[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 167 (Tuesday, November 10, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7955-S7956]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUPPORTING ISRAEL AND CONDEMNING PALESTINIAN TERROR ATTACKS
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 292, S. Res.
302.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 302) expressing the sense of the
Senate in support of Israel and in condemnation of
Palestinian terror attacks.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the
resolution.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
Blumenthal amendment to the resolution be agreed to; the resolution, as
amended, be agreed to; the Blumenthal amendment to the preamble be
agreed to; the preamble, as amended, be agreed to; and the motions to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no
intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment (No. 2807) was agreed to, as follows:
(Purpose: To urge the international community to condemn the
Palestinian terror attacks)
On page 5, line 1, strike ``the President and''.
The resolution (S. Res. 302), as amended, was agreed to.
[[Page S7956]]
The amendment (No. 2808) was agreed to, as follows:
(Purpose: To add a whereas clause regarding President Obama's
condemnation of Palestinian violence against innocent Israeli citizens)
Insert after the eleventh whereas clause of the preamble
the following:
Whereas President Barack Obama condemned in the strongest
terms Palestinian violence against innocent Israeli citizens
and expressed his ``strong belief that Israel has not just
the right, but the obligation to protect itself'';
The preamble, as amended, was agreed to.
The resolution, as amended, with its preamble, as amended, reads as
follows:
S. Res. 302
Whereas Israel is a democratic ally and major strategic
partner of the United States, as codified by the United
States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014 (Public Law
113-296), and cooperation between Israel and the United
States continues to increase in importance with a swiftly
shifting security situation in the Middle East and North
Africa;
Whereas Jerusalem is an undivided city, eternal capital of
Israel, holiest city for the Jewish people, central to the
worship of three monotheistic religions, and unique in the
Middle East region as a city of religious tolerance where
Israel guarantees access, security, and respect for the three
monotheistic religions to worship in peace at holy sites;
Whereas, upon Israel securing control of Jerusalem in 1967,
it has maintained a policy of keeping the Haram Al Sharif
specifically open for Muslim prayer, welcoming over 3,500,000
regular worshipers annually;
Whereas the Government of Israel upholds the 1994 Treaty of
Peace Between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom
of Jordan, which states in Article Nine that each party
``will provide freedom of access to places of religious and
historical significance,'' as well as ``act together to
promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic
religions, with the aim of working toward religious
understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious
worship, and tolerance and peace'';
Whereas Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO), committed in his exchange of letters with
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on September 9, 1993,
that ``the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts
of violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO
elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance,''
and under the subsequent 1995 Oslo II Accord, the
Palestinians pledged to ``abstain from incitement, including
hostile propaganda . . . [and to] take legal measures to
prevent such incitement by any organizations, groups or
individuals within their jurisdiction'';
Whereas the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud
Abbas, wrongly announced during the tenth anniversary of
Yasser Arafat's death in November 2014 that Israel has no
claim to Jerusalem, that the Temple Mount will not be allowed
to be ``contaminated'' by Jews, and that Jewish prayer on the
Temple Mount would lead to a ``devastating religious war'';
Whereas President Abbas falsely claimed during his address
to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 that
the Government of Israel has used ``brutal force to impose
its plans to undermine the Islamic and Christian sanctities
in Jerusalem'' and announced that the Palestinian Authority
is no longer bound by the Oslo Accords;
Whereas Israel has in recent weeks been subjected to an
alarming wave of terrorism directed against innocent
civilians by Palestinians armed with knives, meat cleavers,
guns, and cars;
Whereas there have been approximately 69 such attacks since
the beginning of October 2015, leaving 11 Israelis dead and
another 145 wounded;
Whereas United States citizens have lost their lives as a
result of these terrorist attacks, including Richard Lakin
and Eitam Henkin;
Whereas these random, gruesome attacks are intended to
instill a sense of fear among the people of Israel leading
their normal lives, and also destabilize security for both
Palestinians and Israelis;
Whereas President Barack Obama condemned in the strongest
terms Palestinian violence against innocent Israeli citizens
and expressed his ``strong belief that Israel has not just
the right, but the obligation to protect itself'';
Whereas Israel, Jordan, and the United States have reached
an agreement regarding the installation of surveillance
cameras on the Temple Mount in accordance with the respective
responsibilities of the Israeli authorities and the Jordanian
Waqf;
Whereas President Abbas has helped to fuel the current
violence in recent weeks by falsely casting Israel as the
brutal aggressor in multiple public speeches, refusing to
condemn the lethal terror attacks, and failing to acknowledge
Israel's right to self-defense;
Whereas President Abbas' statements are part of a pattern
of incitement among Palestinian leaders that includes denial
of the Jewish heritage of Jerusalem, paying monthly salaries
to the families of imprisoned Palestinian terrorists,
praising slain terrorists as martyrs, demonizing Jews in
official Palestinian Authority media, and encouraging attacks
on social media; and
Whereas Palestinian leaders have repeatedly threatened to
suspend cooperation and further encouraged violence by
blaming Israel for killing Palestinian perpetrators of these
heinous crimes: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) condemns these brutal attacks in the harshest terms
possible;
(2) welcomes Israel's commitment to the continued
maintenance of the status quo on the Temple Mount;
(3) urges the international community to join in forcefully
condemning these Palestinian terror attacks;
(4) clarifies that there is no justification for these
types of attacks and that there is a direct correlation
between the recent upsurge in violence and Arab incitement
regarding the Temple Mount;
(5) stands with the people of Israel during these difficult
days;
(6) supports Israel's right to self-defense and rejects any
suggestion of the moral equivalence of Israeli security
personnel protecting its citizens from senseless violence and
terrorists intent to deliberately take innocent lives;
(7) supports the agreement reached to install surveillance
cameras on the Temple Mount according to the arrangements to
be determined between the parties;
(8) calls upon President Abbas to stop all incitement by
Palestinian officials and by Palestinian media, to strongly
and unequivocally demand an end to the violence, and to take
all steps necessary to halt these attacks;
(9) expresses support and admiration for individuals and
organizations working to encourage cooperation between
Israelis and Palestinians;
(10) encourages President Abbas to continue strengthening
and maintaining security cooperation with Israel;
(11) reiterates that Palestinian political goals will never
be achieved through violence; and
(12) calls on all parties to return to the negotiating
table immediately and without preconditions, as direct
discussions remain the best avenue to ending the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict.
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