[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
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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.
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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
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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.