[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 170 (Tuesday, October 17, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5033-S5036]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Israel

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, the eyes of the world are watching to 
see how we react to the terrorist attack Israel has suffered. Days 
after Hamas launched a horrific assault, kidnapping nearly 200, killing 
over 1,000, and injuring thousands more, the world is watching with 
bated breath.
  Scenes of Hamas's evil are seared into our collective conscience. The 
images are indelible: Israelis slaughtered by marauding thugs, 
concertgoers shot in the back in broad daylight, people butchered, 
women raped, even infants murdered in cold blood. The barbaric 
atrocities are an affront to humankind itself. In the face of 
unspeakable evil, we must not mince words. We must not waiver in our 
resolve. Every single one of us in this Chamber has a moral 
responsibility to speak out unequivocally and unapologetically as we 
stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel and her people.
  Now, I have been staunchly devoted to this cause for 31 years in 
Congress. Why? Because the bond between our nations is sacrosanct. In 
1948, the United States was the first Nation to recognize Israel, a 
mere 11 minutes after it declared independence. Our two nations--
intrinsically linked--were founded on similar principles, among them, 
justice, equal rights, freedom of religion, and the respect for the 
rule of law.
  Over the years, both nations have been shaped by individuals seeking 
refuge from tyranny and oppression. Both nations have pursued truth and 
knowledge in an open society, unleashing innovation and creating untold 
prosperity for millions across the world.
  But beyond this common cause, the United States-Israel relationship 
has stood the test of time because of three fundamental facts: One, the 
United States is strong when Israel is strong; two, the Jewish people 
deserve to live in peace and security in the indisputable land of their 
ancestors going back to the times of Abraham and Sarah; and, three, 
Israel has the right to defend herself from the existential threats 
that surround it.
  This last point deserves special attention, especially as some seek 
to equate the two sides in this conflict. To me, adherents of this view 
could not be more mistaken. There is no moral equivalency. We cannot 
``both sides'' the Israeli-Hamas conflict, not when one is a sovereign 
democracy that guarantees freedom of religion and the other is a 
designated terrorist group hell-bent on killing Jews and destroying the 
Israeli people.
  We cannot ``both sides'' the conflict when, for decades, one has 
shouldered the heavy costs of war, terrorism, and unjustified boycotts 
and the other has diverted humanitarian aid towards weapons designed to 
kill as many as possible. We cannot ``both sides'' the conflict in 
light of the steps taken by Israel to limit civilian casualties. No 
nation but Israel actively takes steps to warn of impending attacks. 
None. No other nation drops leaflets and makes phone calls to alert 
residents that they may be in danger's way. Only Israel waits to begin 
its military offensive, even when it means losing the element of 
surprise and putting it at a tactical disadvantage.
  Compare that to the barbaric steps taken by Hamas. When Israel 
voluntarily and unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, did Hamas 
moderate its actions? Did it take the opportunity to build peace and 
create prosperity for the Palestinian people? No.
  Instead, it instigated war, and it continued to terrorize and kill 
Israelis. It fired tens of thousands of rockets into population 
centers, indiscriminately raining terror down on families while they 
slept, children while they walked to school, or congregants while they 
gathered to pray. Not only did it brazenly commit these war crimes, it 
did so while using its own residents as human shields. That is right. 
Across the Gaza Strip, Hamas co-opted Palestinian homes, schools, and 
mosques to carry out attacks on their Israeli counterparts.
  So to those who seek moral equivalence between the two sides, I ask 
you: Who fires rockets out of someone's home? Hamas. Who uses schools 
and hospitals as launching sites for deadly missiles? Hamas. Who uses 
mosques as weapons depots? Hamas. Moreover, who denies food, water, 
fuel, and shelter to civilians in order to better its fighters? Hamas. 
Who denies Palestinians the right to leave northern Gaza, trapping them 
to use them as human shields? Hamas.
  We must recognize, of course, that not all Palestinians are part of 
Hamas and that many residents in Gaza are

[[Page S5034]]

trapped in a cycle of violence that is nothing of their doing. But I 
will say it again: Hamas is not a legitimate political entity. It does 
not have a mandate to govern the people of Gaza. It is a terrorist 
organization guided by religious fanaticism. Full stop.
  In the past, when Israel has opened up economic opportunities for 
Palestinians in Gaza, Hamas used the good will of Israel to lull Israel 
into a false sense of security. In this way, the Gazan people's thirst 
for freedom and prosperity has been supplanted by Hamas's thirst for 
vengeance and destruction. And after misleading Israel into thinking 
that it cared about the economic well-being of Palestinians instead of 
its stated mission of killing Jews, Hamas bought itself time to train 
and prepare for one of the most heinous terrorist attacks in Israel's 
history.
  So make no mistake. The difference between Israel and Hamas is the 
difference between a civilized society and barbarism. If there is 
suffering to be found in Gaza, it is a direct result of Hamas's 
actions. Hamas does not care if innocent Israeli families are forced to 
suffer, and it does not care if Palestinians go without food, shelter, 
or electricity. It only cares about sowing chaos and fomenting violence 
in pursuit of its stated goal: the destruction of the State of Israel.
  And by refusing to accept Israel's right to exist, putting it at odds 
with Arab countries who have joined the Abraham Accords and Palestinian 
authority for that fact in the West Bank, Hamas has revealed its true 
colors. For the sake of Israel, for the sake of the Palestinian people, 
Hamas must be eradicated from the face of the earth.
  On October 7, it launched a brutal first salvo, an operation that 
clearly--in my mind--has Iran's fingerprints on it because of the 
capabilities Hamas alone does not have: intelligence and technological 
factors. Only a state actor would have that.
  And the only state actor willing to assist Hamas with that is Iran. 
Now, perhaps Hamas launched its attack in the belief that others would 
join a multifront war to eliminate Israel. Perhaps it saw the writing 
on the wall with the recent Abraham Accords and talks of Israeli-Saudi 
normalization, or perhaps it sought to turn public sentiment against 
Israel with a race to the bottom, boosting its own image among the 
rogues' gallery of anti-Israel regimes.
  But regardless of why Hamas carried out its attack, today, in this 
Chamber, let us expose Hamas for what it is. Let us reject the trap 
that they have tried to set and stand with our ally Israel in the wake 
of abhorrent attacks. Let us recommit to the principles we share with 
Israel as we support her in her hour of need. Let us call out Holocaust 
deniers who deny Israel's legitimacy. Let us promote the honest truth 
about Israel's contributions and call out anti-Semitism wherever it is 
found. And let us also root out the poisonous ideology of Islamophobia 
that recently claimed the life here in the United States of a 6-year-
old Palestinian-American boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume.
  And, above all, let us do the work we were elected to do, passing a 
bipartisan funding package to replenish the Iron Dome--something that, 
in the past, I have led on--and swiftly confirming a nominee to be our 
Ambassador to Israel. This is not a moment to hesitate. This is a 
clarion call.
  As we prepare to take votes in support of our ally's struggle against 
terrorism, I can't help but think back to my very first visit to Israel 
over three decades ago. It is a trip I will never forget, especially 
the helicopter ride that crossed the narrowest part of Israel in only 3 
minutes. In 3 minutes, we traversed a piece of land of such significant 
history where so many residents, with their backs to the sea, are 
surrounded by unfriendly neighbors.
  As I crisscrossed the country from the Negev Desert to Jerusalem to 
the Galilee, I was immensely moved, not just by the people who made the 
desert green, but by the holy sites that ground my faith as a 
Christian. I freely visited these sites--as so many others have over 
the years--because Israel's jurisdiction ultimately opened them up to 
all. It is a freedom to worship that isn't guaranteed everywhere.
  Mr. President, to me, this conflict boils down to the fundamental 
idea of freedom. Will we accept a world where militants with rockets 
and weapons can dictate the future? Or will we send them to the dustbin 
of history?
  Will we stand up to terrorists and be there for our staunchest ally 
when they are in need? Freedom-loving people, freedom-loving nations, 
must answer this call and meet the moment at hand. Israel is the one 
place in the world--the one place--where anti-Semitism can be 
structurally impossible. It is the field of hope on which fear can be 
vanquished, the island of refuge that can stand firm no matter how 
stormy the sea of history turns, and that is why we must always keep it 
safe and always keep it free.
  May we find the courage and the political will to do so quickly in 
the days ahead.
  With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.
  Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, along with Americans all across our 
country, I am appalled at what has happened in Israel over this last 
week. It is hard to watch the brutality of Hamas's attack on Israel. It 
is hard to believe that the terror Hamas perpetrated is something human 
beings are capable of doing.
  Last week, Hamas militants stormed the Israel-Gaza border in a 
despicable, deadly attack against Israeli civilians--men and women, 
children, and the elderly, Israelis and foreigners, Americans. Hamas 
killed person after person with no regard for human dignity. The 
militants seized and kidnapped almost 200 hostages, including many of 
our own American citizens. When civilians in small Israeli towns came 
out of hiding after sheltering for their lives and praying they would 
be spared, they came out to find corpses in their streets, doors 
riddled with bullet holes, the ground stained with human blood, houses 
burning and collapsing. They have told journalists of the horror they 
felt when they stepped out into the wreckage and were met with the 
smell of decaying flesh.

  This is obscene. This is hideous. We can and should all agree on 
that.
  Secretary of State Blinken, on his visit to Israel, said he saw 
images of a baby covered in bullet holes, soldiers who had been 
beheaded, and people burned alive in their cars.
  He said:

       If images are worth a thousand words, these images may be 
     worth a million.

  How do we respond to such a tragedy? Not only are these actions 
depraved and inhumane, they have been perpetrated against one of our 
closest partners in the world. Hamas's goal in this attack--its goal in 
kidnapping babies and elderly women--was to shock Israel to the core, 
to bring it to its knees, so that vicious terrorist groups could get 
the upper hand--Hamas from the west and now Hezbollah to the north.
  Hamas and Hezbollah will not get the upper hand. Israel will defend 
its sovereignty and its people, standing tall. And we will support 
them.
  Now is not the time for the United States to shrink back from the 
world stage and let Israel stand in isolation. We must stand up against 
terror. We must stand up against the kidnapping of little babies. We 
must stand up against the rape and torture of innocent citizens. We 
must stand up against those who would grasp at political power by 
committing war crimes. If we can't stand up against this, what can we 
stand against?
  And, in response to this terror, we must stand with Israel. In 
response to a brutal attack on its sovereign territory, we must stand 
with Israel. In response to the heinous massacre of its citizens, we 
must stand with Israel. Israel has the right and the responsibility to 
defend itself against this unconscionable aggression. We must provide 
its government with the support it needs to defend its territory and 
its citizenry. We must take steps that allow Israel to regain its 
footing and make the difficult decisions it needs to make as a 
sovereign nation.
  The United States and Israel are bound by shared values and strategic 
interests, and we are now further bound by shared tragedy. Hamas has 
American blood on its hands after this attack. Some of our own citizens 
are being held hostage underground in Gaza. We must act to show 
terrorist groups and their close friend, Iran, that we will not abide 
the slaughter and kidnapping of Americans.

[[Page S5035]]

  As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate 
Appropriations Committee, I am working with my colleagues and the 
administration to ensure that the United States is able to provide 
Israel with the support and the resources it needs to eliminate this 
threat.
  Our allies and partners, as well as our adversaries, are closely 
watching how our country will respond to Hamas's loathsome attack. Our 
actions should encourage allies and partners to follow suit in 
supporting Israel and in denouncing this terrorism; and our actions 
must deter our adversaries from taking advantage of the volatility in 
the Middle East and further destabilizing that region.
  Our focus in the region must turn to one adversary in particular: 
Iran. The Iranian regime bankrolls terrorist activity throughout the 
Middle East. Iran provided Hamas with the weapons it used against 
Israel. The regime directly supports Hezbollah--the group that Israel 
is now facing from across its border with Lebanon.
  For the time I have served in the Senate, I have supported efforts to 
curb Iran's incessant attempts to sow chaos in the Middle East; and, 
today, those attempts are coming to a head. We need to gather all of 
our economic and diplomatic strength so we can send a strong message to 
Iran. By countering Iran, we will help Israel, but it will advance 
American interests as well. We all know that Iran is hell-bent on 
destroying the United States of America. Its proxy forces continue to 
attack our forces regularly in Iraq and in Syria. The risks are too 
great to allow Iran to accelerate this conflict.
  My Republican colleagues and I sent a letter last week urging 
President Biden to immediately convene the G7 nations and take 
coordinated action to isolate Iran using severe sanctions. Our letter 
also called on the President to reverse a decision allowing Iran access 
to a $6 billion fund, which had previously been frozen under sanctions.
  We urge President Biden to, instead, lead America's partners and 
allies in securing agreements from as many nations as possible, 
agreements to take the most severe economic and diplomatic action 
possible under the law against Iran. The U.S.--the United States--must 
lead in imposing multilateral sanctions against Iran and continue to 
lead in making certain that those sanctions are then enforced.
  This week, my colleagues and I introduced legislation that would 
revoke the $6 billion fund. The United States must not allow funding to 
flow to state sponsors of terrorism. As Americans, we must come 
together in a bipartisan manner to keep terrorism in check and to stand 
with our ally Israel.
  I call on my colleagues here in Congress, as well as the 
administration and people across our country, to continue to 
unequivocally condemn the evil acts committed by Hamas, Hezbollah, and 
their primary sponsor, Iran. We must stand together to support Israel 
and to protect both Americans and Israelis being harmed by the conflict 
and the bloodshed in the Middle East.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Markey). The Senator from Alaska.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I am pleased to be able to follow my 
colleague from Nebraska in urging us as Members of Congress--really, us 
as Americans--to come together in a show of solidarity as we speak 
about the awful war that we are seeing unfold in Israel; of the 
unspeakable actions that we have seen by the terrorist group Hamas; of 
the awful, the barbaric, the genocidal violence and murders that we 
have witnessed that have been committed against thousands of innocent 
Israelis, beginning on October 8.
  None of us can unsee what we saw that morning, throughout that day, 
and then in the ensuing days that followed. We may be thousands of 
miles away here in the United States, but we are reminded of it daily 
when we turn on our televisions, when we open the newspapers, when we 
open our social media--the atrocities, the brutality, the kidnapping of 
civilians, the murdered children, elders, women. These coldblooded 
crimes that have been committed by Hamas terrorists are unimaginable 
and absolutely unforgivable; and our hearts are just heavy.
  In just talking with people, as I have had an opportunity to be on 
multiple coasts this week, from Alaska to Tennessee to California to 
here in Washington, DC--on the airplanes in between--people are just 
heavy with sadness, with grief, for what we are seeing in Israel, for 
what we are seeing as to the Israeli people. It is hard to imagine what 
so many families are going through right now.
  So, at a time like this, when sometimes you are not quite sure how to 
proceed or how to move, it is so important to make sure of those words 
of commitment, of those words of support: that we stand with you, that 
we unequivocally--unequivocally--support Israel.
  We unequivocally support Israel's right to defend their people from 
these brutal terrorist attacks. We unequivocally stand against Hamas, 
which, as Secretary of Defense Austin has said, has deliberately 
committed acts that match and even exceed the absolute evils inflicted 
by ISIS. We must assure the world that we stand with Israel and against 
the brutal genocide that we see from these terrorists. We must be 
unwavering; we must be ironclad; we must be resolute in our commitment 
to Israel. And we use these words time and time again.
  Here in the Senate, there is a resolution that has been introduced--
signed by almost every single Member of this body--that reaffirms 
Israel's right to self-defense; that calls on all countries to 
unequivocally condemn Hamas's war on Israel; demanding that Hamas 
release--safely release--all hostages; condemning Iran's support for 
global terrorism, including its support for terrorist groups such as 
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad; calling on the United States to 
lead an international effort, including through sanctions--as the 
Senator from Nebraska was just outlining--to deprive of Hamas and Iran 
and other Iranian groups their sources of funding.
  So these words of support, whether through a resolution or words on 
the floor, are so important as they are, but they also have to be 
matched by our deeds, by our actions. For Congress, that means ensuring 
that the Israel Defense Forces has the resources that they need to 
defend their people.
  First and foremost, the Iron Dome must be at full strength to protect 
civilians from short-range rockets. The enormous strain that these 
Hamas attacks have placed on the Iron Dome, of course, means that the 
system is low on interceptors. We can and we must resupply Israel and 
help ensure rockets launched by Hamas cannot penetrate their defenses.
  Congress must come together to provide funding and all the munitions 
and equipment that Israel may request. This is not a time for us to hem 
and haw here. We can't bog down in political infighting. This is their 
time of greatest need. We must provide Israel and her people with 
everything that they ask of us. We have to be there. We must be there 
for our strongest ally--today, tomorrow, and going forward.
  So for those Americans at home who are asking, ``What can we do?'' we 
can individually--we can individually--step forward. You can support 
our efforts here in Congress, but you can also support our Jewish 
friends and our neighbors who are seeing a surge in anti-Semitism at 
home and abroad.
  In Anchorage, over the weekend, there were several different 
gatherings of solidarity for Israel. I had an opportunity--I wasn't 
able to participate. I was there virtually. I was on an airplane for 
the first one, but I was able to meet with Rabbi Greenberg the day 
after. It was heartwarming to hear the solidarity that came out from so 
many in our Anchorage, in our Alaska community embracing our Jewish 
neighbors.
  But I tell you, it was very heartbreaking when he showed me a picture 
of the assembly of armed security that had come together for this event 
to be there to provide protection. To know that security and protective 
details are needed in our domestic synagogues where people of Jewish 
faith gather is heartbreaking, and it is heartbreaking to acknowledge 
that this is a reality here in this country.
  The FBI just released a statistic that showed anti-Jewish incidents 
were the most common religion-related hate crimes, totaling 1,124 
reported incidents in 2022 alone. Not a single one of us should accept 
those numbers or the acts behind them, nor should we accept

[[Page S5036]]

the fact that they are growing worse in these months ahead.
  So, please, check in. Check in on friends who not only have to 
confront the existential threat their homeland, Israel, is facing but 
who are also facing hatred here at home. Anti-Semitism comes in many 
forms, and we must do everything we can to combat it.
  Of course, we have all seen the story in the news of the 6-year-old 
Chicago boy who was killed because he was Muslim--stabbed, stabbed by 
his landlord, and his mother stabbed. To see this peaceful family who 
had nothing to do with the conflict in Israel destroyed by an act of 
racist violence is beyond comprehension.
  We must never tolerate hate in any form against any people in Israel, 
in America, or anywhere else.
  So we join countless Americans in prayer--prayer for the families of 
those who have lost loved ones in Hamas's terrorist attacks on Israel, 
those who are held as hostages, prayer for the innocents in Gaza, and 
prayer for the Americans who have to watch their loved ones face danger 
at home and abroad.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 5 
minutes prior to the scheduled rollcall vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, last week, in Kansas, I met with Kansans at 
the Jewish Community Center. It is in Overland Park, and it serves our 
State and the parts of Missouri in the Kansas City region. I heard from 
leaders from those communities. They were saddened, of course, and 
outraged at the barbaric terrorist attacks against Israel. I join them 
in that outrage, and I pray for a justice that comes that those who are 
being held captive are released.
  It has been 10 days since the world saw the images of carnage that 
Hamas has wrought against innocent men and women and children in 
Israel. The images depict crimes that are brutal and heinous and cause 
decent human beings to look away in disgust and horror. But we cannot 
look away. We cannot look away. We cannot ignore what happened. Hamas 
targeted elderly Israeli citizens waiting at bus stops, young children 
and infants at home and in daycare, and a crowd of defenseless young 
people at a music festival, among many, many others.
  As we continue to take stock of the impact of what transpired last 
week, it is important to note that more Jews were murdered on October 7 
than on any single day since the Holocaust, and among the 1,400 dead 
are at least 30 American citizens, as well as others from around the 
world.
  While security has seemingly been reestablished in southern Israel, 
the ideology which provided the rationale for the attack is still 
espoused by many and is celebrated by many more, a fact made apparent 
in the demonstrations in capital cities and on university campuses in 
the days since the attack.
  Americans of both political parties have shown moral outrage at 
similar acts of barbarity in the past. The appropriate responses to 
terrorism are grief, followed by resolve--grief over the inhumanity of 
the terrorists and the tragedy of their crimes, and resolve to protect 
innocent Israelis from further harm and achieve justice for the 
families and the entire Nation.
  Israel's right to defend itself is not open to debate, nor is its 
right to exist. America will stand with Israel, our greatest ally in 
the Middle East. We must not delay in approving any supplemental 
request that makes certain Israel has what it needs to defend itself 
against terrorism.
  We must help deter other enemies who may use this opportunity to 
escalate the war against Israel. Hezbollah, entrenched in Lebanon, to 
Israel's north, will find no safe harbor if it attempts to intervene. 
And Iran's leaders must know the fury of the United States awaits--the 
fury of the world, I hope--if they become directly involved.
  Iran's complicity in the recent violence and suffering around the 
Middle East has to be undeniable. For years, tens of millions of 
dollars and weapons and other support flowed to Hamas from Iran. Iran's 
close alignment with Hezbollah puts Israel at risk of an arsenal of 
150,000 advanced missiles, and Syria's Bashar al-Assad has brutally 
suppressed a revolution with Iranian backing.
  For too long, the Biden administration has failed to enforce the 
sanctions passed in a bipartisan fashion in this Senate, in the House, 
and signed by a President to choke off Iran's oil revenue. The results 
are stark: Last year, Iran earned $30 billion in oil exports. From 2020 
to now, Iran's foreign reserves rose from a paltry $10 billion to $40 
million--a four-time increase. That is a lot of money to spread to its 
terrorist proxies.
  The administration should no longer delay in trying to choke Iran's 
revenue stream, and that starts with freezing the $6 billion that was 
recently released by the Biden administration. American foreign policy 
in the Middle East must reestablish deterrence against Iran to prevent 
future acts of terrorism.
  For decades, Americans have committed to maintaining the principle 
that terrorism--the use of violence against civilians for political 
goals--is an unacceptable form of welfare. Now is the time to stand 
against terrorism and its enablers and its supporters. Now is the time 
to stand with our Jewish communities here in the United States and 
around the world. And now is the time to stand with Israel.
  I yield the floor.