[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 142 (Wednesday, September 30, 2015)] [House] [Pages H6714-H6715] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] UNWAVERING BOND WITH ISRAEL The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) for 5 minutes. Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, this morning, the United Nations will take yet another action that only serves to further undermine the prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians and underscores the lengths to which the United Nations and many of its member states will go in order to wrongly isolate and delegitimize the democratic Jewish State of Israel. By raising the Palestinian flag for the first time ever at the U.N., that body is allowing Palestinians to continue with their scheme to achieve unilateral statehood without having to honor their obligations to reach a peaceful settlement through direct negotiations with Israel. While addressing the U.N. General Assembly this week, President Obama had an opportunity to denounce this latest stunt and press for the United Nations to abandon its course of action and return to the principles of its own diplomatic agreements with regard to resolving the peace process; yet, as usual, the President remained silent. That silence speaks volumes about the administration's policy toward Israel, our closest friend and ally, and it will surely only serve to embolden Abu Mazen. Today, Abu Mazen will address the U.N. General Assembly, and his speech will be nothing more than political theater. In his speech later today, Abu Mazen will surely continue his ploy to achieve unilateral statehood recognition from sympathetic states and U.N. entities that are dominated by anti-Israel bias, like the Human Rights Council. What a misnomer. And, of course, he will blame Israel for not being able to achieve peace, when it is Abu Mazen who repeatedly has rebuffed overtures from Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu to return to the table to discuss a mutually agreeable resolution. Mr. Speaker, we have seen over the past several years--a sight unseemly and unbecoming--the administration publicly admonish and insult our ally Israel and its leaders, applying a false moral equivalency between Israel and the Palestinians; yet when it comes to Abu Mazen's intransigence or Palestinian incitement, the Obama administration remains reserved in its condemnation, if it feigns the appearance of disapproval at all. For peace, Abu Mazen must recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, must renounce the use of violence and put an end to the repeated rocket attacks and acts of terror, and must sit down with Israel to be an earnest partner for peace. Abu Mazen, who is currently in his 10th year of a 5-year term as the leader of the Palestinian Authority, is only interested in self- preservation and self-interest. The onus lies with Abu Mazen and the Palestinian Authority to live up to their obligations and previous diplomatic agreements. If and when it doesn't--for surely, I know that they won't--the U.S. must be ready to cut off financial assistance to the Palestinians. We must see that our assistance is used as leverage to ensure that the Palestinians honor their commitments and negotiate a peaceful two- state solution directly with Israel without any preconditions. We must also veto any attempts by the Palestinians to bring another resolution to the U.N. Security Council to advance their illegal unilateral statehood scheme and must make Abu Mazen pay for the consequences of these destructive actions. The Obama administration will offer platitudes, and the administration officials will say that no other President has done more for Israel's security. But I caution that it isn't what the administration or the President says regarding Israel; it is what they don't say that we should also be paying attention to. That is why the President's silence on Israel and the Palestinians at the U.N. General Assembly this week is all too telling, and that is why it is up to us in Congress to do what we can to support Israel, to support the Jewish state's right to exist and its right to defend herself, and to use the leverage we have. Ladies and gentlemen, nearly $10 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars, your [[Page H6715]] money, is being sent to the U.N. We must use that leverage at the U.N. to hold those entities accountable and to fight back this fraudulent unilateral statehood scheme and these efforts to delegitimize Israel. We need to make every effort we can to signal to the world that our commitment is an unbreakable bond between the U.S. and the democratic Jewish state and that that bond is unwavering. ____________________