[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 90 (Wednesday, June 16, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H4577-H4578]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     CALLING ON PRESIDENT OBAMA TO STAND UNEQUIVOCALLY WITH ISRAEL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call on the 
President to give Israel the unequivocal, robust, and vigorous support 
it deserves.
  Since the May 31 Gaza flotilla incident, Israel has been under media 
attack, and even in the past few days many articles and international 
newspapers take a grossly anti-Israel slant. Make no mistake about it, 
the purpose of the flotilla was to provoke an incident, thereby to set 
up an international media campaign against Israel. The flotilla was an 
aggressive and hypocritical attempt to manipulate world public opinion 
and to isolate Israel. Thankfully, it has not worked in the United 
States, where Rasmussen polling shows that despite the anti-Israel bias 
of so much media coverage, less than 20 percent of Americans think that 
the Israeli Government is to blame for the deaths that resulted from 
the incident.
  Madam Speaker, the facts of the incident were clear within 48 hours, 
and it's high time our government sent a much more powerful and 
unambiguous message, that the United States fully supports Israel's 
action to intercept the flotilla. The administration should emphasize 
that Israel's action was legal, that it was right, and that the U.S. 
stands with Israel without any ifs, ands, or buts, or so long as, or 
any other qualifiers.
  It's a matter of record that on May 25 the Israeli Government offered 
to offload at its port of Ashdod the humanitarian aid the flotilla 
carried and to have the U.N. personnel deliver it to Gaza. On that same 
day, the Israeli Government also stated it would not permit the 
flotilla to break its blockade of Gaza, which is not only legal under 
international law; but I believe it's also just, given the rampant 
maritime arms smuggling, the 7,000 rocket attacks Hamas has launched on 
Israel from Gaza since 2005, and the unlimited aid that can flow to 
Gaza through proper checkpoints.
  Madam Speaker, the Turkish group that organized the flotilla has 
documented ties to Hamas, which is recognized by the U.S. Department of 
State

[[Page H4578]]

as a foreign terrorist organization. Radicals with ties to other 
terrorist groups were aboard the ships. The flotilla launch was marked 
by violent, anti-Semitic rallies. Flotilla participants spoke to al 
Jazeera of martyrdom and sang intifada songs. All this shows the 
grotesque hypocrisy of those who would portray the flotilla 
participants as somehow being harmless peace activists. Nothing could 
be further from the truth.
  Madam Speaker, the response of the Israeli Government was 
extraordinarily restrained and responsible. Israeli troops boarded the 
ships in the flotilla carrying paint ball guns, but when the crew beat 
them with iron rods, stabbed and lynched them and threw one of them off 
the deck, they got the order to defend themselves with their side arms. 
This, too, was right. Every government permits its troops to defend 
themselves when they are attacked.
  I call on President Obama to give Israel our government's full 
support and to make unmistakably clear our government's position that 
Israel, in its response to the Gaza flotilla, was fully in the right. 
Whether or not the Israeli Government decides to adjust the blockade, 
our government must make it perfectly clear to all that we will never 
permit an anti-Israel media campaign to isolate America's most faithful 
and trusted friend in the Middle East.

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