[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 100 (Wednesday, July 26, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H5941-H5942]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISRAEL: AMERICA STANDS WITH YOU
Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to
address the House out of order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from
Arizona is recognized for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, a tyrannical government cares not
about the fate of an individual citizen. But in a free country to
murder a single innocent citizen is to provoke a fight with the entire
nation. This is one of the great differentiations between Hezbollah and
Israel. While desperately trying to retrieve two of her soldiers who
were abducted by Hezbollah terrorists, Israel takes great lengths to
minimize civilian casualties. Conversely, Hezbollah takes great lengths
to maximize civilian casualties in Israel while making breathing
barricades out of the innocent men, women, and children in Lebanon.
Time and again Israel has made efforts for peace. Israel fully
withdrew from Lebanon. Then she uprooted from Gaza. She was thanked
with rockets, mayhem, and bloodbath.
The recent kidnapping and murder of Israeli citizens and soldiers
were definitive acts of war. Hezbollah terrorists, along with the
nations of Syria and Iran, who support them, are the aggressors, Mr.
Speaker. And now as Israel has risen up to defend herself, along with
each of the individual citizens whom she loves, we hear cries from the
U.N. and other quarters for Israel to restrain herself.
What if, on 9/11, Mr. Speaker, the outcry was for the United States
to restrain ourselves? Or what if Israel had listened to such calls for
restraint 15 years ago when she learned that Saddam Hussein was
building a nuclear reactor? The United States and our coalition forces
would have faced terrorists with nuclear weapons when we lifted the
iron hand of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
You see, Mr. Speaker, Israel understands that the entire world faces
an evil, poisonous ideology that causes mothers to leap for joy when
their children blow themselves to pieces in order to kill other
innocent human beings. Israel understands that a dark ideology like
that must never be allowed to gain nuclear weapons.
And why does the rest of the world not seem to understand that? This
is the same ideology that murdered Olympic athletes in 1972, that took
American hostages in Iran, that murdered Marines in their barracks in
1993, that bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, Riyadh in 1995, the
Khobar Towers in 1996, the embassy in 1998, and the USS Cole in 2000.
And then, Mr. Speaker, this murderess ideology massacred nearly 3,000
Americans on September 11.
And today this is the same ideology that is launching rockets into
Israel to kill innocent civilians. And, Mr. Speaker, lest we forget, it
is the same ideology that is working feverishly to gain nuclear
weapons, to terrorize the Western world in ways that we cannot yet
imagine.
Seven decades ago, Mr. Speaker, another murderess ideology arose in
the world. The dark shadow of the swastika fell first upon the Jewish
people of Germany. And because the world did not respond to such an
evil, it began to spread across Europe until it lit the fires of World
War II's hell on Earth, which saw atomic bombs fall on cities and over
50 million people dead worldwide. All because, Mr. Speaker, the world's
free people did not respond in time.
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History has taught us that evil ideologies must ultimately be
defeated in the minds of human beings. But in the meantime, in the
meantime, Mr. Speaker, they must often be defeated upon the
battlefield.
The battle Israel fights in these days is a battle to protect all of
humanity from an evil ideology that has no respect for innocent human
life anywhere on the Earth. That is why, Mr. Speaker, Israel's war is
our war, and if there is hope for peace and freedom in this world, free
peoples across this world just unite to defeat this hellish ideology of
terrorism. This time, Mr. Speaker, we must not wait too long.
So may the people of Israel take comfort in these days, knowing that
America stands with you. May you find victory, and may the light of
God's peace shine down upon the streets of Jerusalem, forever.
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