[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 63 (Wednesday, April 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2245]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Israel Independence Day

  Mr. President, I also rise to join Israel and the Jewish people to 
celebrate Israel Independence Day.
  This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the 
modern State of Israel. On Friday, May 14, 1948, Israel's founding 
father, David Ben-Gurion, brought together members of the Jewish 
People's Council in the Tel Aviv Museum. By then, the Zionist movement 
to rebirth the Jewish state had been at work for decades.
  Ben-Gurion stood underneath a portrait of the pioneer of that 
movement, Theodor Herzl, and described the historic right of the Jewish 
people to the land of Israel.

       The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. 
     Here their spirit, religious and political identity was 
     shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created 
     cultural values of national and universal significance and 
     gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.
       After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people 
     kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never 
     ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the 
     restoration in it of their political freedom.

  That writing had been recognized by the international community, he 
said, and declared the founding of the modern State of Israel. He also 
said:

       We, members of the People's Council, representatives of the 
     Jewish community of Eretz-Israel and of the Zionist Movement, 
     are here assembled on the day of the termination of the 
     British Mandate over Eretz-Israel and, by virtue of our 
     natural and historic right and on the strength of the 
     resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, hereby 
     declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel 
     to be known as the State of Israel.

  Eleven minutes after Ben-Gurion made his declaration, and over the 
objection of many of his advisers and the State Department, President 
Harry S. Truman courageously recognized the State of Israel. I am sorry 
it took us a full 11 minutes to do so.
  Meanwhile, armies from five Arab States declared war and invaded, in 
an attempt to destroy the new state. Despite being outgunned and 
outnumbered, Israel would prevail.
  The Israeli victory might not have happened without heroic soldiers 
who had recently returned from World War II, including Jewish Americans 
volunteering to go and help. Some volunteers provided badly needed 
weapons, others offered military experience, and some fought.
  In 1951, then serving as Israel's first Prime Minister, Ben-Gurion 
established Israel's Memorial Day, which takes place the day before 
Israel Independence Day and which commemorates those killed in the wars 
and the terror campaigns waged against Israel.
  From Tuesday to Wednesday evening, Israel came to a complete 
standstill in honor of the 23,646 Israelis who have fallen in wars, and 
the 3,134 terrorist victims since 1860. I stand shoulder to shoulder 
with Israel in commemoration.
  It has been seven decades since Prime Minister Ben-Gurion made his 
historic declaration of independence and President Truman gave his 
historic recognition, and I am proud to say that America continues to 
stand unshakably with our allies.
  On December 6, 2017, President Trump rightly recognized Jerusalem as 
Israel's capital and announced that the U.S. Embassy would be moving to 
Jerusalem, implementing the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 that was 
adopted overwhelmingly by Congress. I have long advocated and supported 
the United States to take these two actions which are required to 
rectify a historic injustice.
  Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of the Jewish people for over 
3,000 years and the capital of the Jewish state since its founding in 
1948.
  I recently introduced a resolution reaffirming the deep connection 
between the Jewish people and Jerusalem and denouncing efforts at 
UNESCO that have attempted to rewrite historic truth and to erase from 
history undeniable facts. I am also proud my home State of Texas 
adopted legislation on Israel Independence Day last year to combat the 
anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, the BDS movement. On 
May 14, 2018, exactly seven decades since President Truman recognized 
Israel, the United States will finally and formally recognize as much 
and open our Embassy in Jerusalem.
  I, along with many millions across our Nation and across the world, 
look forward to that day, and we stand in alliance and solidarity with 
the people of Israel, celebrating the great friendship, the great 
national security alliance between two great nations.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Toomey). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.