[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 120 (Monday, July 17, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S4015]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



     Recognizing French President Macron's Remarks on Anti-Zionism

  Mr. President, I would like to applaud French President Emmanuel 
Macron for his comments over the weekend about anti-Semitism. ``We will 
yield nothing to anti-Zionism,'' he said, ``because it is the 
reinvented form of anti-Semitism.
  President Macron is absolutely right. Anti-Semitism is a word that 
has been used throughout history when Jewish people are judged and 
measured by one standard and the rest by another--when everyone else 
was allowed to farm and Jews could not, when everyone else was allowed 
to live in Moscow and Jews could not, when others could become 
academics or tradesmen, and Jews could not. Praise God, it has not 
happened in America, but it was a hallmark of Europe.
  The word to describe all of these acts is anti-Semitism. So it is 
with anti-Zionism. The idea that all other people can seek or defend 
their right to determination but the Jewish people cannot, that other 
nations have a right to exist but the Jewish State of Israel does not 
is also a modern form of anti-Semitism, just as President Macron of 
France said this weekend. Anti-Zionism, unfortunately, continues to 
bubble up in many different forms.
  There is perhaps no greater example than the pernicious effort to 
delegitimize Israel through boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. The 
BDS movement is a deeply biased campaign that I would say, in similar 
words to Mr. Macron's, is ``a reinvented form of anti-Semitism,'' 
because it seeks to impose boycotts on Israel and not any other 
nations, most of whose practices are abhorrent, far worse than the 
democracy of Israel, which recognizes people's rights.
  I hope that the States across this country will continue to push back 
against the BDS movement by boycotting the boycotters, as my home State 
of New York has done. I know that my fellow Senators on both sides of 
the aisle--this is an issue that has, thank God, not lent itself to 
partisanship--will join me in condemning this modern brand of anti-
Semitism, as President Macron did this weekend.
  Mr. President, once again, my thoughts go to Senator John McCain, to 
his speedy recovery, and to the respect that every single Member of 
this body has for him. We pray that his recovery is speedy, full, and 
permanent.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lankford). The majority leader.

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