[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 184 (Tuesday, November 7, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5390-S5391]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Israel
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, 1 month ago today, Hamas launched its
unprovoked attack on the State of Israel, on innocent men, women, and
children, civilians all. Hamas entered the country by land, air, and
sea, and they brutally murdered more than 1,400 Israelis. They also
took hundreds of hostages, some of whom were American citizens. They
abused and assaulted innocent civilians and left a trail of devastation
in their wake.
In the face of Hamas's barbaric attack, Israel has done what any
country would do and defended its citizens and its sovereignty, and it
has every right to do so. This basic truth has somehow become a point
of confusion in some circles, but we should not be confused.
Many on the far left--including at least one Member of the House of
Representatives--have pointed to Israel's defense as an example of what
she calls genocide. They act as though Israel was the aggressor here,
not Hamas. They called on the President to speak out against the
actions of the victim, not the aggressor. It is as though they think
Israel is somehow the moral equivalent of the terrorist group Hamas.
It is especially disturbing to see this rhetoric spreading on social
media because many people who were not familiar with the facts, the
circumstances, and the history of Hamas and Israel, Iran, and
Hezbollah--they may actually believe the disinformation and propaganda
they see on social media. It is also very deeply disturbing to see how
it is absorbed and embraced by many college campuses, and it is
downright disturbing, of course, to see it repeated here in the Halls
of Congress.
There should be no confusion. Hamas is the aggressor, and Hamas bears
ultimate responsibility for the pain and suffering in Israel and in
Gaza. Hamas's own tactics are the very reason for the loss of life in
Gaza and that it has been so high, because these terrorists, who care
nothing about the individuals, have a long history of using Palestinian
civilians as human shields for their own benefit.
And then Hamas operates a vast network of tunnels underneath Gaza.
The tunnels shield terrorists from the dangerous fighting above ground.
They also store critical supplies like water, food, and fuel, which are
being kept from the Palestinian civilians. As many of us are concerned
about the humanitarian disaster caused by Hamas's attack on Israel, it
is Hamas itself that is exacerbating and making the humanitarian crisis
worse.
It seems likely that the tunnels are also the hiding place for more
than 200 hostages taken by Hamas last month. A video recently shared
online of a Hamas gunman who was captured and interrogated by the
Israeli officials was particularly revealing. He said that Hamas
shelters in tunnels and basements under clinics, schools, and hospitals
because they know the Israelis will not target those locations out of
concern for the collateral damage or damage to innocent civilians. That
is why Hamas deliberately places innocent Palestinians between its
terrorist foot soldiers and incoming rockets.
As a result of Hamas's human shield strategy, the number of civilian
casualties in Gaza is devastating. There is no denying that. It is
important, though, to remember that the pain and suffering that is
occurring throughout Israel and Gaza is directly attributable to Hamas,
a U.S.-designated terrorist organization serving as a proxy for the No.
1 state-sponsor of terrorism, which is Iran. The blood of this war is
clearly on Hamas's hands.
As the fighting continues, I am reminded of a saying that has been
around for years: If Hamas laid down its weapons today, there would be
no more violence. If Israel laid down its weapons, there would be no
more Israel.
Hamas is not fighting for peace. It is trying to wipe Israel off the
map--again, as a proxy for its sponsor, which is the Supreme Leader in
Tehran. They all share a desire to wipe the Jewish State off the map
entirely.
The United States cannot equivocate between good and evil. We must
stand with Israel. There is no question that words are important. We
have a responsibility to voice our support, speak out against Hamas,
and call out dangerous anti-Semitic slander when we see it.
But words alone are not enough. America has a responsibility to come
to the aid of our ally with the resources it needs not only to fight
but to actually win this war. This includes air defense systems that
safeguard Israeli people from rocket attacks. It includes intelligence
support to stay one step ahead of the terrorists. And it includes
military aid to find and eliminate the Hamas threat.
As part of that commitment, Congress has a big job to do. We need to
pass a supplemental funding bill to ensure Israel has the tools it
needs to defeat Hamas terrorists, and, last week, the House of
Representatives did just that. They passed an Israel aid bill with
bipartisan support. Their legislation would provide up to $14.3 billion
to ensure that Israel has the resources they need to defend themselves.
Our friends across the Capitol offset the spending by reallocating a
portion
[[Page S5391]]
of the bloated IRS funding from the Democrats' massive so-called
Inflation Reduction Act. I would add that that was $14.3 billion out of
an $80 billion appropriation to the Internal Revenue Service, hardly
the majority of that funding.
But if our colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't like those
pay-fors, then they are free to come up with an alternative. But the
truth is, they don't believe in paying for anything. And we saw, just
this last year, about $670 billion paid by the United States to our
bond holders to help finance this national debt, and that is not
getting any better by the day. Certainly, if we were to pass another
supplemental appropriations bill to aid Israel or Ukraine, or for any
other purpose, and actually make our national debt worse, it would put
us on a perilous path.
Well, President Biden, who said, ``We stand with Israel; we will do
anything that they need us to do,'' has actually threatened to veto the
$14.3 billion supplemental appropriations bill that was passed by the
House. How he can reconcile his stated support for Israel and his
threat to veto a supplemental appropriations bill escapes me.
Then there is the majority leader here in the Senate--the Senator
from New York, Senator Schumer--who said that the House bill is dead on
arrival in the Senate, and he took his opposition a step further,
blasting this legislation as ``stunningly unserious'' and ``a joke.''
Well, I have to respectfully disagree with the majority leader. There
is nothing funny about denying Israel the assistance it needs in
defending itself against this terrorist threat. It is no secret that
America's national debt has put us in an extremely vulnerable position.
Thirteen years ago, Admiral Michael Mullen, who was Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that ``the most significant threat to our
national security is our debt.'' That actually struck me as a little
unusual at the time. But, at that time, the national debt was roughly
$13.5 trillion. Since then, it has more than doubled to $33.6 trillion
and counting.
So I think that what he was getting at is that the more we end up
spending money that we are borrowing from subsequent generations and
the more interest we have to continue to pay to people willing to buy
our debt, we are going to have a whole lot less financial resources and
flexibility that we need when unexpected things occur, like the Russian
invasion of Ukraine or Hamas's invasion of Israel. We simply won't have
the money and the flexibility to do what we expect America to do, which
is to always lead and be an agent for peace and stability.
If we continue at this pace, our children and grandchildren will have
no chance of digging out from under this debt. There is an old saying
that ``the best time to start was yesterday; the next best time to
start is now.'' We have a responsibility to start chipping away at the
national debt now and certainly not to make it any worse. Every single
spending bill is an opportunity to make tough but necessary choices to
achieve that goal.
I am disappointed that the majority of our Democratic colleagues
don't seem to have any interest in addressing this threat to our
national security. Over the last couple of years, they have spent, on a
party-line basis, $2.6 trillion without a single Republican vote, and
now they blast an attempt to address the growing debt as ``unserious.''
Well, that $2.6 trillion in spending that our Democratic colleagues
did on a party-line basis was partly responsible for our 40-year high
inflation rate that is eating up the standard of living of hard-working
Americans across the country. I think the figure I saw indicates that,
if this is broken down per capita, it is roughly worth slightly under
$1,000 in additional costs for the average family.
Our Democratic colleagues, if they didn't like the pay-for provided
by the House of Representatives, they could have suggested different
offsets. You can't tell me, given the amount of money the Federal
Government spends, that it couldn't find offsets for $14.3 billion. Or
the majority leader could have simply put the bill on the floor and
left room open for an amendment process. But, instead, he resorted to
name-calling and trying to belittle the serious efforts that the House
has undertaken, both to deal with the emergency in Israel and the
national debt.
In the next couple of weeks, the Senate and the House are going to
have to work together to address the major issues that are swirling in
front of Congress right now, which include Israel, Ukraine, the border,
and, yes, keeping the government funded. This is hardly the way to
start off on a good foot.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress overwhelmingly support Israel.
We agree that the United States needs to provide support for our ally.
At the same time, we need to get serious about addressing another
massive national security threat, which is our growing national debt
and the crowding out of our ability to spend money on other necessary
priorities instead of paying China and Japan, who own that debt.
Washington has a spending problem. That is the first thing we need to
acknowledge. Unfortunately, many of my colleagues are unwilling to
acknowledge it. We have to get it under control.
Today marks 1 month since Hamas attacked Israel, and I am
disappointed that the Senate has yet to act on support--financial
support--for our closest ally in the Middle East. I have no idea what
Senator Schumer's plans are to actually process this supplemental
appropriation. I don't know how long Israel will have to sustain the
onslaught of Hamas's rockets and terrorist attacks on its people before
the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Government will respond, as President
Biden said we would.
Under the leadership of Speaker Johnson, the House did its job. It
passed legislation to provide $14.3 billion for Israel with bipartisan
support. So I come to the floor profoundly disappointed that Senator
Schumer refuses to take up this emergency supplemental appropriations
bill to aid Israel.
The United States has a responsibility to stand with Israel. I think
that is the consensus position here in Congress on a bipartisan basis.
But it takes more than just words. It takes action.
One month after the war began is too long to respond to the needs
that the people of Israel have to defend their country and their way of
life. I hope we can see movement on this aid package for Israel sooner
rather than later.
I yield the floor.