[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 81 (Thursday, May 17, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2750-S2752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      America Embassy in Jerusalem

  Mr. CRUZ. Madam President, I rise today to give thanks and 
celebration for the United States' Embassy established in the city of 
Jerusalem and for the continued safety and security of the Jewish 
people in Israel and across the world.
  Almost exactly 70 years ago, Israel's founding father, David Ben-
Gurion, brought together members of the Jewish People's Council in a 
Tel Aviv museum to declare the founding of the modern State of Israel. 
Eleven minutes later, President Harry S. Truman courageously recognized 
the State of Israel over the objection of many of his advisers and the 
State Department, and the fates of our two countries have been 
intertwined ever since, until this week, when the U.S. Embassy was 
finally moved to Jerusalem, recognizing that it is the eternal capital 
of the Jewish people and the undivided capital of Israel.
  I was proud to have traveled to Jerusalem along with my fellow 
Senators for the official opening of the new Embassy. It was an 
incredible honor to witness history unfolding. It was a joyous moment 
for Israelis, for Americans, and a moment of history.
  I had the opportunity to visit with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 
about the incredible significance of ending the 70 years of 
discrimination that Israel had faced. In no other country on Earth did 
America have our Embassy in a city other than its capital city. It was 
only Israel where our Embassy was not in the capital.
  I would note that for many years Presidents of both parties, 
Democrats and Republicans, have campaigned promising that they would 
move the Embassy to Jerusalem, which is the capital of the nation. Yet 
Presidents of both parties have failed to do so. I commend President 
Trump for honoring that campaign commitment and for delivering on that 
campaign commitment.
  Moving our Embassy to Jerusalem is an acknowledgement of undeniable 
truth that Jerusalem is, in fact, the capital of the nation of Israel. 
It is where we find the supreme court. It is where we find the Prime 
Minister, and it is where we find the President of Israel.
  It is the capital city, and now our Embassy reflects that fact. But 
moving the Embassy and recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel 
has significance beyond that. It has significance because it sends an 
unmistakable message to our friends and to our enemies that the United 
States stands with our friends and unshakably stands alongside the 
nation of Israel.
  There was considerable debate within the administration about whether 
and when to move the Embassy. That has been true in prior 
administrations as well--considerable debate. The principal argument 
against moving the Embassy has always been that the enemies of Israel 
will not like it. I believe that is yet another reason this was the 
right thing to do.
  There were some who made the case that moving the Embassy would 
diminish the chances of peace in the Middle East. I will confess, I am 
skeptical that peace will be attained anytime soon. I don't believe the 
impediment to peace in the Middle East is the nation of Israel. Israel 
wants peace. It is Israeli babies who are being murdered by the 
terrorists.
  I don't believe we will see peace in the Middle East unless and 
until, No. 1, the Palestinian leadership acknowledges Israel's right to 
exist as a Jewish state, and No. 2, they renounce terrorists. As long 
as the Palestinian leaders are engaging in a unity government with 
Hamas--an avowed terrorist organization seeking to destroy the nation 
of Israel and murder innocent Israelis--peace will not be had.
  But what I urge President Trump and the administration is that moving 
the Embassy increases, I believe, the chance for peace. Why is that? 
Because it demonstrates that America stands strong, stands by our 
friends, and is not shaken, is not buffeted by global media opinion. I 
suggested to the administration that our Arab allies in the region 
would publicly denounce the move. They would have to for domestic 
political concerns. However, I believe that privately, those allies--
the Egyptians, the Jordanians, the Saudis--would be relieved that 
America moved our Embassy. Why is that? Because an American President 
and an administration strong enough to move the Embassy and stand up to 
the nattering nabobs and the press might well also be a President and 
an administration strong enough to stand up to Iran to end the 
catastrophic Obama Iranian nuclear deal and to do whatever is necessary 
to prevent the Ayatollah Khamenei from getting nuclear weapons. Indeed, 
we saw that assessment was true.
  I think it is quite fitting that the opening of the new Embassy 
occurred just days apart from the President making the historic 
decision to pull out of the disastrous Obama Iran nuclear deal.
  We are seeing the difference between strength and weakness. If 
history teaches anything, it is that weakness and appeasement do not 
work. Instead, I think America is far better when we pursue policies of 
peace through strength.
  We all recognize there are those who rage against the existence of 
the State of Israel. There are the Ayatollahs of Iran who swear ``death 
to Israel and death to America,'' indeed who refer to Israel as the 
``Little Satan'' and America as the ``Great Satan'' and who finance 
terrorism at Israel's doorstep and across the world.
  There are the terrorists of Hamas who seized control of the Gaza 
Strip over a decade ago, after Israel had already fully withdrawn from 
the territory. For the last several months, Hamas has been organizing 
civilian mobs with terrorist cells embedded throughout to attack 
Israel's border and the soldiers stationed there. They call the riots 
the march of return in reference to what they call their right of 
return, which is a euphemism for having millions of descendents of 
Palestinians flood into Israel and destroy the modern State of Israel 
and its existence as a Jewish state.
  Hamas timed their weeks of riots to culminate this week during what 
they call Nakba Day. ``Nakba'' means ``catastrophe.'' It is the word 
they use to reference the creation of Israel. We should understand 
that. Every year, they denounce what Israel celebrates--the creation of 
the modern State of Israel. Hamas mourns the catastrophe--to use their 
word--that Israel even exists. But inevitably, in these battles for 
survival that Israel faces daily, we can count on global media elite 
acting as little more than propaganda arms for Hamas and other 
terrorists, and no week has that been more evident than this week.
  I direct you to the front page of the New York Times from this week. 
The New York Times's headline is ``Israel Kills Dozens at Gaza Border 
as U.S. Embassy Opens in Jerusalem.'' Anyone reading this headline 
would say: Goodness gracious. Why are the Israelis murdering people? 
That is what the New York Times says. One takes from the coverage, 
apparently, that poor, innocent, unarmed people are being shot for no 
reason by Israel. That is certainly what the global media elite are 
portraying.
  What are the actual facts? You remember facts--the things that used 
to be reported when journalists were actually being journalists and not 
propagandists. Let's talk about the facts. For several weeks, we have 
seen riots and violent attacks at Israel's border, terrorist attacks 
that culminated in the attacks that led to these shootings in self-
defense. The rioters used massive tire fires to create smoke to cover 
their attacks. They used guns. They used pipe bombs. They used Molotov 
cocktails. They used grenades. They used mechanical catapults to attack 
the border and to attack Israeli troops. They tie petrol bombs to 
kites, and they launched them to set fire to Israeli fields and 
livestock.

  Let's take a look at the kites. The kites that they used are painted 
with swastikas. Just so you are not confused

[[Page S2751]]

about their motivation, there were pictures taken a couple of weeks ago 
of kites, of images of swastikas by the Hamas terrorists, with gasoline 
bombs designed to commit murder and mayhem. The Palestinians in the 
riots don't hide their motives or intentions. It is not that the New 
York Times can't figure it out; it is that they don't care.
  One 23-year-old rioter said: ``We are excited to storm and get 
inside'' and that if he got across the border, he would do ``whatever 
is possible, to kill, throw stones.''
  I would note that a violent terrorist attacking the border, seeking 
to murder people, is not a peaceful protester, as the useful idiots in 
the media falsely portrayed it.
  Another Hamas terrorist, who was flying a swastika kite, told NPR:

       This is a kite that's going to go to the Jews. . . . The 
     Jews go crazy for Hitler when they see it. . . . This is 
     actually what we want them to know, that we want to burn 
     them.

  Let me remind you again of the New York Times headline. The New York 
Times headline says ``Israel Kills Dozens at Gaza Border.'' Kills 
dozens of what, of whom? Do they say terrorists? Do they say Hamas 
terrorists who are flying swastika kites filled with gasoline, seeking 
to murder Israelis, and who say: ``This is actually what we want them 
to know, that we want to burn them''?
  When hearing about brave soldiers protecting innocent civilians from 
terrorists seeking to murder them, a rational person would say that it 
is a good thing when terrorists are stopped before they can carry out 
their acts of terror. But the New York Times can't be bothered to 
include those facts. There is a message to be conveyed. For anyone 
lacking nuance or subtly, their message is simple: Israel, bad. Israel, 
bad. That is their whole subtly. Mind you, the bodies of those poor, 
helpless, little terrorists--well, you know, when a terrorist seeks to 
commit murder, we do everything possible to prevent them from doing so.
  So when you read the headline, understand that this is who the New 
York Times is celebrating.
  I ask you, why wasn't the swastika on the cover of the New York 
Times? Might people understand it differently if they actually showed 
photographs of what was happening?
  One of Hamas's Facebook pages posted maps with directions to nearby 
Israeli communities where thousands of Israelis live within 2 miles of 
the border. If you look at this map--this map is posted. So you need to 
understand that these protesters are not just there saying: Make love, 
man, not war. The New York Times wants to paint them as some happy 
little hippies with daisies in their ears. Just give peace a chance. 
You know, John and Yoko were among them. Well, why is Hamas posting 
this map saying: If you cross the border, here is where the Israeli 
communities are to go and murder Israelis. Here is the map. They say: 
If you make it across the border, here is where you can find victims 
and kill as many of them as possible. They are not hiding their 
intentions. This is not subtle. If you get across the border, your 
target is wherever you can find Jews to kill.
  These are the terrorists the New York Times celebrates--``Kills 
Dozens.'' Why is it that the New York Times doesn't mention the maps 
that they have to Israeli homes to murder innocent women and children, 
to kill as many Jews as possible?
  Here is a partial list of what happened on the border over just a few 
hours on Monday:
  At 12:53 p.m., there were five pipe-bomb detonations.
  At 12:58, another explosive device was detonated.
  At 1:15, a terror cell opened fire at Israeli soldiers who caught 
them trying to plant bombs.
  At 1:30, there was another shooting attack on Israeli soldiers.
  At 1:45, there was yet another shooting attack, this time by a 
terrorist cell of eight using the rioters as cover, as human shields.
  At 2:09, there were three more bomb detonations.
  At 2:13, there was a Molotov cocktail attack.
  At 2:49, another one.
  At 3:10, there was yet another bomb attack, and so on and so on and 
so on.
  That is just 2 hours. Where in the New York Times headline--and, 
sadly, this is emblematic of much of the global media elite who are 
unified in their antagonism to the State of Israel--where is any 
acknowledgment of pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, shootings? How would 
this headline read differently if it read: ``Violent Hamas Terrorists 
Opened Fire on Israelis Who Defend Innocent Civilians Taking the Lives 
of the Terrorists?'' That would actually be news. That would actually 
be factual. That would actually be describing what happened, instead of 
becoming a propagandist for the terrorists.
  The strategy for these riots, for these terror attacks is a win-win 
for Hamas. If they breach Israel's fence, then their terrorists can 
rush into Israeli towns and try to kidnap and kill Israeli civilians. 
If they fail to reach the fence; if they attack the fence and Israeli 
soldiers defend Israel and if they are shot, then they know the media--
the useful idiots--will provide endless photographs and stories 
denouncing Israel: How dare you kill terrorists before they are able to 
murder innocent civilians.
  The media has been more than happy to oblige Hamas's propaganda 
needs. Reporters, celebrity talking heads, and members of our political 
establishment have faithfully and enthusiastically parroted the Hamas 
line. They say the riots are the fault of the United States for moving 
our Embassy and that the rioters are peaceful and unarmed protesters. 
There is a word for that; it is called a ``lie.'' When so-called 
journalists repeatedly and deliberately lie in the name of propaganda, 
well, they shouldn't be surprised to have earned the moniker ``fake 
news.''
  The Hamas talking points, which are printed by our media, are aimed 
at whitewashing the terrorists' genocidal hatred of Israel. In fact, 
these attacks are waged because Hamas refuses to accept the existence 
of Israel. Mind you, Gaza, they control. Israel doesn't govern Gaza; 
Hamas governs Gaza. This is an attack on the border of Israel seeking 
to murder innocent civilians.
  The New York Times has been unremitted in its dishonesty. They told 
their tens of thousands of Facebook followers that Israel ``used tear 
gas and gunfire to keep Palestinian protesters from crossing the border 
fence with Gaza, killing at least 52, according to Palestinian 
officials. Forty miles away, officials celebrated the U.S. Embassy's 
relocation to Jerusalem.''
  Once again, this is the New York Times pretending to report: Israel 
``used tear gas and gunfire to keep Palestinian protesters from 
crossing the border fence with Gaza, killing at least 52.'' These are 
not protesters; these are terrorists seeking to murder people.
  When you call a terrorist a peaceful and unarmed protester, directly 
contrary to the facts, you are not engaged in journalism; you are 
pursuing a political agenda on the pages of the ``Old Gray Lady.''
  Their website's headline on Monday blared: ``Israel kills 58 and 
Injures Over 1,300 by Gunfire at Gaza border. . . . A mass attempt by 
Palestinians to cross the border fence quickly turned violent, as 
Israeli soldiers responded with rifle fire.''
  Gosh, where in their headlines, where in their coverage is there any 
mention that these are terrorists with bombs and guns and Molotov 
cocktails and kites carrying gasoline? Oh, no, these were just 
protesters who, for no reason whatsoever, those bad, bad Israelis 
decided to shoot. They just got up and said: Let's just shoot a bunch 
of people. That is what the New York Times tells us. For no reason 
whatsoever, they just began firing into the crowd.
  By the way, if you go into the fever swamps of social media and you 
see the left--the New York Times knows what its propaganda does. It is 
not hard to find people on Twitter suggesting that for no reason, 
Israel just began shooting people because it is fun. Remember, their 
message is not complicated: Israel, bad. So if Israel is bad, then you 
just start shooting people because that is how you approach a Monday 
morning. That is the message, and it is heard by social media. It is 
heard by anti-Semites across the globe. It plays into vicious blood 
libels that go back a millennium. It just happens to be a lie. It is 
not an accidental misstatement; it is a deliberate, calculated, 
repeated lie.
  Undoubtedly, tragically, some of those killed have been Palestinian 
civilian human shields. This is by design.

[[Page S2752]]

Part of what Hamas does is it uses terrorists to commit acts of terror, 
and then it eyes innocent Palestinians as human shields trying to get 
them killed because that serves their propaganda purposes. Although I 
will say that consistently during these riots, it has turned out that 
the great many of the deaths are of the actual Hamas terrorists picked 
off while planting bombs and attacking Israeli soldiers. If the 
American military had been able to shoot the terrorists on 9/11--the 
terrorists who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center and who flew 
an airplane into the Pentagon--if the military had been able to stop 
those terrorists and shoot those terrorists, the New York Times 
headline would read: ``American Military Shoots Peaceful Flying 
Passengers.''

  When you stop a terrorist seeking to commit murder, it is not 
shooting a peaceful protester. During past riots, Hamas has 
acknowledged that up to 80 percent of those killed were terrorists. 
This time around, already, between one-third and one-half of those 
killed have been identified as terrorists.
  Look, this is Hamas telling us this. The people being shot are avowed 
terrorists. There is no dispute that Hamas is a terrorist organization. 
There is no dispute. This photograph depicts their wall of martyrs. 
These are the terrorists we have sent who were killed. Where was the 
word ``terrorist'' in the coverage?
  We saw on TV images of violence on the border juxtaposed with the 
image of the embassy unveiling, no doubt intended to put the blame for 
the attempted terrorism on the United States: How dare the United 
States of America actually stand with Israel. How dare America open an 
embassy in the capital of Israel.
  The blame for the violence lies with the terrorists, not America for 
standing with our friend.
  These terrorists hated Israel, they hated Jews, and they hated 
America before we moved our Embassy, and their compatriots hate 
America, hate Israel, and hate Jews after we have moved our Embassy. 
Their hatred--their murderous, religious zealotry--is the cause of the 
murder and of the violence.
  A Hamas spokesman went further on TV and said that in the last round 
of confrontations, if 62 people were martyred, 50 of them were Hamas, 
but the New York Times just said a bunch of unarmed protesters were 
standing there when, for no reason, Israeli soldiers began shooting 
them. What complete mendacity. Hamas admits these are Hamas terrorists. 
Yet the media does all they can to hide that.
  Imagine the outrage if, when the American Embassy in Benghazi was 
attacked by Ansar al-Sharia in 2012, a newspaper had printed: Americans 
kill dozens of Libyans. By the way, that is the exact same headline the 
New York Times used. Yes, protesters coming to commit murder; soldiers 
fight back to stop them from committing murder. Fortunately, even the 
New York Times didn't quite have the gall to say that, but the facts 
are comparable.
  The blame for all of the deaths, whether terrorists or human shields, 
is on Hamas and Hamas alone. Any implication otherwise is nothing less 
than shameful support for genocidal terrorism.
  In 2014, I introduced in this body bipartisan legislation, along with 
New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, supporting Israel's 
right to self-defense and condemning Hamas's barbaric tactics, 
specifically condemning the use of human shields as a war crime. That 
resolution passed the U.S. Senate unanimously, and it passed the House 
of Representatives unanimously. Yet we see the tactic yet again, these 
terrorists using human shields, using innocent Palestinians as human 
shields, precisely because they want them to die, because they can 
trust the global media to carry their message.
  A few years back, when Israel faced rocket attacks from Hamas, one 
after the other after the other, Hamas had its headquarters in the 
basement of a hospital. Indeed, some years ago, I wrote an op-ed 
entitled ``A Tale of Two Hospitals.'' It says that you can tell a lot 
about a society about how they treat their most vulnerable, and it 
compared two hospitals, one, the Ziv Hospital in northern Israel, which 
I visited. At the time, the Ziv Hospital had provided over $8 million 
in free medical care to Syrians badly wounded in the horrific civil war 
playing out in Syria, freely caring for their neighbors being murdered 
by their own head of government. The op-ed contrasted that hospital to 
the hospital in Gaza in whose basement Hamas had their headquarters.
  Now, for Hamas, it was a win-win scenario. Option A is that Israel 
refrains from hitting the headquarters because it is in the basement of 
a hospital. That is obviously a win because then the terrorist 
headquarters doesn't get targeted in a military conflict. That 
ultimately is what happened, and the Israeli forces did not hit Hamas's 
headquarters.
  Option 2, from Hamas's perspective, is also a win. If Israel did 
strike at their headquarters--a military target that was launching 
military attacks trying to murder Israelis--then the result would be 
pictures of dead bodies on CNN and in the New York Times, pictures of 
patients at that hospital being used as human shields. It is Hamas 
desiring the death of little Palestinian babies--newborns in the 
maternity ward--because they knew if Israel actually took out Hamas's 
headquarters, they could take those babies, whom Hamas had used as 
human shields, and they could count on the New York Times.
  Can you imagine the headline in the New York Times? ``Israel Bombs 
Babies.'' It is not markedly different from their headline, ``Israel 
Kills Dozens at Gaza Border.'' It is propaganda.

  As long as Hamas has leaders who manipulate them, who lie to the 
Palestinian people, who lie to the world, and who use human shields in 
their bloody terrorist campaign against Israel, there can never be hope 
for peace or prosperity.
  Israel has the right to defend itself, and Israel is defending 
itself.
  I only wish that our global media had some tiny passing qualm of 
guilt to at least pretend to report the news, to at least pretend to 
tell the truth, to not function as Hamas's propaganda agents, but 
instead to tell the truth when Hamas terrorists say, with their Nazi 
swastika kite bombs: We want the Israelis to know we want them to burn. 
These are the facts they need to report, even if it happens to disagree 
with their political agenda of undermining the State of Israel.
  Fortunately, regardless of the partisan bias, regardless of the 
propaganda that the New York Times and other global media outlets put 
out, America--the American people--stand and will continue to stand 
unshakably--unshakably--alongside our friends and allies, the people of 
Israel, and we have reason to celebrate.
  When I was in Jerusalem just a couple of days ago, I visited with 
person after person--Israeli and American--who were reduced to tears. 
Some were Holocaust survivors. The phrase I heard more often than 
anything else was this: ``I thought I would never live to see the 
day.'' Well, we did live to see the day.
  America's Embassy should have been in Jerusalem 70 years ago. It 
should have been there 60 years ago. It should have been there 50 years 
ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, 1 year ago. But, fortunately, 
America's Embassy is where it belongs today--in Jerusalem, the once and 
eternal undivided capital of Israel.
  Jerusalem was the capital of Israel 3,000 years ago. Jerusalem is the 
capital of Israel today, and the United States Government recognizes 
that, and just as Harry Truman did 70 years ago, is leading the rest of 
the world to follow suit.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Perdue). Will the Senator withhold the 
request?
  Mr. CRUZ. I will.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I thank the journalists of this country, 
who are not enemies of the people and who do their jobs every day, 
explaining complicated issues and fighting every day to do things as 
straightforwardly and honestly as they can. So I start with that.