[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 61 (Monday, April 28, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H3234-H3237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cook). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from
Minnesota (Mrs. Bachmann) for 30 minutes.
Mrs. BACHMANN. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to be here tonight. Today
is a significant day. It is Holocaust Remembrance Day. And the greatest
ally that the United States has, Israel, had a remarkable experience
that they hold every day because of the unique situation that the
Jewish people have endured, and that is, the entire nation and all of
the people in Israel come to a complete stop. Cars literally stop in
the middle of highways. Buses literally stop in the middle of highways.
Metros stop. If a pedestrian is walking on a street, kids playing in a
park, they stop. A siren goes off for 2 minutes' time, and during that
time every person in the nation comes to a standstill. Why? Why this
extraordinary action?
Because, quite simply, nothing like the history of Israel has ever
happened anywhere in the annals of recorded human history. It is this:
6 million people lost their lives. They lost their lives simply because
they were Jewish. They were children, they were grandparents, they were
moms and dads. They were disfigured. They were disabled. They were high
functioning. They weren't even necessarily in Israel. They were in
countries all across primarily European areas. But 6 million died. And
it is important that we never forget. That we never forget that a
people were so brutally targeted that 6 million were killed virtually
in silence; silence because of the devious ways in which the German
regime carried out this horrific action. That is what happened about 70
years ago.
We will commemorate D-day, the 70th anniversary this June 6, as we
should, probably one of the greatest sacrifices ever made by one people
for another, led in large part by the Americans to liberate Europe as
they were under this cloud of Adolf Hitler. It is a horrific past, but
it is something that we have to remember because we can never forget.
We can never, ever, ever forget.
We join with our great ally Israel today as we remember this horrific
act. It was a racist act on the part of Adolf Hitler. It was a bigoted
act on the part of Adolf Hitler, and I think that is why today we are
all rather shocked when the story was disclosed that our American
Secretary of State had made comments last Friday behind closed doors in
a meeting with members of the Trilateral Commission, and he had said
that if Israel does not go along with the proposed two-state solution,
that Israel would risk becoming an apartheid state.
Now that is a shocking comment to come from an American Secretary of
State, particularly to have this comment revealed on Holocaust
Remembrance Day, to accuse the Jewish people who have undergone what no
other people have undergone, a horrific act to be targeted by Adolf
Hitler some 70 years ago, within the lifetime of some people who remain
alive today. And yet our Secretary of State, accusing this nation of
engaging in an act, an institutional act against another people based
upon race with no evidence whatsoever because there is none.
I want to read the definition of the 1998 Rome statute. It says:
The crime of apartheid is defined as inhuman acts committed
in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic
oppression and domination by one racial group over any other
racial group or groups and committed with the intention of
maintaining that regime.
Now, that would apply to an Adolf Hitler. That did apply in the case
of South Africa. It does not in any possible imagination or universe
apply in any possible sense to the Jewish State of Israel, and yet that
is what our Secretary of State said last Friday in reference to our
greatest ally. Our Secretary of State needs to apologize humbly to the
people of Israel, and then he needs to tender his resignation
immediately to the President of the United States.
But our Secretary of State did not stop there. He went on to
reiterate a statement that he had made prior that merely was an echo of
what the Palestinians had intimated, and it was this: That Israel could
be looking at a third fatwa--that is a war--that Israel could look at a
war by the Palestinians, by people who would engage in
[[Page H3235]]
terrorist acts against Israel, that Israel could be looking at the
threat of another war if they failed to give up 40 percent of their
land to people who, number one, don't recognize that Israel has the
right to exist; number two, that they have the right to exist as the
Jewish state; and number three, that they have the right to defend
themselves.
Since when do we force our greatest ally to sit down with people and
negotiate with people who want to see them killed and annihilated? That
is the stated position of Hamas. Just read article 7 of the Hamas
charter.
The head of the Palestinian Authority, Abbas, recently said:
I am 79 years old, and I have no intention of changing my
ways.
In other words, he has no intention of recognizing the legitimacy of
the Jewish State of Israel and their right to exist. And the United
States is expecting, our Secretary of State is expecting after that
statement, not only that Israel would sit down and negotiate in good
faith with people who have said unequivocally they will never recognize
the right to exist. And Israel is the bad guy here, Mr. Speaker?
Mr. Speaker, I think we have our priorities wrong. Not only did Abbas
say he would not recognize Israel's right to exist, we also heard last
week that the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, which is a foreign
terrorist organization, part of the violent Muslim Brotherhood, have
said that they are looking to merge--the Palestinian Authority and
Hamas. And again, we are going to force our great ally, Israel, to sit
down at a negotiating table and negotiate with terrorists over Israel's
right to exist and give the terrorists 40 percent of their land?
This is madness. This is once again an alternative universe that
doesn't make any sense.
Our Secretary of State went on to say that Israel has built 14,000
living units, apartments, extra rooms, what have you, for Jewish
people. Well, of course, a population that increases has to build
apartments.
How many times has our Secretary of State talked about the
Palestinian building of apartments on their land? Because, after all,
this is Israelis building apartments on their own land. Since when is
this a detriment to peace? And since when will our American Secretary
of State ever call out the Palestinians and say those Palestinians,
they shouldn't be building apartments, they shouldn't be building
houses on their own land. Are you kidding? In the multiple times that I
have been to Israel and the multiple times that I have been to
Ramallah, to the Palestinian Authority, it is a building bonanza going
on in the Palestinian Authority. And if it is their land, more power to
them. Let them go ahead and build.
{time} 2130
Since when is it wrong for Israel to build on their own land? You
see, there is a reason why the Obama administration has been accused of
being the most anti-Israel American administration since Harry Truman
wisely recognized the modern Jewish state's sovereignty in May of 1948.
Eleven minutes after Israel declared her independence, the greatest
military economic super powerhouse of the world, the United States of
America, recognized Israel's right to exist. That meant something
because our strength and our wealth was behind Israel. We had Israel's
back.
No one, no nation, thinks that America unequivocally has Israel's
back today. All you have to do is look at Israel's neighborhood. It has
become a very dangerous place, a very dangerous place, indeed. The
epicenter of jihad today is on Israel's border in Syria.
There are more weapons floating around in the Middle East today in
the hands of terrorists than ever before; and yet our Secretary of
State, rather than being focused on Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon,
which it has stated unequivocally it will use to annihilate the Jewish
state and to murder millions of Jewish people in Israel, rather than
the Secretary of State calling out Iran for its ongoing action tonight,
as I am speaking before C-SPAN and before the Speaker of this House,
tonight, Iran has thousands and thousands and thousands of centrifuges
spinning, fissile material that can be used and converted into nuclear
weapons.
Tonight, as we speak, research and development continues to go on for
nuclear warheads. Tonight, as I speak, Iran continues to work on a
delivery system--a missile delivery system to deliver a nuclear bomb, a
nuclear warhead with the fissile material to take out Israel. The fact
is Iran already has the capability to deliver a missile into Israel.
What they don't have is that capability yet to deliver a nuclear
warhead against us, the United States. You see, that is Iran's ultimate
goal. They call us, the U.S., the Great Satan. Israel is the Little
Satan. So, of course, the goal of Iran will be let's wipe out, with a
nuclear weapon, some strategic main cities in America, so that we can
achieve our real goal, which is the annihilation of the Jewish State of
Israel. That is the goal.
Where is our Secretary of State calling out Iran? What about the
epicenter of jihad, Syria, where weapons are awash? Where is our
Secretary of State there, talking about the numerous, numerous
terrorist organizations that are already running completely independent
in Syria? Where is our Secretary of State talking about the problem
with the communist nation of Russia, which has illegally seized Crimea
and is now making incursions into the eastern area of Ukraine?
I just returned from a trip, Mr. Speaker, on Sunday, visiting some
former Soviet bloc nations to talk about their response to the
aggressive illegal actions of Russia and what is happening to reset the
table in the former Soviet bloc nations.
These are nations that are very worried about what they are seeing.
They are worried because they understand that you can trust a communist
to be a communist, and their actions today are a mere image of what
their actions were formerly.
Russia recognizes that, if no one pushes back, they will continue to
salivate over more lands and more influence and seek to dominate more
people. Russia is responsible for enslaving millions of people. In
fact, they even murdered tens of millions of their own people under
Stalin. This is a regime that needs to be watched.
Unfortunately, under our previous Secretary of State, Hillary
Clinton, she gave, in my opinion, unwisely, the reset button to the
former Russian government and apparently didn't think that they would
push the button.
They did. They pushed the reset button, and they pushed it in a way
that has the Soviet Union looking at the United States and making the
calculation that the United States is now a weak power, that we have
weakened ourself, and therefore, now is Russia's opportune time to seek
to influence and pull back into the fold former Soviet bloc nations.
As we have learned from history, when a madman speaks, listen. Madmen
spoke in the form of Lenin and Stalin, and millions--tens of millions
of people were enslaved in misery for decades. The same happened under
Adolf Hitler, with a madman who spoke, and he murdered 6 million Jewish
people. That is why we have, today, the Holocaust Remembrance Day.
We need to pay attention today to the thugs and rulers that are
making their mad statements. They are doing it again. That is why
again--why did the Obama administration demand that Israel release from
prison over 100 murdering terrorists, murderers who murdered innocent
people--children, women, men--in order for the Palestinian authority
just to go to the table and have negotiations and talks?
Now, these same leaders are saying: Don't worry, we will never
recognize the Jewish state; and, oh, by the way, we want to form up a
new league with a terrorist organization.
That is why I say tonight, Mr. Speaker, our Secretary of State has to
first apologize to the Jewish state and then tender his resignation. I
call on President Obama, Mr. Speaker, to completely change course on
his foreign policy.
We are looking at one foreign policy disaster after another. After
the thugs of the world have calculated that the United States has put
itself into a position of weakness, while we are in the process of
gutting the greatest military force in the world, the bad actors of the
world are recalculating and resetting the table.
We are seeing China making aggressive moves that we haven't seen
before
[[Page H3236]]
against Japan and causing trouble in that area and region of the world.
We are seeing Russia making incursions, again, as I just said, in
Eastern Europe that we haven't seen before.
Even just today, we heard of a mayor in eastern Ukraine who was shot
in the back by Russian forces. Just over this last weekend, there were
those who were killed also in Ukraine and those who were taken hostage.
This is moving forward. This isn't stopping. This is moving forward.
In Syria, with the epicenter of jihad, and as we saw three Americans
killed--innocent Americans killed in Afghanistan by a member of the
Taliban. You see, they are making calculations, these murderers. They
are looking at the United States. They are seeing this failed foreign
policy.
They are seeing that America won't stand up for her allies, like the
Jewish State of Israel, and at every turn, we lift up the agenda, for
some inexplicable reason, of the radical Islamist who seeks to destroy
the Jewish state and destroy the United States of America. It is a
policy that will lead to a day that I believe we will all regret.
That is why America and the world needs to wake up and listen to
these bad actors. So when our Secretary of State calls the Jewish State
of Israel an apartheid state, it is more than unhelpful. Those words
are dangerous because a state that was born after seeing 6 million of
its compatriots, one-third of the entire Jewish population in the world
at that time, one-third of its people annihilated by the maniacal evil
ruler named Hitler, to see them called an apartheid state,
institutional oppression, really? There is no such thing. You will find
it nowhere.
Mr. Speaker, as we look again to the Jewish state and as we remember
with great sadness what this day signifies, the incredible loss of life
that this signifies, I am reminded of the violence that I witnessed
myself on a recent trip that I took to Israel.
I was in the area that President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry
have demanded that the Jewish state give up and yield, which is 40
percent of its land. It is the biblical homeland of the Jewish people.
Hebron is the city, essentially, where the Jewish people were born.
Abraham was in Hebron.
It was in Hebron where I was invited into the home of a Jewish woman
who is in a so-called settlement and has been there for decades. She
invited me into her kitchen.
In her kitchen, she showed me some of the doors on her cabinets.
Those doors on her cabinets had bullet holes in them, Mr. Speaker,
bullet holes, bullet holes fired across her land, over her deck, in
through the glass windows of her kitchen and into the cabinet doors of
her kitchen.
Every day, her family is reminded of the very real existence that
they have, that they literally can be in their home and bullets can fly
in to a place where children should be able to be free, where a wife
should be able to whip up supper or breakfast and not have to dodge
bullets.
You see, that is the very real existence that the Jewish citizens
have had to face in the southwestern section of Israel, where I had a
chance to live for a summer. The day after I graduated from high
school, I was privileged to be able to go and live and work on a
kibbutz down in Be'er Sheva.
Kibbutz Be'eri is the area now that is oftentimes dealing with the
violence from Gaza where Qasam and various rockets are fired from Gaza
into the Jewish area with no other intention other than killing
innocent civilians. This is what Israel deals with on nearly a daily
basis.
Mr. Speaker, just in the month of February alone this year in 2014,
there were more rockets that were shot into Israel in this one month
this year in February than there were all of the previous 12 months in
2013 put together.
The Jewish state is under attack, and yet what is Israel's response?
In Israel, especially in the area known as the disputed territory, what
is called occupied territory by people in our United States State
Department, the greatest human rights that women--Arab Muslim women in
the Middle East are afforded is in no other country but Israel, in the
so-called occupied territory.
That is the area where women--Arab Muslim women enjoy the greatest
protection of human rights, and Israel is being called the apartheid
state--Muslim women enjoying the greatest rights that they can find
anywhere in the Middle East in Israel.
What about jobs? Jobs are available for Palestinians in Israel at
higher wages, at better conditions, and they are grateful to have those
jobs. I was in the area where there is a threat by now potentially
European nations and other nations.
Even 5,000 academics from America were calling for boycotts,
divestment, and sanctions on any products that are made in the so-
called occupied territories of Judea and Samaria. Those are Israel's
biblical homeland. There are 3,500 years of history. Just pick up the
Bible, read the Bible.
This is the land that God gave to Abraham. He said: I give you this
land, Abraham, to you and your descendants through Isaac. Through the
descendants of Abraham, I give you this land, not just for a year or 5
years or 10 years.
But in the Bible, God said: I give you this land for eternity.
{time} 2145
If you don't want to believe the Bible or if you think that it is a
book of fiction, that is up to you. I believe it is true. You can look
at historic documents. You can look at documents from this last
century. International agreements gave this particular piece of land
not to any other country but to Israel. This is Israel's rightful land.
Don't we recognize that this has been a very long effort on the part
of the Arab Muslim people, who made a decision that they don't want
Israel to exist?
As I said previously, Mr. Speaker, even the head of the Palestinian
Authority--Abbas--has said:
I am 79 years old. I am certainly not about to recognize
Israel now.
He is the one Israel is supposed to negotiate with?
Even with the leader of the Palestinian Authority--and going back for
decades--the stated position has been from the Palestinians: Israel
does not have the right to exist. We will push the Jews into the sea,
and we will take it over.
It isn't that they just don't want Israel. It is that they don't want
any Jews in Israel. They want Jews gone. They don't want Jews anywhere
on the planet. There is nowhere they believe that the Jewish people
have the right to exist.
And this is after 6 million Jews were murdered by Hitler?
You see, there is an ongoing genocide, if you will, because there is
a group of people who still believes today that the Jews have no right
to exist. This isn't just a modern phenomenon. You can go back to the
days of Haman, when Haman didn't want to have the Jewish people exist,
and he persuaded the king at that time to issue an edict to eliminate
and exterminate all of the Jewish people.
One woman--her name was Esther--was called upon by her uncle,
Mordecai, and Mordecai said to her:
Esther, could it be that you have been called to a position
for such a time as this?
Mordecai, her uncle, called upon Queen Esther, and said to the queen:
You need to go to the king, and you need to ask the king to
pardon the Jewish people from this death sentence.
Esther said to her uncle:
But if I go in to the king, I could be killed. I am not
allowed to just go in to the king. I have to wait until he
calls upon me.
That is when Mordecai infamously said to his niece, to Queen Esther:
Could it be but that you were appointed for such a time as
this?
She rose up at that moment. She had courage, and she went before the
king. The king, rather than banishing her or rather than having her see
the end of her life, called her in, and he asked what it was that she
wanted. She made the request and interceded on behalf of the Jewish
people, and, ultimately, the Jewish people were spared.
You see, Mr. Speaker, this isn't a one-off. This is throughout
history--from the time of the creation of the Jewish people through
Abraham and through Abraham's line. This was a God thing. He created
this people. He created this race.
In the Book of Genesis, it is extremely clear:
Those who bless Israel, I will bless, says God. Those who
curse Israel, I will curse, says God.
[[Page H3237]]
That isn't just a one-off. It is for all time.
The United States of America, I believe--it is my opinion--has been
singularly blessed by standing by the Jewish people, and on this day of
remembrance of the Holocaust, we stand with Israel. We, too, remember,
and we stand up against those who want to see the extermination and the
annihilation of the Jewish race.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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