[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 123 (Friday, August 1, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5320-S5321]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 ISRAEL

  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, a couple things.
  This is a very dark day for our friends in Israel. Apparently, 
earlier this morning, about an hour and a half after the agreed-upon 
cease-fire, an Israeli column of soldiers who were trying to 
decommission a terrorist tunnel, consistent with the terms of the 
cease-fire, were attacked by a suicide bomber that resulted in some 
Israeli casualties. That column also was hit by antitank missiles, and 
a group of Palestinian Hamas fighters engaged the column, resulting in 
the capture of one Israeli soldier.
  For lack of a better way of explaining this, there was a cease-fire. 
Israel was acting consistent with the terms of the cease-fire, and this 
was a planned military operation to take advantage of the cease-fire. 
In the law of war this would be a great breach. At the end of the day 
Israel is a victim of a group of people called Hamas that lie, cheat, 
have everything in their being that most of us should condemn.
  So what has the Senate done? This could be a very good day for the 
U.S.-Israeli relationship. To my Democratic and Republican colleagues 
in the Senate, you have risen to the occasion. I thank the majority 
leader Senator Reid and the minority leader Senator McConnell for 
bringing up Iron Dome funding. I thank all of my colleagues for 
allowing the funding to go forward. Senator Coburn was trying to find 
an offset. He is being consistent in trying to bring our fiscal house 
in order. He is a very principled man, but he understood the urgency of 
the matter in Israel and withdrew his objection last night.
  To our friends in Israel, the Senate has acted in a unanimous 
fashion, bipartisan in nature, to appropriate $225 million to resupply 
the missiles that you need to defend yourself under the Iron Dome 
Program. With the missiles comes a message. The message is we are with 
you. Take as long us you need. Go where you need to go to deal with 
this terrorist threat called Hamas.
  To the Palestinian people, we are not your enemy. We hope one day you 
will reject Hamas and try to find a peaceful solution to your problems 
with your Israeli neighbors, and we stand ready to help in that regard.
  The Palestinian Authority and Israel have a good working relationship 
when it comes to the West Bank. Hamas has been in charge of Gaza for 
several years now, and this cycle of violence repeats itself. You will 
have a cease-fire. You will have a lull in the violence. One year later 
you will fight Hamas again. They have fired over 15,000 rockets into 
Israel. In 2005 Israel withdrew from Gaza, giving land for peace. The 
land was given, the peace has been unattainable.
  So the real root of the problem is Hamas. There is no moral 
equivalency here. Hamas is trying to kill every Israeli possible. They 
are firing missiles by the thousands indiscriminately into Israel. They 
could care less where they land. Thank God for the Iron Dome. The most 
heinous of all is they have put their own people in harm's way as human 
shields. As Israel tries to tell people to withdraw from an area 
because it is coming under attack, Hamas says: Ignore the leaflets. You 
go to that area.
  There is a video where a hospital was occupied by Hamas fighters. 
Israel gave 2 days' notice to evacuate the hospital. When the hospital 
was destroyed militarily because it became a command center for Hamas, 
secondary explosions went on for quite a while. It was also an ammo 
dump.
  So Hamas uses mosques, hospitals, apartment complexes. We found two 
instances of Hamas rockets being stored in U.N. schools. They are 
violating every known tenet of the law of war. They are using their own 
people as human shields in an unprecedented strategic manner.
  As to the United Nations, you are about to run afoul of the Congress. 
The Human Rights Commission issued a resolution that had one sentence 
condemning the attacks on Israeli civilians. It never mentioned the 
word ``Hamas.'' It basically accused Israel of being a war criminal.
  It passed 27 to 1. We were the lone vote objecting to the resolution, 
which was so out of sync with reality, and several major nations 
abstained.
  The United Nations is becoming more anti-Israeli as I speak. Anti-
Semitism is spreading throughout the world, but let it be said that the 
Senate in a bipartisan fashion will have no part of this. The United 
Nations is a force that could be used for the good or it could be a 
force to make problems worse.
  I consider myself, as a Republican, an internationalist. I believe in 
foreign assistance. I believe in helping people. I believe in leading 
the world, not having the world run us over. Ronald Reagan is a great 
role model from my point of view. He said: America makes history. That 
is our destiny. We shape history; we are not overrun by it. That does 
not mean we have to become the world's policeman or act as the Lone 
Ranger. It does mean we have to stay involved in the world. That is my 
point of view. But it is very hard to maintain that point of view when 
the United Nations, I believe, is being hijacked in such a fashion.
  To the United Nations leadership: You are about to run afoul of the 
Congress, who wants to be part of the body that wants to shape the 
world for the better. By your constant condemning of Israel in a 
disproportionate manner to what is going on, on the ground in Gaza, 
beware of where you are taking this. To the Human Rights Commission: 
You have become a joke in the eyes of Congress.
  The second thing I hope we can do is pass a resolution that was 
authored by myself and Senator Menendez this morning. It is cleared on 
the Republican side. I think we are about there on the Democratic side.
  So what have we done? Tactically, the Senate has acted in a fashion 
to resupply missiles to the Iron Dome Program that is literally under 
siege. Strategically, we have a partnership agreement pending before 
the Senate that reaffirms our relationship for years to come as a 
signal to Israel: Strategically, we will be your partner as far as the 
eye can see.
  So that is pending before the Senate, and I hope we can clear it 
today. Today, of all days, would be a great time for us to make 
decisions that reinforce the military capability of the Israelis to 
defend themselves, recommit ourselves to a strategic partnership.
  And the third thing we could do is lend our moral voices as a nation 
by condemning the attack of Hamas against the Israeli defense forces 
and the capturing of a soldier.
  This resolution thoroughly points out the cease-fire breach by Hamas, 
the preplanned attack on the Israeli column during the cease-fire, the 
capturing of a soldier. We are condemning this activity as a breach of 
international law, and we are urging that Hamas return the IDF soldier.
  This resolution would give the moral voice of our Nation and the 
Senate to the cause Israel faces. So if we could, in a dysfunctional 
Congress--and we deserve a lot of criticism, both parties are to 
blame--but if we could end the day speaking as one on something that is 
very important, the survival of our friends in Israel--not being anti-
Palestinian but being pro-Israel and pro-peace and being anti-Hamas--I 
just wish and hope and pray the Palestinian people will reject Hamas 
and turn in a new direction because in that direction you will find 
peace and you will find America as a partner.
  So let it be said the Senate, in the most turbulent political times, 
found its way when it came to supporting our friends in Israel by 
appropriating money to help their military which is under siege, by 
passing a strategic partnership agreement that reaffirms the 
relationship, and by lending our voice to what happened today in 
condemning, in no uncertain terms, the vicious attack and the breach of 
the cease-fire by Hamas.
  If we could do those three things today, it would be the right 
message, it would send the right message at the right time, and it 
would solidify this relationship that is so important because the 
enemies of Israel are our enemies also. Radical Islam has the same 
desire to kill us and destroy our way of life as they do Israel. At the 
end of the day we have to understand our fates are tied together.

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