[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 209 (Tuesday, December 19, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S6032]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           National Security

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, as the Senate convened this week, our 
colleagues negotiating on border security were still at the table 
making slow and steady progress. They are chipping away at years of 
failure to enact basic commonsense border security policy. Reaching an 
agreement that can pass Congress and become law is easier said than 
done.
  But I am very grateful to Senator Lankford for sticking with it. Our 
colleagues' effort to address the glaring national security challenge 
here at home is the foundation of our broader responsibility to meet 
the linked threats we are facing around the world, from the Indo-
Pacific to Europe, to the Middle East.
  Needless to say, it is a particularly dangerous time for nations that 
care about protecting their sovereignty from totalitarian thugs and 
savage terrorists. The headlines are filled with evidence that 
America's most dangerous adversaries are demonstrably not deterred, and 
it might have something to do with the Biden administration's penchant 
for deterring itself instead.
  America is a global superpower, but far too often, our Commander in 
Chief has conducted our foreign affairs with hesitation and weakness. 
Remember his administration's overwrought fears of ``escalation'' that 
kept essential capabilities out of Ukrainian hands or the feeble half 
measures in response to an ongoing surge in attacks on U.S. personnel 
in Iraq and Syria.
  Reports that the Biden administration now wants to constrain Israel's 
efforts to destroy Hamas are disappointing but not surprising. Two 
months ago, the administration was encouraging Israel to slow down its 
response before entering Gaza. Now, it is telling Israel to hasten its 
operations and wind them down to a close.
  America cannot afford to lose sight of reality. We must not blur the 
boldface line between a sovereign democracy that takes great pains to 
avoid civilian casualties and a terrorist organization that steals 
humanitarian aid from vulnerable Gazans to fuel its war of hate.
  Israel did not choose this conflict. It ended the occupation of Gaza 
nearly two decades ago, but its policy of seeking to lower tensions was 
rewarded on October 7 when Hamas unilaterally shattered the cease-fire 
with rape, torture, terror, and murder: Hamas, the terrorists who 
diverted mountains of foreign assistance intended for civilian 
infrastructure to build miles of elaborate terror tunnels instead; 
Hamas, the cowards who intentionally hide their fighters and weapons in 
schools and hospitals.
  Hamas has repeatedly faced the choice between improving the lives of 
Palestinians and killing Israelis. Every time, to date, it has chosen 
violence. And if Hamas survives with its military capabilities and 
leadership intact, it will make that choice again and again.
  This is the reality Israel faces. Its war cabinet knows they must see 
this fight through. It is the same reality that recent American 
Presidents have confronted in the fight against al-Qaida and Isis. But 
for Israel, the determined terrorist threat is on its very borders and 
its own citizen soldiers are on the line.
  So I will repeat what I have said so many times before. Our 
responsibility as an ally is to provide the time, space, and support 
Israel needs to finish the job, to condemn shameful attempts at moral 
equivalence to excuse the genocidal violence of Hamas terrorists and 
apply double standards to Israel and to offer counsel to our ally in 
private, not in front page genuflections to the President's leftwing 
base.
  Administration officials and world leaders who care about the 
Palestinians would do well to focus less on constraining Israel in the 
short term and more on the challenge of ensuring Palestinian leaders 
and organizations in Gaza and the West Bank actually care about 
improving the lives of their fellow citizens in the long term.
  Palestinians deserve better than Hamas's cult of death in Gaza. They 
deserve better than a corrupt and sclerotic Palestinian Authority in 
the West Bank.