[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 46 (Thursday, March 14, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S2396]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Israel

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I was shocked to hear the comments of the 
Senate majority leader this morning excoriating our closest ally, the 
only democracy in the Middle East. You know, we don't appreciate it 
when other countries tell us how we ought to govern our country. I am 
sure that feeling is reciprocated by our Israeli allies.
  Here is what the former Ambassador of Israel said on social media:

       Regardless of my opinion of Netanyahu and his fitness to 
     serve, Senator Schumer's call for new Israeli elections is 
     deeply disrespectful of our democracy and sovereignty. Israel 
     is an ally, not a vassal state. Along with the U.S., we're 
     one of the few countries [that have never] known a non-
     democratic government, and the only democracy never to have 
     known a moment of peace. We [certainly] deserve that respect.

  I think Ambassador Oren is exactly right. The majority leader's 
speech this morning was deeply disrespectful of our ally, which is, 
indeed, as I said, a sovereign nation and a democracy.
  I traveled to Israel and Saudi Arabia and Jordan in January with five 
other members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. We met in Jordan 
and then in Saudi Arabia with Mohammed bin Salman and then with Prime 
Minister Netanyahu and the Defense Minister Gallant in Israel.
  Of course, war involves collateral damages to innocent people. But 
the people responsible for initiating that war in Israel was Hamas, a 
proxy of the Iranian regime--one of many. And for somehow to say now, 5 
months after that horrible attack on October 7, that Israel ought to 
stay its hand and allow Hamas potentially to reconstitute in Gaza is 
not only deeply disrespectful, it undermines the ability of the 
Israelis to do what they must do, which is destroy that threat.
  I know 3 months after the attack on October 7, when I was in Israel, 
when I heard some of my colleagues say we need to have a cease-fire--
well, I know if Hamas had not started the shooting, that Israel would 
not have started and we would not find ourselves with all of these 
casualties on both sides.
  But we know that Iran is the head of the octopus and the tentacles 
reach far and wide. We all learned more about world geography and how 
the world works in recent years since America--we thought we were safe 
on our own continent, and we had an ocean to protect us on each side. 
But 9/11 was a reminder that not even Americans are safe from the hand 
of terrorists.
  And Iran is the No. 1 state sponsor of terror--no doubt about it. 
They sponsor the Houthis in Yemen. They help Shia militias in Iraq and 
Syria. They help Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon on the northern 
border. Israel is under attack by people who want to wipe that country 
and those people off the face of the Earth. Of course, they have a 
right to defend themselves. Of course, they need to eliminate the 
terrorist threat that killed so many innocent civilians on October 7.
  And so for the majority leader to come here and say, ostensibly as a 
supporter of Israel, that we don't like the current government; that 
the Israeli people need new elections and to select new leaders; and 
oh, by the way, you need to quit being so tough on the terrorists known 
as Hamas--it is shocking to me.
  We need to stand with Israel. They need to be able to finish the job, 
not because they want to, but because they must in order to continue to 
exist.