for his hard work on this resolution.
I attempt to carefully examine the terminology and the nuance in such
efforts because I want to make sure the United States' policy is
carefully reflected in terms of our long-term interests, the security
of Israel, and those of peace. And I think this resolution meets that
test.
The attacks on Israel by Hezbollah are both unjustified and
unprovoked, particularly given Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon 6 years
ago.
Since the initial raid across the Israeli-Lebanese border, in which
Hezbollah killed eight Israeli soldiers, took two others hostage, they
have continued indiscriminately targeting Israeli civilians with
increasingly sophisticated weaponry.
It is in this context that Israel has exercised its right of self-
defense, which I completely support. I am, of course, I hope we all are
concerned about the impact on the actions that deal with innocent
Lebanese civilians. But as I cringed a little bit when I saw one of my
colleagues look at the minority, and talked about shortcomings in the
resolution, because I know Mr. Lantos had offered up on behalf of the
minority specific language of concern for innocents which, sadly, is
not in the resolution. But I do think it is a good starting point.
Even the Saudis and the Egyptians have recognized the responsibility
for the current crisis lies with Hezbollah, Syria and Iran, as well as
with Lebanon's inabilities to disarm Hezbollah as called for by
Security Council Resolution 1559.
We should not seek to impose a cease-fire that returns the region to
the status quo without ensuring that Hezbollah is no longer a threat to
Israel or Lebanon.
=========================== NOTE ===========================
July 19, 2006--On Page H5470 the following appeared: We should
seek to impose a cease-fire that returns...
The online version should be corrected to read: We should not
seek to impose a cease-fire that returns...
========================= END NOTE =========================
This resolution is a strong signal of support for Israel. It is a
signal to people who are playing their terrorist politics with innocent
lives, of the United States' intentions. It is a signal to governments
on the sidelines that they need to step up and help.
Nothing has been more vexing to me during my tenure in the House than
this continuing conflict with Israel. I don't pretend to know the
answers, but I do know it does start with support for Israel and this
resolution.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, before yielding my time to Mr.
Lantos, I would also like to recognize the work of Jen Stuart, the
foreign policy advisor to the majority leader, who has spent so many
hours working on this resolution.
And with that, Madam Speaker, I will be glad to yield the remainder
of our time, minus 1 minute, so we can close, to Mr. Lantos.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Miss McMorris). Without objection, the
gentleman from California is recognized.
There was no objection.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I want to thank my good friend for
yielding.
I am delighted to recognize a distinguished member of the committee,
my good friend from Nevada, Ms. Shelley Berkley.
(Ms. BERKLEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her
remarks.)
Ms. BERKLEY. Thank you, Madam Speaker, and a very special thank-you
to my very good friend from California, Tom Lantos, for his leadership
on this issue. I rest better at night knowing that he is our leader.
And I am very proud of him and very delighted to be here today.
I am not going to take all of the time, which is uncharacteristic for
me. I just couldn't have a resolution of this magnitude on the floor of
the House without coming here and lending support. Two minutes could
never be enough for me to speak on this issue, and I am afraid even 2
hours might not be long enough for me to express my feelings and my
views.
I grew up in a family where the very existence of Israel changed our
lives. I was born in my grandmother's apartment on the Lower East Side
of New York, and grew up hearing stories of what their lives were like
in Europe before they came to this country and how important Israel was
to the survival of the Jewish people. And while the Jewish people were
people of the diaspora and had managed to survive without a nation for
5,000 years, the very existence of Israel gave each of us a tremendous
sense of confidence and well-being, knowing that we had a homeland of
our own.
I was not alive in the 1948 war, or the 1956, when Israel was
attacked again by its Arab neighbors. 1967, I was more
[[Page H5471]]
aware, and 1973, of course. What I find incomprehensible and something
I simply cannot understand, that here we are, so many years after the
creation of Israel, after the aftermath of the Holocaust and the very
reasons that Israel was established, and we are still debating
throughout the world whether Israel has a right to exist.
I am so proud of my colleagues for introducing this resolution. I
think it strikes the exact right note at the exact right time in our
world's history.
We cannot allow this to continue. Israel has a right to exist, have
secure borders, and lead a life for its citizens. And I think the time
has come for the world body, led by the United States of America, to
step up to the plate and say enough is enough. And this resolution is a
remarkably good start. I thank everybody for supporting it.
I am very proud of the speeches that my colleagues have made, and I
look forward to voting for this, and I urge all of my colleagues to do
the same.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support for the resolution.
The current crisis in the Middle East was caused by an unnecessary,
ill advised, and unprovoked attack on Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah by
terrorist organizations who have called for the elimination of Israel.
There are victims of these terrorist attacks innocent Israeli
soldiers and citizens and there are perpetrators of these terrorist
attacks--Hamas and Hezbollah. There is no moral equivalency in this
struggle.
To those who incomprehensibly condemn Israel or who attempt to find
some equivalency, let me state the obvious.
Every sovereign nation has a right and responsibility to protect and
defend its people.
For those who think that Israel overreacted--If I was the mother of a
19-year-old soldier peacefully guarding my country's border and my son
was kidnapped by a terrorist organization, I would expect my government
to do everything in its power to bring my boy home. An Israeli mother
should expect and get no less. If I was living on the border of my
country and a terrorist group was continuously lobbing rockets into my
town where I live, where my children play, I would demand that my
country do whatever they had to to eliminate the threat--Israel should.
There should be no mistake about who is behind this crisis, Iran and
Syria. Iran's president pledged to wipe Israel off the map and he
refers to Israel as an ``illegitimate nation.'' Syria's troops occupied
southern Lebanon illegally until 2005.
This is a strictly defensive action on the part of Israel.
There is an internationally recognized border with Lebanon. Israel
unilaterally completed its withdrawal from Lebanon over 6 years ago.
For 6 years, the Lebanese government has done nothing to step-in and
establish control over part of its country.
They did nothing, and left a power vacuum, filled by Hezbollah, in
the southern third of Lebanon. Hezbollah uses southern Lebanon to lob
katusha rockets into Israel with the hope of killing someone, killing
anyone. They are not there to build a nation, protecting a people,
laying a foundation for a better Lebanon--they are there to kill
Israelis.
Israel did everything it could possibly do to avoid a conflict in
Lebanon--asking time and again that the government of Lebanon take
control and police their territory. Unfortunately, these requests went
unanswered and the terrorism continued to grow.
On its border with Gaza, Israel also faces unrelenting terrorist
attacks. After years of waiting, and praying, and hoping for a peace
partner, Israel chose to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza.
It uprooted families who created beautiful settlements. These
families built homes from nothing, farms from dirt. Three generations
were removed, some focibly, from the only homes they had ever known.
I know. I was there.
I saw Israeli soldiers carrying Jewish settlers in their arms across
the border out of Gaza.
There were tears in the eyes of the settlers and there were tears in
the eyes of the soldiers.
One would have thought that the Palestinians would have used this
opportunity to demonstrate to the world that they were capable of self-
governance. Instead of building homes, schools, and infrastructure,
they have used Gaza to launch thousands of Kassam Rockets at innocent
Israelis.
The international community must ensure that Hamas and Hezbollah are
disarmed.
The international community must ensure that Iran and Syria end their
support for Hezbollah's and Hamas's terrorism.
Hamas must renounce its charter that calls for the destruction of the
State of Israel or be cut off from the rest of the world.
Syria and Iran must be punished for their support of Hezbollah.
The 3 Israeli soldiers must be returned--alive and unharmed.
Congress must pass this resolution condemning the attacks on Israel--
they are indefensible and unacceptable--and supporting its
unconditional right to defend itself, which every nation on this planet
has the right to do.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to
a distinguished member of our committee, Mr. Schiff.
Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this
resolution and of our friend and ally, the State of Israel.
In May of 2000, Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon, ending
an 18-year presence that was intended to stop guerilla attacks on
civilians living in northern Israel. Last summer Israeli settlers and
military personnel left Gaza and part of the West Bank and turned over
administration of those areas to the Palestinian Authority.
The withdrawals were conciliatory gestures to Israel's Arab
neighbors, and Israel and the international community expected the
Lebanese Government and the Palestinian Authority to see them as
opportunities to stabilize a region that has seen too much blood and
tears over the last 60 years.
Instead, successive Lebanese governments, hobbled by the oppressive
presence of Syrian troops and intelligence officers, never made a
concerted effort to reassert control in the south, and effectively
ceded this area to Hezbollah, a radical Shiite militia trained,
supplied, and directed by Syria and Iran.
In Gaza, a corrupt and calcified Palestinian Authority would not make
the necessary efforts to dismantle the infrastructure of terror that
allowed terrorists to rain down Qassam rockets on Israeli civilians.
When Hamas, a radical Islamist party that has never budged from its
calls for Israel's destruction, swept into power in parliamentary
elections in January of this year, it made no secret of the fact it
would embrace a rejectionist policy towards Israel.
Nevertheless, the Government of Israel and a majority of her citizens
were determined to continue efforts to withdraw from large parts of the
West Bank. It was this plan that was the centerpiece of Ehud Olmert's
campaign for Prime Minister and which the new Prime Minister was
seeking to implement in the coming months. Instead, in what can only be
seen as a coordinated effort, Hamas and Hezbollah crossed Israel's
internationally recognized frontiers to murder and kidnap Israeli
defense force personnel on Israeli territory.
{time} 2210
At this stage four things are clear: First, these acts were not
undertaken by rogue elements of Hamas and Hezbollah, but were the
result of meticulous and lengthy planning.
Second, while the attacks were launched from Gaza and Lebanon, the
Governments of Syria and Iran were involved in their planning and
execution, especially in the case of the Lebanon attack.
Third, the murder and kidnapping of Israeli military personnel on
Israeli territory by armed forces operating from a neighboring state or
political entity is the root cause of the present violence.
And, fourth, Israel has the legitimate right to take military action
necessary to defend its citizens and its territory from attack.
We mourn the loss of life. Lebanese, Israeli, and Palestinian, they
are all the victims of Hezbollah and Hamas. I hope that Secretary Rice
and her international counterparts will be able to pressure Iran and
Syria to rein in these terrorist organizations and establish a
legitimate Lebanese Army force to patrol the border with Israel.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to yield 2 minutes to my
good friend from Kentucky, our distinguished colleague on the
International Relations Committee, Mr. Chandler.
Mr. CHANDLER. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Lantos for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I am deeply troubled by the recent violent events in
the Middle East. The United States must stand with Israel and recognize
their right to defend their people and country from unprovoked acts of
terrorism.
As we know, innocent civilians are losing their lives right now as a
result of extremist religious terrorism. Take
[[Page H5472]]
the heartbreaking story of Monica Seidman as an example. Forty-two-
year-old Monica, a mother of two, moved to the Israeli town of Naharia
from Argentina 3 years ago. Last Wednesday as she was sitting on her
porch having coffee, a Hezbollah-fired rocket made a direct hit on her
building, instantly killing her.
Monica was the first civilian killed in this conflict. How can this
be explained to her children? How will they ever understand the meaning
of this attack?
I believe the United States must call on Syria and Iran to stop all
support of Hezbollah. The Israeli people do not want violence. They
want peace. They want to be able to go about life without causing harm
to anyone else and without fearing for their own safety. Israel's
voluntary withdrawal from southern Lebanon 6 years ago is proof of
their desire for peace and stability in the region.
It is my hope that Israel will be able to secure its border quickly
and facilitate a safe return for its soldiers captured by Hezbollah and
Hamas, and that is why I fully support this resolution.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 2 minutes to my
friend from Florida, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, the first duty of the
government is to protect its citizens, and I stand by Israel's right to
defend herself against Hezbollah's aggression.
This bipartisan resolution sends a powerful message that the United
States Congress and the American people support our friend Israel at
this critical hour. Hezbollah's capture of Israeli soldiers was
unprovoked. I call on the Governments of Iran, Lebanon, and Syria, who
have influence over the fate of the captured Israeli soldiers, to
secure their immediate and unconditional release.
Hezbollah must be disarmed to prevent a similar conflict in the
future. A simple cease-fire will not accomplish this goal.
Any nation that refuses to act against terrorist networks simply
stands as a willing accomplice. The actions of Hezbollah and the
complicity of Syria and Iran demonstrate that former Israeli Prime
Minister Golda Meir was right when she said, ``Peace will come when the
Arabs love their children more than they hate us.''
I strongly support this resolution and stand by Israel in her pursuit
of peace and security.
As an American mother, I wish that mothers around the world, Iranian,
Syrian, and mothers universally, spend the time that I have spent
talking to my twin 7-year-olds and will teach my almost 3-year-old
girl, when she is old enough to understand, that we are all equal. We
are all equal under the eyes of God.
My 7-year-old daughter is here with me this week, and she asked me
about what we are debating here tonight. She asked me, ``Mommy, why
don't some people like us?'' And that question broke my heart, Madam
Speaker, because the only answer I could give her was because we are
Jewish and because we have different beliefs.
Please let us not have another generation of our children grow up
knowing hatred. Israel and her children need the world to stand with
her in support of her right to defend herself and in support of peace.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, before yielding, I want to express my
appreciation to the chief of staff on the Democratic side, Dr. Bob
King; Mr. Alan Makovsky; and to all other members of our staff who
worked so hard on this measure.
Madam Speaker, I am delighted to yield 2 minutes to my friend from
Pennsylvania, Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz.
(Ms. SCHWARTZ of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to
revise and extend her remarks.)
Ms. SCHWARTZ of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of
this resolution and in support of our friend and ally Israel.
September 11 was a defining moment for our country. It forced
Americans to confront a new reality, that terrorists could cause
massive destruction on our soil, and that all of us are at risk.
Israelis have been living with this reality for decades. Well-armed,
well-financed, and sophisticated terrorist organizations backed by
Syria and Iran surround her. They have carried out thousands of attacks
on Israeli soil, and they will stop at nothing to accomplish their one
common goal: the destruction of Israel.
Just as America does, Israel has a right to defend herself. Israel
has a right to better security for its borders and its security and its
future. A secure Israel cannot exist with Hezbollah controlling the
territory directly to the north, and a secure Israel cannot exist with
Hamas in control of the Palestinian Authority.
Israel is at war with terrorists, and we must stand with her. We have
a moral obligation to stand on the side of democracy and freedom
against terror and radicalism, and we must do so because, left
unchecked, these terrorist organizations will continue to destabilize
the region and will use it as a base to foster global instability and
to undermine our national security.
With passage of this resolution, we will send an unequivocal message
to the world that terrorist organizations, Hezbollah and Hamas, backed
by Iran and Syria are responsible for this violence; that Israel has a
right to defend herself; and that the United States will stand with
Israel in its fight against terror.
We must also do so because this conflict is not just about Israel,
but it is about America's national security. Since the 1980's,
Hizballah has been behind dozens of terrorist attacks targeting western
nations, including the United States. In 1983, they killed 241 American
servicemen in an attack on a military barracks in Lebanon. In 1994,
they killed 86 civilians in a bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In
1996, they killed 19 U.S. airmen at a U.S. military barracks in Saudi
Arabia. Left unchecked, Hizballah and these terrorist groups will
continue to destabilize the region and use it as a base to foster
global instability.
By passing this resolution with strong bipartisan support, we will
send an unequivocal message to the world--Hizballah and Hamas are
responsible for this violence, Israel has a right to defend itself, and
the United States will stand with Israel in its fight against terror. I
am confident that Israel will prevail in this fight. And, it is my hope
that their strong actions against terror will ultimately lead to the
peace and security that so many in the region desperately seek.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to
my good friend from North Carolina, Congressman Price.
Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding.
I address my colleagues tonight in support of H. Res. 921, but
acutely aware of some of its shortcomings.
Let me stipulate two things from the beginning. First, Hezbollah
attacked Israel without provocation, and it now threatens the lives of
hundreds of thousands of innocent Israelis in the range of its rockets.
Such a situation is intolerable for Israel. It would be intolerable for
any country. And a robust response is necessary to protect Israel's
sovereignty and its citizens.
Secondly, we must fully acknowledge the human toll of this conflict
on innocent civilians in Lebanon and Israel and on our own citizens
caught in the crossfire. As Israel meets the imperative of self-
preservation by disabling Hezbollah, it must also do all it can to obey
the moral imperative of protecting the innocent, though it is an
imperative we know is wholly disregarded by Hezbollah.
The Lebanese people are not the enemy of Israel, nor is the Lebanese
Government, which is led by a reform coalition that is fighting against
Syria domination. Our ultimate need is for a stronger, not a weaker,
Lebanese Government. And Israeli strategy should take that, too, into
account. The real enemy here of both Israel and Lebanon is Hezbollah.
With those stipulations the question before us is how can our Nation
play a productive role in bringing a swift and just end to this
conflict? The resolution offers little insight into this; so I want to
use the limited time I have here to urge my colleagues to consider this
critical question.
I recently returned from a mission to Beirut with the House Democracy
Assistance Commission, which is working with Lebanese parliamentarians
as they seek to establish an independent and effective representative
body. We met with many of the reformers who won a majority of seats in
the Parliament in the 2005 Cedar Revolution.
[[Page H5473]]
Democracy has a foothold in Lebanon, and we must find a way to empower
those Lebanese leaders who seek reform and democracy in their country.
To bring about such a resolution, the United States must dramatically
increase its engagement in the region. Secretary Rice should go there
sooner rather than later, work with the international community toward
a resolution of the conflict. I am not talking about a settlement that
leaves Hezbollah intact and merely postpones the fight. We must have a
resolution that guarantees Israel security, that permanently disarms
Hezbollah, and supports the development of democracy in Lebanon.
{time} 2220
If we are truly to support Israel, we must do far more than the
resolution before us suggests.
Madam Speaker, I address my colleagues in support of H. Res. 921 but
acutely aware of its shortcomings.
Nearly two years ago, the United Nations Security Council unanimously
adopted a resolution calling for the disarmament of all armed militias
in Lebanon. As Lebanon's Cedar Revolution has brought new pro-
democratic forces into power, one group has defied the world's mandate:
Hezbollah. Hezbollah has justified its defiance by claiming to be a
legitimate resistance against Israel's occupation of a small parcel of
land in Syria, adjacent to Southern Lebanon, called Sheba Farms. It has
tried to straddle the fence, claiming political legitimacy by
participating in democratic elections and the Lebanese government, yet
refusing to disarm and adding to its arsenal of rockets and other
weapons.
Hezbollah's decision to kidnap two Israeli soldiers and kill three
others--without provocation--and to launch rockets deep into Israel
belie its claims to legitimacy and reveal its true mission: fighting
not for Lebanon, but for its own interests and those of its patrons in
Iran and Syria.
No nation should be expected to tolerate a situation in which a
terrorist organization bent on its destruction has free rein to ignore
established borders through ground attacks or air strikes. Hundreds of
thousands of Israelis are living in constant fear of deadly rocket
attacks. I join with my colleagues in strongly supporting Israel's
right to defend its sovereignty and its citizens.
The human toll of this conflict has also been frightful on the
Lebanese side of the border. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of innocent
lives have already been lost. Hundreds of homes housing innocent
Lebanese citizens have been destroyed, and tens of thousands of
families have been displaced. The Lebanese people, like the Israelis,
are living under a dense cloud of fear and danger.
Our own citizens, too, have suffered from this violence. Over the
last few days, I have received calls from tearful fathers with young
daughters stuck in the hills of Lebanon with no way out; from families
stuck in Beirut on vacation; from relatives with Lebanese family
members killed in the conflict. We must remember the suffering of these
innocent citizens, caught by chance in the storm of war.
As Israel faces the imperative of disabling Hezbollah, it must do all
it can to obey the moral imperative of protecting the innocent, though
it is an imperative we know is wholly disregarded by Hezbollah. The
enemy here is not the Lebanese people. And the enemy is not the
Lebanese government, which is led by a reform coalition that continues
to fight against Syrian domination. The real enemy here is Hezbollah.
Our ultimate need is for a stronger, not weaker, Lebanese government.
What sense does it make, for example, to demand more vigorous action
against terrorists by the Lebanese Army, and then proceed to destroy
that Army's barracks?
Our country's role must be to work for an end to this conflict that
is both swift and just. Let us harbor no illusions: a cease fire that
allows Hezbollah to remain intact and merely postpones this fight until
another day is not an acceptable option. We must require Hezbollah to
disarm permanently and guarantee that Hezbollah will no longer threaten
Israel or Lebanon. That will likely require the establishment of an
international peacekeeping presence.
We must also work for a resolution that preserves the promise of the
Cedar Revolution and empowers those Lebanese leaders who seek reform
and democracy in their country. I recently returned from a mission to
Beirut with the House Democracy Assistance Commission, which is working
with Lebanese Parliamentarians as they seek to establish an independent
and effective representative body. Our Commission met with many of the
reformers who, in a stunning victory, won a majority of seats in the
Parliament in the 2005 Cedar Revolution. While key positions in the
government, including the Presidency, are still controlled by those who
would do the bidding of Syria, democracy has a foothold in Lebanon--the
most significant foothold for democracy in the entire Middle East,
outside of Israel. We must not allow the current conflict to destroy
that foothold.
To bring about such a resolution, the United States must dramatically
increase its engagement in the region. As the conflict has unfolded, we
have watched the international community react with promising
diplomacy. The United Nations, our allies in Europe, and key actors in
the region--Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia--have come forward with
mediators, cease fire proposals, and calls for international
peacekeepers. Even the Arab League, too often silent in the face of
past attacks against Israel, is working to convene an emergency summit
to deal with the crisis. But where has our own Administration been? As
one commentator recently wrote, ``the world's sole superpower is also
its only no-show.''
With so much at stake for our national security interests in the
region, the Bush Administration's lack of engagement is troubling. But
it is not surprising. This Administration has taken a hands-off
approach to the area, at great cost to the prospects for peace. It has
allowed the Road Map for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to
wither on the vine. It has failed to sufficiently support the moderate
Palestinian leader Abu Mazen, watching as Hamas capitalized on his
political struggles. And, after trumpeting the gains of the Cedar
Revolution, it has done too little to actually support the fledgling
reform movement in Lebanon. With the Administration's gaze still fixed
on Baghdad, the tensions that have led to the current conflict mounted
unchecked.
Madam Speaker, the current crisis demands decisive leadership.
Secretary Rice should go to the region sooner rather than later,
working with the international community toward a resolution to the
conflict that guarantees Israel's security, permanently disarms
Hezbollah, and supports the development of democracy in Lebanon. If we
are to truly support Israel, we must do far more than the resolution
before us suggests.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to
the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler).
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, the recent unprovoked attacks on Israel
are particularly notable because of the unilateral Israeli withdrawal
from southern Lebanon in 2000 and from Gaza in 2005. Israel, as it has
so often been urged to do, gave up land for the hope of peace. Yet what
happened? From the day Israel withdrew, Hamas fired rockets at Israeli
cities and villages every single day, followed more recently by
Hezbollah rockets.
Can you imagine what the United States would do if terrorists rained
down thousands of rockets on American cities from Canada? We would tell
the Canadian government to stop it immediately. And if the reply was we
don't want to stop it, as with Hamas, or we can't stop it, as the
government of Lebanon says it cannot stop Hezbollah, we would not
hesitate to bomb whatever targets were necessary and to invade whatever
territory was necessary to stop the bombardment, and we would not cease
until we had destroyed or disarmed the terrorists.
Similarly, we must not demand a cease-fire that leaves the Hezbollah
or Hamas weapons and infrastructure intact.
This recent violence, this war, is the penalty we pay for looking
away and urging restraint on Israel as Hamas and Hezbollah flouted
peace agreements and built up terrorist infrastructures and arsenals of
thousands of rockets as they openly proclaimed their intentions to
destroy Israel and murder her people.
The Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, a Hamas leader,
wrote in the Washington Post just last week that what matters are not
the issues of 1967, but the issues of 1948, that is, the very existence
of Israel. But the existence of Israel is not negotiable. But many seem
not to have learned the lessons.
The European Union criticized Israel's response as disproportionate.
What would the EU do if European cities were attacked as Safed, Haifa
and Nazareth have been? How is Israel's response against strategic
Hezbollah targets disproportionate to Hezbollah's intentional attacks
against Israeli civilians? And since when do we demand that responses
to naked aggression and intended genocide be proportionate? It was
Colin Powell who said that military responses must be of ``overwhelming
force.''
The violence can end only if Hamas and Hezbollah are disarmed.
Otherwise,
[[Page H5474]]
Israel will have to defend itself against future terrorist attacks, and
innocent Israeli, Palestinian and Lebanese civilians will continue to
die.
There is a role for diplomacy in the Middle East, but only when
Hezbollah and Hamas are forced to stand down and Hezbollah forces are
moved away from the Israeli border.
I extend my sympathy to the families of the victims of the attacks in
Israel and in Lebanon, and I pray for the safe return of those
captured. But I know that because the United Nations and the
international community have failed to dismantle the terrorist
infrastructure by diplomacy, Israel must be permitted to dismantle that
infrastructure by force of arms if the killing is not to go on
indefinitely. We must not stop her from doing so.
I strongly support the resolution.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to yield 2 minutes to my
good friend from New York (Mr. Israel).
Mr. ISRAEL. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from California.
Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution. Almost 1 year
ago, in August, I stood on the border of Gaza. I watched a gate
descend. I watched the last Israeli leave Gaza. Israel said to the
Palestinians, we will take a risk for peace. Build something here.
Provide security. We want peace.
And what did they do with that? What did the Palestinians do with
that offer? They fired Kassam missiles on Israeli civilians. They
elected a terrorist regime sworn to the liquidation of Israel. They dug
a tunnel. They snuck through the tunnel, they showed up on Israeli
soil, they kidnapped a 19-year-old soldier and snuck him back. Israel
took a risk for peace, and this is how it was rewarded.
Israel took the same risk in Lebanon. They left Lebanon. They said
provide security here. We will take a risk for peace, and let's have it
together. What happened with that offer? Hezbollah was allowed to
dominate southern Lebanon. And just last week, Hezbollah terrorists
infiltrated a border, snuck across an undisputed border, murdered some
Israelis, kidnapped others, murdered some more, and snuck back across.
Every time Israel has taken a risk for peace, that risk has been
answered with violence, and that is not acceptable.
What would we have done? It is exactly what we did do on 9/11. When
terrorists infiltrated our borders, we responded robustly to protect
innocent civilians.
Israel has the right to do the same. There can be no double standard.
There can be no moral relativism. This resolution simply says that
Israel has taken risks for peace. Those risks ought to be answered with
reciprocation, and not missiles; with good faith, security, and not
kidnappings. Israel has done what we have done, and this resolution
reaffirms that.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to my good
friend the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone).
Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this
resolution and of Israel's right to defend itself from terrorist
attacks.
The world community has a responsibility to support Israel during
these difficult times. Israel has complied with international demands
by withdrawing from both the Gaza Strip and from Lebanon.
Unfortunately, it seems like the governments in both of these areas are
not interested in peace.
Lebanon in particular has failed to abide by UN Security Council
Resolution 1559, which requires the disarmament of Hezbollah and other
militias and the deployment of the Lebanese army along its southern
border. Israel has simply requested that Lebanon comply with this
resolution and that Hezbollah end its attacks and return of its
kidnapped soldiers.
There has been little effort on the part of the Lebanese or Hezbollah
to actually meet any of these requests however, and that is why it is
critical that the United States and the world community stand behind
Israel and condemn the actions of Hezbollah, the Lebanese government
and Hamas.
As we condemn these acts we must recognize the connection between
Hezbollah and its international backers, Iran and Syria. It is clear
that both of these nations are aiding Hezbollah with funding, munitions
and even direct military advice, which is why Israel felt compelled to
impose the blockade on Lebanon.
We must ratchet up the pressure on Syria and Iran to give up their
support for organized terrorist groups like Hezbollah. That is why I
joined many of my other colleagues in calling on President Bush to
fully implement all of the sanctions available under the Syria
Accountability Act, which we passed during the last Congress. Syria is
continuing its support for terrorism, and we must demonstrate the
consequence of such actions.
Madam Speaker, as Israel continues to defend itself, we should stand
in support of her by putting greater pressure on nations who support
terrorist attacks against her. We should do nothing less and expect
nothing less of our allies if we were in such a situation.
I urge my colleagues to pass this important resolution, and I urge
the Bush administration to do more to hold accountable those countries
who support terrorism against Israel.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to yield 2 minutes to our
distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green).
Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Hyde, the
chairperson, and I thank my friend Mr. Lantos, the ranking member.
Madam Speaker, I want peace for both Palestinians and Israelis. I
want justice for both Palestinians and Israelis. And I support House
Resolution 921 condemning the recent attacks on Israel and supporting
Israel's right to defend herself.
Madam Speaker, Hezbollah has killed more Americans than any other
terrorist group, save al Qaeda: 257 Americans killed in the 1983
bombings of the U.S. embassy and barracks in Beirut; 19 Americans
killed in the 1996 bombings of the Khobar Towers.
Hezbollah has more than 13,000 rockets capable of hitting Israeli
cities and towns and killing innocent persons. Does anybody think that
these rockets will just go away? Hezbollah wasn't getting weaker.
Hezbollah was getting stronger.
{time} 2230
Israel must defend herself or there will be no Israel to defend.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
New York (Mr. Meeks).
Mr. MEEKS of New York. Madam Speaker, I stand here today to support
this resolution, and indeed in saying that I wish this resolution did
not have to be. For surely I am also convinced that the people of
Israel and many of the people in Lebanon and in the Palestinian
Territories wish it had not to be, but it does.
Why does it? Because you cannot have peace if you are negotiating
with yourself. If individuals will not even acknowledge the right for
the State of Israel to exist, how can you have peace? And if you are
put in that position, then you have no choice but to defend yourself.
The thing that we must not think that Israel is doing in having to
defend itself and using the force that it has to use is they are doing
it with glee. That is not what they want to do at all. They wish that
there was peace. But when people do not acknowledge your right to
exist, and there are 14,000 rockets aimed at you, I just ask you the
question, I think of myself. Suppose you are in your home and you have
got people that are outside, and they are pointing weapons at you and
your family. What would you do? Would you just say, let them continue
to point them and shoot them until there is damage to you or your
family?
What we are talking about here is simply a matter of defense. And
indeed, we would dream of having the day where we do not have to have
these resolutions on the floor, dream of the day when there is no
innocent people on any side of the lines in the Middle East who are
dead or would be killed or anything of that nature, dream of having
peace.
The only way to have it, though, is to have partners, to have
somebody that is going to stand and say, we will fight, along with
Israel, to make sure that all of its people are safe. We need to have
the day when, in fact, we know that the terrorist organizations like
Hamas and Hezbollah, who is holding hostage an entire region for their
bad reasons, are wiped out.
[[Page H5475]]
And if they will not go away, then Israel must defend itself.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman
from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
(Ms. JACKSON-LEE asked and was given permission to revise and extend
her remarks.)
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I do thank Mr. Lantos and
his good leadership and his history. It is reflected in what I think is
both a potent, important and very directed resolution. It draws upon
all of the voices that we have heard this evening.
Might I acknowledge Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for her patience and leadership,
along with Chairman Hyde as well as and the leadership of this House.
This weekend I will go home and meet with members of the Jewish
community, and as well meet with members of the Muslim and Arab
community. I believe it is important for Members to be forthright, and
in doing so, it is to understand that we stand here promoting peace,
and to say to the Palestinians, those of good faith, and President
Abbas, we will stand with you to rid yourself of those who believe that
their basic existence is for the nonexistence of Israel.
And to Lebanon, we will stand with you, so that you will have the
courage, the fortitude and the leadership to free your nation, for it
to be the shining pearl, the financial site of the Middle East of which
it has the potential to be.
I want to offer to those who have lost their lives, their families,
my deepest sympathy. To the innocent civilians in the Gaza strip, in
Palestinian, in Lebanon, in Israel, all who have lost their lives, we
offer the deepest sympathy.
But, Madam Speaker, let me simply say, Israel fully complied with
Resolution 425 in 1978, and wants us to know that they have removed
themselves from Lebanon, and Secretary Kofi Annan said Israel has
withdrawn, in full compliance with the Security Council resolution, as
well it has withdrawn from the Gaza Strip.
And so today I am interested in a cease-fire. I am interested in
engagement. But I am also interested in making sure that we have
permanent peace in the region, that we do not allow those who would
perpetrate terror against innocent individuals to be able to survive
and to continue their violence.
I would ask Syria and Iran to be forthright with the world and to
give away their continued intrusion into Lebanon and fueling the fires
of those that would perpetrate terror in the region. I also ask that
our refugees, if you will, Americans who are stuck in Lebanon, be fully
brought home safely and quickly.
So as I close, Madam Speaker, might I just say this evening that I
will be voting for this resolution, but I will be continuing to press
for engagement. I will continue to press for resolution. And I will
continue to ask that the Arab States become engaged, and that Syria and
Iran stand down, and that there is peace, and that the existence of
Israel is reaffirmed, and our Arab neighbors live freely and peacefully
for all the world to see.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to support H. Res. 921, condemning the
recent violence in the Middle East. I remain dismayed at the fact that,
once again, violence is poisoning and engulfing the Middle East.
This resolution condemns the recent attacks against Israel, holds
terrorists and their state-sponsors accountable for such attacks, and
supports Israel's right to defend itself.
This resolution is a very strong statement. While we must acknowledge
the culpability of the perpetrators of violence, we must always stand
for a solution that engages all parties.
The conflict is between those who wish to end the violence and those
who do not. All involved have created a sense of victimization, and
turned away from the most important goal: protecting their people,
abating violence, and stabilizing the region.
With this bill, we denounce terrorist acts, and we recognize the
right of all sovereign nations--including Israel--to exist, and to
defend itself. In addition, if Hamas is going to lead the Palestinian
Authority to participate in the international community, it must accept
Israel's right to exist and eliminate its violence against Israel.
This past January, I visited Israel prior to the Palestinian
elections, and visited with the emerging leadership of Kadima on the
eve of a new era of Israeli diplomacy and security policy. I have
traveled extensively in the region, and I have witnessed first-hand the
promise of the Holy Land, as well as the devastation of long-term
strife. Although Prime Minister Olmert has only held this position of
leadership for a few short months, he has led his nation with strength
and clarity.
We acknowledge Israel as a democratic and strategic ally, and we look
to Israel for regional leadership. No cause should ever warrant
aggressive terrorist acts against others who have not sought to
initiate any acts against the offending party. It is an absolute
necessity that kidnapped soldiers be returned, that soldiers stolen
from their own country, from their own land, must be returned to their
homeland. Israel was not the aggressor.
Hezbollah has committed acts of war, and Israel responded in kind.
Hezbollah has yet again demonstrated its easy familiarity with
terrorist tactics, and tensions continue to rise. Over the last several
weeks, we have seen the situation crumble. Accusations of blame and
responsibility fly like shrapnel.
Last week, the Lebanese government briefly called for a ceasefire
after Israel blockaded the country by air and sea in an effort to
distance itself from the Hezbollah faction. In a statement, the
Lebanese government said that all means must be used to end this ``open
aggression.''
When both aggressors are acting in defense, the only result is
destruction.
We must immediately engage Israel, Lebanon, the Palestinian
Authority, and any other stakeholder willing to take action to protect
the people and cease this swift escalation. We must engage them in
multi-party negotiations, and the United States must send a high-level
delegation to meet with the leaders in the region. The desecration of
life and the disrespect of boundaries in the last few weeks are
offensive, yet must be surmounted, and the violence must end. The U.N.
Resolution 1559 must be complied with by Lebanon--to fully disband and
disarm Hezbollah.
I commend Israel for its willingness to unilaterally withdraw from
the Gaza. I remain hopeful that the Palestinian Authority will soon be
able to assert itself and secure the Gaza Strip for its citizens, and
stop the invasion into Israeli territory.
I wish to relay to the Lebanon Government that America is their
friend, we support their independence, and we need them to assert their
independence and sovereign authority. Because of their independence,
Lebanon is well positioned to be an integral part of long term
negotiations and an eventual settlement to this terrible crises.
I urge decision-makers in Israel, Lebanon, and the PLO to observe a
ceasefire, and that the terrorist be brought to justice.
I also urge neighboring nations, such as Syria, to stop harboring
terrorists and to participate honestly in negotiations, to pursue a
mutually beneficial resolution without violence, and to respect the
sovereign Lebanon.
Violence is not the only thing to fear. We must do everything within
our power to prevent further escalation. We must silence the rumbling
of bombs and the screaming of missiles and restore at least the
semblance of peace.
We must condemn the poor response that the Administration has
exhibited in rescuing Americans. It is not befitting of the most
powerful nation, and we must expedite the rescuing of American
citizens. The President must also take to the airwaves to speak to
Muslims and Arabs to assure them that America remains their friend, and
the friend of all freedom-loving peaceful citizens of those nations. We
do not condemn all because of the missteps of some individuals or
governments in the region.
It is increasingly important that we immediately begin negotiations
to resolve this aggression on the northern and southern border,
observe ceasefire, and the United States must act urgently yet fairly,
and remain steadfast to bringing peace to the region.
We must do everything we can to assuage the fear and devastation of
the last two generations, and take decisive action to ensure that
today's children, and their children's children, can live in peace and
safety at last.
This past Saturday, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and several Persian
Gulf states, chastised Hezbollah for ``unexpected, inappropriate, and
irresponsible acts'' at an emergency Arab League summit meeting in
Cairo. At last, perhaps we will see the larger international
community--including the Arab League--denounce terrorism and terrorist
tactics and commit to securing first calm, then peace, for the region
and for the rest of the world.
The Middle East is at a crossroads, and Israel needs a partner for
peace. The new governments of Israel and the Palestinian Authority must
overcome the burden of history and begin writing the textbooks anew.
Palestinian and Israeli children should begin to learn that their
neighbors are good, peace-loving people, and that the region is capable
of coexistence and friendship.
I hope that soon all people in the Middle East, Jewish or Muslim,
Israeli or Arab, can
[[Page H5476]]
look to God with thankful, not pleading eyes. May the words of our
tradition inspire our decisions, as it says in Proverbs 34:14: ``Seek
peace, and pursue it.''
Before we can have peace, let us pray for calm.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to my good friend from
Ohio (Mr. Brown).
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I thank our leader Mr. Lantos for
his leadership on this issue, and so many others in this Congress. I
rise, as did Ms. Jackson-Lee and others, in support of the resolution.
I would like to cite an article by Charles Krauthammer, who gives
some history that I think is useful as this debate draws nearer to a
close, from the Washington Post this last Friday.
I quote. ``Israel withdrew from Lebanon completely in 2000. It was so
scrupulous in making sure that not 1 square inch of Lebanon was left
inadvertently occupied that it asked the United Nations to verify the
exact frontier defining Lebanon's southern border and retreated behind
it. This `blue line' was approved by the Security Council, which
declared that Israel had fully complied with resolutions demanding its
withdrawal from Lebanon.
``Grievance satisfied. Yet what happens?'' Krauthammer writes,
``Hezbollah has done to South Lebanon exactly what Hamas has done to
Gaza, turned it into a military base and terrorist operations center
from which to continue the war against Israel.
``South Lebanon bristles with Hezbollah's 10,000 Katyusha rockets
that put northern Israel under the gun. Fired in the first hours of
fighting, just 85 of these killed 2 Israelis and wounded 120 in
Israel's northern towns.''
Mr. Speaker, we should stand with Israel, we should vote for the
resolution.
Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I just want to thank you for your
patience. I want to thank my dear friend from Florida for her
extraordinary graciousness. And I want to thank all of my Republican
and Democratic colleagues for a serious and substantive debate. I urge
all of my colleagues to vote for this resolution.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of our
time.
Madam Speaker, I also would like to thank the gentleman from
California, our ranking member of the International Relations
Committee, for handling this debate in such a skillful manner. We want
to thank our majority leader Mr. Boehner, who was one of the authors of
this resolution; and, of course, our esteemed chairman of the
International Relations Committee, Mr. Hyde.
I would like to thank all of the Members who participated in this
debate, in this very civil debate on a very important topic.
Mr. BOEHNER. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this
resolution. As we speak, the security situation in the Middle East
continues to evolve.
The aggressive, unprovoked acts of violence against Israel by
Hezbollah and Hamas are revealing. It is clear they don't want peace,
but rather seek the ultimate destruction of Israel. This is why we must
support Israel's right to defend itself against these armed attacks.
Each and every day, Israel's very existence is at stake. Since its
first day as a nation, Israel has lived under a cloud of aggression
from militant extremists and hostile neighboring governments. Most
recently, terrorist forces have captured Israeli soldiers and fired
rockets into Israeli cities--both unprovoked. These acts of aggression
deserve the rapid and decisive response they received.
The United States and Israel have a unique relationship based on our
mutual commitment to democracy, freedom, and peace. Therefore, just as
our commitment to these principles must be steadfast, so must our
support for Israel.
The enemies the United States and Israel face are the same. Their
nature is brutal, oppressive, and inspired by hatred. The rise of
Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East has real security
implications, not only for Israel, but also for the United States. The
same ideologically malevolent forces working to destroy Israel are
working to destroy our cherished political values.
The United States did not choose to fight Islamic extremists. These
terrorists chose to fight our way of life. They chose to challenge our
existence.
We as a Nation have endured heartbreak, tragedy, and occasional
setbacks, but we are resolute in taking the fight to the enemy and
winning. We cannot afford to lose. The stakes are too high; the price
too great. And because we face the same enemy, we will not ask Israel
to respond differently. The consequences of not responding are too
great.
This resolution simply says Israel has the right to defend itself.
This includes conducting operations both inside its borders and in the
territory of nations that threaten it, which is in accordance with
international law.
Furthermore, it is incumbent upon Lebanon, Syria, and Iran to rein in
Hezbollah and Hamas. We know Iran and Syria are helping Hamas and
Hezbollah. That is why this resolution reaffirms our support for
President Bush as he seeks to use the most effective range of
political, diplomatic, and economic sanctions available.
We are clear in our purpose and our resolve. We are committed to
peace, democracy, freedom, and prosperity. We will work with those who
want these values, and we will use all means at our disposal to stop
those who seek to destroy them.
I urge my colleagues to join me in sending a strong message of
support to Israel, and I urge all to support this resolution.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today in
strong support of H. Res. 921.
Let us be very clear from the outset of this debate: the current
conflict was caused by the violent attacks of two terrorist
organizations on Israel, in Israel. Israel has the sovereign right and
responsibility to protect and defend itself from these terrorists.
The roots of this problem must be addressed if there is to be any
true cessation of violence. Iran and Syria must cease their financial
and military support of terrorist organizations. Hezbollah must be
disarmed and no longer be allowed to operate. U.N. Resolution 1559 must
be fully implemented. The government of Lebanon must be allowed to
govern the whole of its territories. President Abbas must guarantee
peace, exercise full control over the Palestinian-controlled territory
and the Hamas terrorist attacks originating in Palestinian-controlled
territory must be permanently stopped. This latest violence only
confirms what we have known since 9/11: the forces of extremism and
terrorism must no longer be allowed to terrorize peoples and countries
who desire to live in peace and freedom.
The approach taken by President Bush has been appropriate. Without an
end to terrorist operations by Hamas, Hezbollah, and other enemies of
Israel, there will be no hope for peace.
The United States should not negotiate with terrorists and neither
should Israel. Despite the recent set-backs, however, we should
continue to try to promote peace in the Middle East because it is
vitally important to the safety and security of America. We must
continue to encourage peace, but all parties must be willing to truly
accept Israel's existence and come to the table if peace is to have a
chance. Unfortunately, without an end to terrorist operations against
Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah, there is no hope for a lasting peace in
the Middle East.
Mr. BUYER. Madam Speaker, the United States has a long history of
supporting the state of Israel and the strong example of democratic
values it has brought to the Middle East. The recent events that have
enveloped the region will not waiver the resolve of our relationship.
Israel has found itself strained on two fronts. It is battling both
Hamas and Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, nations known to sponsor
terrorism and dedicated to the destruction of Israel. While the
ferocity of Israel's response to the kidnapping of its soldiers by
these terrorist groups may be in question, Israel has only acted to
defend its way of life and the intrinsic right for a nation to defend
its very existence.
Easing tensions in the region will require that neighboring nations
take an active role to stabilize the conflict. Egypt and Lebanon must
have the fortitude to take a leadership role to pursue regional
stabilization. They must grasp this opportunity to demand that
immediate steps are taken to resolve the conflict and work to bring
peace to the region.
Mr. FERGUSON. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this
resolution.
For generations Hamas and Hezbollah, which are committed to the total
destruction of Israel, have indiscriminately targeted Israeli civilian
populations and military forces. In recent days, these terrorists
organizations have kidnapped Israeli soldiers and singled out Israeli
citizens for arbitrary relentless rocket fire.
Hamas and Hezbollah, as dangerous and destructive as their actions
are in the current conflict, are mere puppets. Hamas and Hezbollah are
supported by Iran and Syria. With their financial and military
support--including providing the missiles that today are raining down
on Israeli towns--the Iranian and Syrian governments are co-
conspirators in the ongoing terrorist attacks against Israel.
The world community of nations must hold Iran and Syria accountable
for their actions.
[[Page H5477]]
Their active support of terrorist nations not only threatens Israel but
also all nations in the Middle East and those throughout the world who
are waging the ongoing global war on terror.
In the face of these terrorist attacks, we must resolve that Israel
has the absolute right to defend itself--just as the United States did
following September 11, 2001.
The time has now come for Congress to reaffirm our commitment to
Israel and the Israeli people, their absolute right to existence and
their absolute right to defend themselves.
Israel is one of the United States' strongest allies. In the last 50
years, our two nations have forged strong economic, military and
educational connections. Our bonds have never been more important than
today in our shared fight against terrorism.
Today, let us stand in firm resolve against terrorism and with
Israel.
I encourage my colleagues to support this important resolution.
Mr. MICA. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 921 and
specifically in support of Israel's right to defend itself against the
murderous actions of Hamas and Hezbollah.
The terrorist attacks on Israel and India and the recent July 4th,
2006 ballistic missile launch by North Korea are stern reminders that
the United States and world must remain vigilant against radical
extremism. It is not enough that America and her allies guard against
weapons of mass destruction, but we must also remain prepared to deal
with acts of human destruction. Terrorist acts on any sovereign state
can not and must not be tolerated.
I am pleased that the House of Representatives and our President has
remained firm in support of the people of Israel. While I am hopeful
that a stable peace in the Middle East will be established, no
arbitrary time limit should be placed on Israel's actions to defend
itself. Neither should a time line be imposed on bringing to justice
those who commit unjust acts.
Mr. GRAVES. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of House
Resolution 921 and in strong support of our oldest ally in the Middle
East, the State of Israel.
Today the Middle East is a region filled with contradictions. It is a
place where progress and regress have both taken root and are thriving.
Iraq is no longer ruled over by a tyrant named Saddam Hussein, who
terrorized people inside and outside his country with unimaginable
brutality. Today, a democratically elected government has been
empowered by the Iraqi people to improve security, build
infrastructure, and move forward. Admittedly, there is still turmoil in
Iraq; but the progress there is undeniable.
In the countries that border Iraq to the east and northwest, one
encounters a far different Middle East. It is in these two countries--
Iran and Syria--where international terrorism has found all too willing
hosts and official state sponsorship. And it is this state sponsorship
of terrorism, fueled by the desire of the Tehran and Damascus regimes
to project influence across a broader region in order to stifle
democracy and freedom, which has led us to the current crisis in
Lebanon and Israel.
This is not the first time that Israel has been forced to engage in
military operations in Lebanon to secure its northern border and
protect its citizens. As many of my colleagues will recall, Lebanon
could not control its border with Israel in 1978, and after numerous
terrorist attacks against Israel were launched from southern Lebanon,
the Israeli Defense Forces intervened. The Israeli Defense Forces
withdrew in June 1978, but were forced to return four years later due
to further attacks from Lebanese territory. In 1985, Israel withdrew
its forces from all of Lebanon, save for a security perimeter on their
common border. In 2000, Israel withdrew its remaining forces from the
security zone. Immediately thereafter, Hezbollah militia members moved
into the former security zone, and claimed credit for the Israeli
withdrawal.
Beginning in 2005, the Lebanese people have made significant progress
in their mission to push their Syrian occupiers out of their country.
In the midst of Lebanon's movement towards true freedom and
independence from Syria, Hezbollah terrorists crossed the border into
Israel, then killed eight Israelis and took two Israeli soldiers as
hostages. This was likely done in coordination with Hamas terrorists in
Gaza.
That was July 12, 2006; just one week ago, Madam Speaker. Since then,
Israel initiated military operations to prevent further attacks and
once again secure its border with Lebanon. Hezbollah's response has
consisted of daily rocket attacks that have hit Haifa, Israel's third
largest city. It is estimated that Hezbollah has an arsenal of at least
12,000 rockets some of which are Iranian weapons, and many of which
have reached Lebanon via Syria.
The United States Department of State has designated Hezbollah as a
foreign terrorist organization, and its main sponsors are Syria and
Iran, both of which are state sponsors of terrorism. The Lebanese
government may protest Israel's current military actions, but these
actions are essential to Israel's national security, and essential to
Lebanon's prospects for true sovereignty. Former Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri spoke out against Syrian domination of Lebanon
and was assassinated on orders from the highest levels of the Damascus
government. Unless we allow Israel to destroy the terrorist network and
infrastructure in Lebanon, and drive its agents back into Syria and
Iran, neither the Lebanese people or Israeli people will have the
opportunity to live in peace.
The Government of Lebanon cannot secure its own border, and has not
prevented the terrorist organizations--sponsored by foreign agents--
from using its soil to launch attacks into Israel. Israel has a right
to her own national defense, and is exercising that right in striking
terrorist targets inside Lebanon. On the other hand, Hezbollah is
reigning down rockets on civilian targets in Haifa, Galilee, and
Nazareth.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has laid out specific criteria for peace:
the return of the abducted Israeli soldiers; cessation of the rocket
attacks and other raids on Israel; expulsion of Hezbollah from southern
Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese Army to that region, and the
withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanese territory. Short of
these criteria being fulfilled, Israel must take it upon herself to
unilaterally provide security for her territory and people.
Madam Speaker, Israel is the oldest democracy in a region not known
for liberty, and is our oldest ally in a region with many agents that
are hostile to America and our interests. We must strongly support our
old friend in this time of crisis. We also must condemn Hamas,
Hezbollah, and their Iranian and Syrian sponsors in the strongest terms
possible for their terrorist attacks on innocent Israelis. As we know
all too well, we must hunt down and eradicate terrorists wherever they
find sanctuary and assistance, and Israel is doing just that; Israel is
taking the fight to the terrorists.
Madam Speaker, this situation proves that Syria and Iran are
dangerous agents acting on behalf of and in concert with
fundamentalists, extremists, and terrorists. Hezbollah and Hamas have
absolutely no remorse for the damage they are inflicting on the Israeli
people or the Lebanese people, and the clerics in Tehran and tyrants in
Damascus are encouraging continued carnage.
In response, this Congress--as representatives of the American
people--must set an example and stand on the side of freedom,
democracy, and sovereignty in the face of this challenge. It is the
latest confrontation in the Global War on Terror, and it is a battle
that we as Americans cannot afford for Israel to lose. I urge my
colleagues to support this important resolution.
Mr. WAXMAN. Madam Speaker, it is a tragedy that we have come to this
point today, watching the spiral of hostilities between Israel and its
neighbors.
Although Israel withdrew completely from Lebanon in 2000, and the
U.N. Security Council certified the withdrawal to internationally
recognized borders, Hezbollah still refuses to accept peace.
Although Israel has removed all its settlers from Gaza and has been
working with President Abbas to negotiate additional concessions, Hamas
is still unwilling to lay down its weapons, accept Israel's legitimate
existence, and come to the table to negotiate the creation of a
peaceful Palestinian state.
When Hamas and Hezbollah leaders were elected to be part of the
emerging democratic governments, some hoped they would focus on leading
the Palestinian and Lebanese people to fulfill their aspirations of a
stable and prosperous future.
Instead, the terrorists have pursued only their own aspirations of
regional instability and the destruction of Israel.
Kidnapping soldiers does nothing to promote the welfare of the
Lebanese and Palestinian people. Missile attacks don't develop the
economy or expand freedom of movement or provide access to health care
and education.
Terrorism has only brought suffering to the people of Gaza and
Lebanon, and these attacks serve no one but the terrorists and their
state sponsors.
We must recognize the role of Syria and Iran in this conflict, and
the threat they pose to Israel, the United States, and the entire
Middle East.
Though it has been unwilling or unable to do so, the world must
insist that the Lebanese government take control of its borders and
disarm the terrorists within them as required by the Road Map and the
U.N. Security Council.
Israel has made every effort to avoid civilian casualties, and those
that have occurred are tragic. But Israel's best efforts to spare
civilians stand in sharp contrast to the terrorists' deliberate efforts
to target Israeli civilians as they drink their morning coffee or head
off to school and work.
[[Page H5478]]
Acts like these leave Israel no choice but to break down the
terrorists' capacity to carry them out. Israel has targeted stockpiles
of missiles procured from Syria and Iran and blocked the routes through
which the terrorists would rearm. It is ramas and Hezbollah who have
cruelly decided to place these stockpiles among civilians, again
putting the political and strategic needs of terror above those of the
people they claim to represent.
Israel is not the source of instability and danger. Israel withdrew
from Lebanon and Gaza in pursuit of peace. The terrorist regimes in the
region have pursued other ends. Israel has every right as a sovereign
nation to defend its cities from unprovoked cross-border attacks and to
seek the safe, swift, and unconditional return of its soldiers.
Mrs. CAPPS. Madam Speaker, I am voting for this resolution because I
absolutely condemn Hezbollah's senseless, unprovoked cross-border
attacks on Israel, and the murderous rain of missiles it has unleashed
on Haifa and other northern cities. Terrorist groups like Hezbollah,
whose actions have caused the death and misery of hundreds of innocent
Israelis and Lebanese, deserve no sympathy and no mercy. Hezbollah
needs to be disarmed, for the sake of Israel's security and, indeed,
for the stability of the entire region.
And I also join my colleagues in condemning the actions of Syria and
Iran for their support and arming of Hezbollah. We see the true nature
of these regimes when we see the tragic results of their support of
terrorist groups like Hezbollah.
But I would have hoped for a different resolution to come before the
House. I would have hoped for a more comprehensive resolution that
respects the complexity of the issues unfolding in the area, and the
necessity for direct U.S. involvement in the unfolding tragedy.
A more appropriate resolution would recognize the fundamental
difference between Hamas and Hezbollah. Of course, Hamas should be
condemned for its actions and the kidnapped Israeli soldier must be
returned unharmed. But Gaza and Southern Lebanon are two separate
situations and this resolution confuses that.
The Palestinian people have legitimate grievances and a solution to
these grievances can and must be found through negotiations. Hamas
exploits those grievances, but we must not allow Hamas's actions to
delegitimize the aspirations of the Palestinian people. Hamas's actions
do not negate the reality that we simply must resolve the humanitarian
crisis now engulfing Gaza and the West Bank.
I believe Israel's security depends on forging a negotiated
settlement with the Palestinians that will ensure the safety and
security of both peoples. And while I respect Israel's right to defend
itself, I am deeply concerned that Israel's response to Hamas' actions
is only prolonging the suffering of the Palestinian people and putting
off resolution of this decades long problem.
Conversely, Hezbollah has no legitimate grievances with Israel.
Hezbollah seeks nothing more than the destruction of Israel and there
is no negotiating with it. Only through Hezbollah's complete
disarmament will we be able to remove its threat to the region.
I am also troubled by the unqualified praise in this resolution for
the President and his Administration. The President has done little to
stop the meltdown of the Middle East that has occurred under his watch.
Unlike previous Administrations, including that of his father and
President Clinton, he simply hasn't been engaged. And his response here
is tragically inadequate, again.
The U.S. must engage immediately to bring about a cease fire and help
drive a long term solution for the area. Every major Arab-Israeli
crisis over the years has ended with U.S. involvement--at the highest
levels--because the players rely on intermediaries to broker
agreements.
We may not like it, but that's the reality of the situation. And
given that the stability of the region plays so large a role in our own
national security interests, we must continue to engage forcefully if
we are committed to bringing about peace in the region. Waiting another
week before dispatching the Secretary of State is not a viable
response.
Finally, I would note that every day this crisis continues brings a
greater risk of direct involvement by Syria and Iran. As bad as this
situation is now, direct involvement from either Syria or Iran would be
much, much worse. Immediate, hands-on U.S. involvement is critical to
keep the situation from spiraling even further out of control.
Madam Speaker, the situation in the Middle East grows graver every
day. Dozens of Israelis and hundreds of innocent Palestinians and
Lebanese civilians have already died. Beruit, which has only recently
been restored to its historic splendor, is in ruins. A key ally in the
area is threatened and our national security interests are as well.
I urge the Administration to help bring peace to the region.
Mr. CARDIN. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 921,
condemning recent terrorist attacks against the state of Israel.
Israel has the absolute right to defend itself against terrorist
attacks. The United States stands in solidarity with Israel at this
critical moment. I condemn the premeditated kidnapping and killing of
Israel soldiers by Hezbollah and Hamas, which are both U.S. designated
terrorist organizations. Israel has a right to launch operations to try
to free its kidnapped soldiers that are being held hostage. Israel also
has a right to defend itself and try to prevent ongoing rocket attacks
by Hezbollah, which are being launched from Lebanese territory and
which land in Israeli territory.
I also condemn the use of civilian populations as human shields by
Hamas and Hezbollah, which only increase the suffering of innocent
persons in this conflict. Israel, on the other hand, is taking
significant steps to minimize and prevent additional civilian
casualties in both Israel and Lebanon.
Even though Israel unilaterally withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, the
Lebanese Government has permitted Hezbollah to operate at its border
and to repeatedly launch attacks against Israel. United Nations
Security Council Resolution 1559, passed in 2004, calls for all
remaining foreign forces to withdraw from Lebanon, directs that all
Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias should be disbanded and disarmed,
and urges the Government of Lebanon to exercise control over all its
territory. We need to fully implement this United Nations resolution.
Both Syria and Iran have continued to provide funds and weapons to
the Hezbollah terrorists, which have resulted in numerous Israeli
civilian casualties. All parties in the region must take immediate
steps to prevent the operation of terrorist activities on their soil
and to abide by previous peace agreements. The President should use his
authority under the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996 to impose
additional sanctions on Iran.
I also call on the Bush Administration to take a more aggressive
diplomatic role in the conflict in the Middle East, including the
appointment of a high-level U.S. envoy to the Middle East as soon as
possible. The Bush Administration should also put pressure on all
parties in the region to stop terrorist attacks and prevent the flow of
money and weapons to terrorist organizations.
Madam Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to support this
resolution, and stand in solidarity with Israel at this critical
moment.
Mr. HIGGINS. Madam Speaker, Palestinian militants in Gaza kidnapped
Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and later, Hezbollah agents crossed the
border, killed seven Israeli soldiers, captured two others, and
continue to hold them captive. Hamas, and Hezbollah, specifically, have
long relied on Syrian and Iranian support and funding. Now, Iranian and
Syrian made and purchased Katyusha rockets rain down on Israel from
Lebanon in the north and Qassam rockets are launched from over the
border from Gaza in the south. Despite having withdrawn from Lebanon in
2000 and from Gaza last summer, Israel is under attack.
I stand by Israel during these troubled times and I strongly support
H. Res. 921, to be voted on today, which pledges our solidarity with
this nation under fire; I urge my colleagues to join me in support of
this bill.
After the terrible attacks of September 11, 2001, President Bush
declared that we are engaged in a War on Terror and countries across
the globe stood up in support of and behind the United States. Now we
are called upon to stand with Israel during her time of need as she
defends her borders and her citizens from unprovoked kidnappings and
attacks.
Madam Speaker, the international community, led by the United States,
must ensure the full implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution
1559, which passed unanimously in 2004, and calls for disarming
Hezbollah, removing all foreign forces from Lebanon and deploying the
Lebanese army to secure the border with Israel. What we are seeing
today in the region is the consequence of the Lebanese government
allowing Hezbollah to join its parliament and cabinet while the
international community did little to exert pressure to force them out.
Israel, the Jewish state, is defending its citizens, much as this
nation would if we were under attack. Any innocent civilian deaths--
Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese, or other--are awful and should be
minimized in every possible way. But responsibility lies with Hezbollah
and Hamas who brought Israel's retaliation upon not just themselves but
the communities they live in by launching unprovoked attacks, and by
purposefully planting themselves in civilian population centers where
innocent men, women, and children are used as swords and shields.
We must continue to stand behind Israel and to show her our
solidarity against those that continue to do her harm. Additionally,
the international community, led by the United
[[Page H5479]]
States, should now ensure that Hezbollah is finally disarmed, that
Iranian influence is forced out of the region, and that Hamas
recognizes Israel so that we may finally put an end to the cycle of
violence.
Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, I have grave concerns about
what the future holds for the Middle East. The violence in Israel and
Lebanon, which began with Hezbollah rocket attacks on an Israeli town
and a military incursion into Israel and abduction of Israeli soldiers,
threatens to engulf the entire region. Unless swift action is taken by
the international community, further escalation and bloodshed will soon
be upon us.
As we consider this resolution, H. Res. 921, civilian lives hang in
the balance. Hezbollah's rocket attacks against innocent Israelis are
indiscriminate tools of terror against a civilian population. Reports
indicate that Israeli retaliations have resulted in the loss of
innocent lives.
It seems clear that Hezbollah has raised--or lowered--the suicide
attack to a new level: they have dragged the entire nation of Lebanon
and all its people into harm's way because of the group's attacks on
Israel.
I wish that this resolution made more mention of these innocent
Lebanese civilians and innocent Israeli civilians who are caught in the
middle here. They are the ones paying the price.
I wish that this resolution made more mention of the urgent need for
the U.S. to step forward, use its considerable influence, and take
diplomatic action immediately to try to end the bloodshed affecting
millions on both sides of the border.
The finding in paragraph 4 of this measure asserts that Israel is
making every effort to prevent civilian casualties. And while I am a
staunch supporter of Israel's right to defend itself, it is disturbing
that some sources report that over 300 Lebanese civilians have been
killed due to the violence. I hope that Israeli forces truly are making
every effort to prevent civilian casualties, as indicated by this
measure.
Finally, I want to tell you how deeply saddened I am that recent
events have reduced the power of moderates in the region and dimmed
prospects for long-term peace. The earlier abduction in Gaza came just
as talks among Palestinian officials seemed to be reaching a point that
may have allowed Hamas to open negotiations with Israel. And the
attacks across the Israeli-Lebanese border will undoubtedly serve to
diminish and muffle--now and in the immediate future--the voices of
moderation who would otherwise call for peace.
It is my hope--no, my demand--that moderate voices in the
international community, including the United States, will promptly
work to quell this crisis. Clearly, Madam Speaker, right now we need
solutions and not just condemnations.
Mr. WELLER. Madam Speaker, today I rise in strong support for H. Res.
921, condemning the recent attacks against the State of Israel. With
this resolution, the United States of America reaffirms its steadfast
support for the State of Israel, denounces the use of terrorism as a
tool of influence, and condemns those states that encourage its use.
Iran and Syria's support for the terrorist organization, Hezbollah,
does not go unnoticed. I urge the President of the United States to
continue his support for Israel, as it responds to the armed attacks
against it, and I support bringing the full force of sanctions:
economic, political and diplomatic, against these state-sponsors of
terrorism.
Madam Speaker, Israel, as a sovereign nation, has the right to defend
itself and protect its citizens by deterring further attacks by the
terrorist organization, Hezbollah. Since its founding, Hezbollah has
been actively supported by both Syria and Iran. These two countries are
estimated at providing Hezbollah with $100 million annually in addition
to providing regular weapons shipments. These weapons range from
rockets, mortars and small arms, to mines, explosives and anti-tank
missiles. Hezbollah is by no means an innocent victim in an offensive
war. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, which has put the people of
Israel, and the people of Lebanon, in harms way.
The United States of America knows all too well what drives this
organization: the taking of innocent life. Before 9/11, Hezbollah
single handedly killed more Americans than any other terrorist
organization. In 1983, Hezbollah killed 257 Americans when it bombed
the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut. Between 1982 and
1992, more than 30 Westerners were abducted by this organization, some
tortured and killed. In 1996, 19 American servicemen were killed in the
bombing of a U.S. military housing facility in Saudi Arabia.
Madam Speaker, this resolution sends an important message: the United
States of America will not stand by and silently accept terrorism as a
viable option with which to negotiate. Terrorism is not a viable
option; it is not an option at all.
The United States must continue to lead in efforts not only to keep a
check on the danger presented by Hezbollah and its sponsors, Syria and
Iran, but also to help achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East. I
join my colleagues from both parties today in support of Israel's right
to self-defense and in condemnation of Hezbollah's decision to put the
people of Israel and Lebanon in danger. Madam Speaker, thank you for
bringing this important resolution to the floor and I urge my
colleagues to vote in its favor.
Mr. SESSIONS. Madam Speaker, in recent weeks, radical terrorist
organizations have engaged in a number of unprovoked attacks on the
State of Israel. I rise today in strong support of Israel's right to
defend its citizens and its borders from acts of terrorism.
Most recently, Hezbollah military forces committed an act of war by
crossing the border between Lebanon and Israel, attacking and killing
several Israeli soldiers and kidnapping two Israeli soldiers. The
integrity of the internationally recognized border between Lebanon and
Israel must be respected in order for Israel to provide for its
security. Hezbollah--a terrorist organization recognized by the U.S.
Department of State as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO)--operates
with impunity in many areas of southern Lebanon. Lebanon must accept
responsibility for and bring an end to military attacks originating
from within its territory. Iran and Syria also bear responsibility for
the current crisis, because armaments used by Hezbollah have been
traced to Iran and transferred through Syria for use by these Hezbollah
forces.
This month, Hamas--another organization designated by the State
Department as a FTO--also conducted an unprovoked military attack on
Israel, killing and kidnapping Israeli soldiers. This military invasion
represents a small part of the Palestinian violence emanating from Gaza
into Israel. Last August, Israel withdrew every settler and soldier
from Gaza in hopes that Palestinians would establish a democratic state
capable of living side-by-side in peace with Israel. However,
Palestinian terrorists took this historic opportunity to begin
systematically firing Kassam rockets at Israeli towns. Over 1,000 have
been fired since Israel's total withdrawal from Gaza--and it is
important to note that the rockets are fired into territory belonging
to Israel before 1967 and universally recognized as being Israeli
territory.
Israel has the obligation and the right to defend its citizens
against attacks emanating from both Lebanon and Gaza. I support
Israel's right to take the appropriate military action necessary to
deter future attacks, and hope that Israel's neighbors will take this
opportunity to control future terrorism within their own borders.
Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res.
921, a resolution expressing support for the security of the State of
Israel.
Over the last few days, it has been hard to turn on the television
without seeing disturbing images of the current conflict in the Middle
East.
Many of us share serious concerns about future of the Middle East. It
seems unfair that this area--which has suffered so much conflict
already--now is confronted with yet another period of escalating
violence.
The long simmering tension in this region has finally come to a
boiling point. The capturing of Israeli soldiers and the attacks on
innocent civilians by the terrorist organization Hezbollah is
absolutely unacceptable.
The President was correct when he stated that Israel has a right to
defend itself against the aggressions by Hezbollah. The U.S. must stand
side by side with our friends in the Middle East--especially Israel--as
they fight terrorism in and around their borders. Israel must have our
support and prayers as they continue to fight against those who murder
innocent civilians just to advance their political agenda.
The loss of innocent life in this region over the last few days is
heartbreaking. The people of Israel and Lebanon deserve to live in
freedom and peace, safe from violence and terror.
Madam Speaker, the source of this current conflict does not lie
within Israel or Lebanon. To put it plainly, the violence in the region
is rooted in Iran. The support of Hezbollah by Iran in countries like
Lebanon only serves to encourage violence, unfairly damage the region's
fragile democracies, and undermine the rights of citizens in that
region to fair and uncorrupted government.
Iran has created and supported terrorism and continues to funnel
money and weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas. In fact, missiles that have
targeted Israeli forces over the last few days have been traced to
manufacturers in Iran.
It is clear that a nuclear Iran puts the Middle East and all
countries around the world in grave peril. Iran has repeatedly defied
the international community and has progressed in its development of
nuclear capabilities. If Iran continues with its rogue nuclear
programs, it will not be long before these weapons fall into
[[Page H5480]]
the hands of terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
If we want to address the future security and stability of the Middle
East, the U.S. must work to curb extremism and violent political
activism nurtured by the Iranian government. The U.S. and the
international community must come together behind a united front and
stand with unwavering strength against the Iran's state-sponsored
terrorist organizations and activities.
Here at home, it is now more important than ever that we realize that
our own safety and security depends on the destruction of terrorism in
the Middle East. This isn't just a Middle East problem--the attacks in
London, Madrid, Bali, and now India show us that this is world terror.
And, as we saw first hand on 9/11, America is not immune to terrorists
who seek to destroy freedom and democracy.
Although the conflict in the Middle East can seem distant and
unrelated to our daily lives, it is vitally important that we remember
our past, present and future is intrinsically linked with this region.
As the situation continues to unfold over the next days and weeks, let
our thoughts and prayers be for a true and lasting peace in the Middle
East.
Madam Speaker, I urge support for H. Res. 921 to show solidarity with
Israel in their quest for security and peace, and to show our
commitment to defeating terrorism around the globe.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
{time} 2240
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) that the House suspend the rules and
agree to the resolution, H. Res. 921.
=========================== NOTE ===========================
July 19,2006--On Page H 5480 the following appeared: The SPEAKER
pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. BOEHNER)
The online version should be corrected to read: The SPEAKER pro
tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman
from Illinois (Mr. HYDE)
========================= END NOTE =========================
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Miss McMorris). In the opinion of the Chair,
two-thirds of those present have voted in the affirmative.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will
be postponed.
____________________