[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 70 (Wednesday, April 26, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E362]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 ENCOURAGING THE EXPANSION AND STRENGTHENING OF THE ABRAHAM ACCORDS TO 
 URGE OTHER NATIONS TO NORMALIZE RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL AND ENSURE THAT 
 EXISTING AGREEMENTS REAP TANGIBLE SECURITY AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS FOR 
     THE CITIZENS OF THOSE COUNTRIES AND ALL PEOPLES IN THE REGION

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                               speech of

                        HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 25, 2023

  Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I have worked on issues related to the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict for over four decades since I began as a 
staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1979. Israel, led 
by leaders like Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan, was David fighting 
Goliath--a young, bold democracy under threats from every direction. 
Israel has long been America's strongest ally, and our support for 
Israel's democracy, economic stability, and defense is ironclad. On the 
75th anniversary of Israel's independence, I am proud to vote for a 
resolution that supports this remarkable milestone.
  With that said, I am extremely disappointed that the resolution 
missed a crucial opportunity. The juxtaposition is startling: This 
resolution presumes business as usual when it is anything but. We have 
reached an inflection point in the U.S.-Israel relationship. For 70 
years, we have found common cause with Israel because they have been 
the only democracy in the Middle East. For the first time in our 
history, an Israeli Prime Minister has put bipartisan support for 
Israel in jeopardy by exploiting partisan fissures within the United 
States, rejecting the notion of a two-state solution and opting to 
advance his own right-wing political agenda.
  Netanyahu's cabinet of right-wing extremists has put the very rights 
and political inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals, women, secular Jews, 
Palestinians, and Arabs alike in peril. As the United States continues 
to play a crucial role in supporting Israel, on a bipartisan basis, we 
must be clear that an aggressive anti-democratic tilt in Israel 
threatens our strong, longstanding partnership based on shared 
democratic values.
  The resolution unfortunately did not mention the longstanding, 
bipartisan support for a two-state solution, nor did it condemn attacks 
against Israel's democratic institutions, including an independent 
judiciary, and incitements of violence against Palestinians.
  When Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made comments on March 3, 
2023, suggesting the Palestinian city Huwara ``needs to be wiped out, 
but the State of Israel needs to do it,'' Arab nations involved in the 
Abraham Accords immediately condemned this abhorrent incitement of 
violence. To be clear, the actions of Ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich 
to bless settler violence, incite violence against Palestinians, and 
threaten annexation of large portions of the West Bank imperil the 
Abraham Accords themselves, let alone the prospects for expansion to 
other Arab nations.
  I will cast my vote in support of Israel and the Abraham Accords, 
with great concern. My hope is that constructive U.S. engagement, and 
the will of the Israeli people in favor of a peaceful, demilitarized, 
democratic Jewish state, will be the forces that prevail.

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