[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 17 (Tuesday, January 30, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S278-S279]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  Iran

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, 2 weeks ago, after nearly 150 Iran-
backed attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria, a reporter asked 
President Biden if he had a message for Iran. The President confidently 
replied:

       I've already delivered the message to Iran. They know not 
     to do anything.

  The Commander in Chief had the temerity to suggest that the world's 
most active state sponsor of terrorism was effectively deterred. 
Repeated attacks since then, including a deadly attack in Jordan that 
killed three American soldiers and injured dozens more, suggest 
otherwise.
  SGT William Rivers, SPC Kennedy Sanders, and SPC Breonna Moffett now 
rest with generations of brave Americans before them who have given 
their lives in service to our country. I know my colleagues join me in 
grieving with the families and comrades they leave behind.
  For 3 years, the threat of Iran-backed terror against American 
personnel and interests in the Middle East has been growing. Iran is 
emboldened and believes it can use its proxies to attack America with 
impunity.
  The Biden administration has hastened this erosion of deterrence. 
Their public hand-wringing and fear of escalation send exactly the 
wrong message to Tehran and other enemies of America. To paraphrase 
Henry Kissinger, when our primary objective becomes avoiding war or 
escalation, we are at the mercy of our most ruthless adversaries.
  The United States' objective is not to avoid escalation at all costs. 
If it was, the quickest way to achieve it would be to retreat and cede 
the whole Middle East to Iran. Instead, our objective is to compel Iran 
and its proxies to stop attacking American forces and our interests in 
the region and to preserve American influence in a critical part of the 
world. But to achieve this objective, we have to convince our 
adversaries that we are prepared to escalate and to threaten the 
interests that they hold dear. If the Iranian regime thinks America is 
most afraid of escalation, it

[[Page S279]]

will use that fear because it believes it will drive us from the Middle 
East, just as we were driven from Afghanistan.
  It was reasonable to hope that the eruption of proxy violence against 
American forces in the wake of the October 7 massacre in Israel would 
convince the Biden administration to start seriously exercising 
American strength. It was reasonable to hope that a global superpower 
might finally begin to act like one. That hasn't happened yet, but 
perhaps the gut-wrenching tragedy of American casualties will finally 
wake this administration from its delusional approach to Iran.
  Yesterday, the Secretary of Defense echoed President Biden's hollow 
assurance from earlier this month, insisting that the administration 
``will not tolerate attacks on U.S. forces, and we will take all 
necessary action to defend the U.S. and our troops.'' Unfortunately, 
this sentiment isn't yet backed by any action. The fact that Iran's 
proxies have targeted Americans 166 times in the past 3 months 
demonstrates that the Biden administration is willing to tolerate 
attacks on U.S. forces. The question for the Commander in Chief is 
whether his actions in the coming days will convince Iran and its 
proxies that America's tolerance has been exhausted.
  It is time for the administration to provide Senators with a briefing 
on the current situation in the Middle East.
  As I have said before, the President has the necessary authorities to 
strike those responsible for killing and wounding Americans, targeting 
our interests, and threatening our allies in the region. He has the 
capacity to go after the Iranians who sponsor and direct this campaign. 
But his administration has an obligation to inform Congress of its 
objectives and strategy and to explain why their attempts to deter Iran 
and its proxies have as yet been unsuccessful.
  Of course, the failures of their own approach to the region haven't 
stopped Washington Democrats from trying to police the internal 
politics of a close ally fighting for its security or from trying to 
tie Israel's hands as it works to eradicate Hamas terrorists.
  Some of our colleagues have apparently mistaken themselves for 
members of the Knesset. They have started using the press to cast 
bizarre, unsolicited votes of no confidence in a sovereign democracy's 
duly elected Prime Minister. Talk about foreign political interference. 
And their Bibi derangement syndrome isn't just unseemly behavior for an 
ally; they want to compel Israel to pursue policies that even prominent 
leaders of the Israeli left have insisted they have no time for.
  It is increasingly, glaringly clear that a headlong charge forward to 
a two-state solution puts the cart before the horse. Israel needs a 
partner in peace before it can be expected to make peace. Palestinians 
need leaders and a government worthy of the name before they can expect 
a state.
  As I have said before, responsibility for the humanitarian 
catastrophe in Gaza, for the weaponization of hospitals and schools, 
and for the corruption of aid agencies charged with helping the 
Palestinian people--all of that belongs to Hamas.
  Each time Hamas has faced a choice between improving Palestinian 
lives and taking Israeli lives, it has chosen the latter. And last week 
we learned the horrific degree to which international humanitarian 
agencies have been corrupted--corrupted--by Hamas's hate. No fewer than 
a dozen credentialed staff members of the U.N.'s Relief and Works 
Agency are linked directly--directly--to the slaughter of Israelis on 
October 7. So let me say that again. At least 12 paid staff of the U.N. 
agency that purports to lead humanitarian efforts in Gaza moonlit--
moonlit--as Hamas terrorists on the deadliest day for Jews since the 
Holocaust.
  According to news reports, Israeli intelligence indicates that a full 
10 percent of UNRWA's staff have ties to the Iran-backed terrorist 
group that steals aid shipments to build terror tunnels. Yet, instead 
of reckoning with UNRWA's complicity, the head of the agency responded 
with a whining statement that emphasized just how few of the supposed 
relief workers under his authority had been caught killing Israelis on 
company time.
  In fairness, UNRWA comes from the same anti-Israel family of 
organizations as the self-proclaimed ``global champion'' for the 
empowerment of women, a U.N. entity that took 57 days--57 days--to 
condemn Hamas's rape and brutalization of Israeli women and girls.
  The United States and our allies need not search for moral authority 
in such a fallow field as the United Nations. Unfortunately, even the 
Biden administration's announced pause on additional funding to UNRWA 
may fail to carry sufficient weight. As one outside analysis points 
out, $51 million already allocated by the State Department for use this 
year will be delivered as scheduled to an organization that clearly 
lacks the means to fulfill its most basic purpose.
  So as I have said before, there is no room for the tired cast of 
corruption and terrorism in the future of the Palestinian people. As 
such, Senate Republicans will not accept any legislation that allows 
taxpayer dollars to fund UNRWA.
  And America's ally Israel deserves the time, space, and support it 
needs to remove Hamas from the equation--root, stem, and branch.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority whip.