[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 19, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2429-S2430]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Israel

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the situation in the 
Middle East and the war between Israel and Hamas.
  Five months ago, Hamas brutally attacked Israel, killing more than 
1,200 people and taking 240 hostages. Hamas militants terrorized the 
Israeli people, committed unspeakable acts of torture and mutilation 
against innocent men, women, and children. This tragedy was the single 
deadliest day in Israel's 75-year history and the deadliest day for the 
Jewish people since the Holocaust.
  In the wake of these horrific attacks, the United States has stood by 
its democratic friend and ally Israel, as it has since the very 
beginning when Harry Truman stood up as the first world leader to 
recognize the State of Israel.
  I personally traveled with a bipartisan group of my colleagues 2 
weeks after the attacks to mourn with the people of Israel and support 
the defense of Israel, to ensure that they knew the United States was 
with them.
  In my meetings in Israel and with Jewish leaders from Rhode Island, 
it is clear to me that this attack has had a profound impact on 
Israelis and Jewish people everywhere. This attack has touched the 
deepest nerve, reopened the wounds of the past, and left many wondering 
not how but if Jews will ever be safe from persecution because of who 
they are.
  As I have continued to make clear, Israel can and must defend itself 
against the military threat from Hamas. Any nation that is attacked in 
this manner has the inherent right to self-defense.

  The United States will continue to support Israel as it works to 
degrade and defeat Hamas, but I must also say I have deep reservations 
about how this war is being conducted. I believe good allies, good 
friends stand together; and we stand with Israel. But great allies, 
great friends are willing to speak hard truths and hold each other to 
the highest standards, especially around the conduct of war and issues 
of national security.
  I want to echo the majority leader, the senior Senator from New 
York--a truly devoted pro-Israel champion who is spiritually and 
emotionally connected to Israel unlike very few of us, if any, in this 
Chamber, who has been a friend to Israeli leaders across the political 
spectrum, and who is unafraid to speak truth to power.
  It is clear to me, now 5 months into this war, that Israel's strategy 
to defeat Hamas is in peril. While the IDF has made important progress 
in rooting out Hamas in Gaza, I do not see a clear endgame or metrics 
for success coming from this Israeli Government. There is no plan for 
the day after the fighting stops.
  We know that more than 30,000 Gazans are dead. The millions of Gazans 
who have survived have largely been forced to flee south toward Rafah 
and the crossing there with Egypt. They have little access to food, 
water, shelter, or medical care. Those remaining in the north are 
facing dire humanitarian conditions. More than 2 million Gazans are at 
risk of starvation or famine. Enormous portions of the Gaza Strip have 
been completely destroyed and left uninhabitable, and the West Bank is 
teetering on the brink of chaos.
  There are regular exchanges of fire in the north with Hezbollah, who 
are ensconced in Lebanon. This has forced nearly 100,000 Israelis to 
move from their homes to escape these attacks emanating from Lebanon. 
Lebanese noncombatants are caught in the crossfire between IDF forces 
and Hezbollah. The region stands at the precipice of being engulfed in 
an all-out war.
  Today, as chairman of the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. 
Senate, as a friend and longtime supporter of the Israeli people, it is 
my duty to say clearly that this war has veered off course. There must 
be a fundamental course correction for the national security interests 
of Israel, America, and our allies and partners throughout the world.
  I do not come to this conclusion lightly. There are two factors that 
we must understand and come to terms with. First, Israel should learn 
from the United States' hard-earned strategic and tactical lessons from 
Iraq and Afghanistan. And, second, as Leader Schumer courageously 
argued here on the Senate floor last week, Israel and its allies must 
acknowledge that Prime Minister Netanyahu's failed policies and 
desperate pursuit of power created much of the tragic situation we are 
witnessing today.
  There are actual steps Israel can take to address these issues. We 
should start by recognizing lessons from America's war in Iraq. We, 
too, suffered a national tragedy on September 11, 2001, and immediately 
sought to defend ourselves. We launched our campaign to degrade and 
defeat al-Qaida and Afghanistan, and the result of that war showed 
early military success. But the anguish of 9/11 affected our ability to 
make clear strategic decisions; and we, despite my opposition, 
mistakenly invaded another country, Iraq, which had no role in the 
attacks on that horrific day of September 11. National grief and 
political fury can cloud the thinking of even the shrewdest military 
tacticians.
  I worry that the mistakes of America's war in Iraq are being made 
again by Israel in Gaza.
  Similar to the power vacuum that the United States created when it 
dismantled Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq, Israel's withdrawal 
from the Gaza Strip in 2005 contributed to the extremist violence we 
see today. The rise of Hamas, a terrorist group whose stated goal is 
the destruction of Israel and the Israeli people, assumed control of 
the Gaza Strip. But instead of using that opportunity to build 
lifelines for the people of Gaza, Hamas built a 500-mile tunnel network 
to terrorize Israel. Instead of providing education, healthcare, and 
basic services for Palestinians, Hamas stockpiled and unleashed 
thousands of rockets against Israel through the course of the years.

  Now, in the wake of October 7, Israel's stated goal is to destroy a 
terror group capable of guerrilla-style warfare in a large urban 
territory with the aid of a massive underground tunnel system. This 
mission would be daunting for even the most highly trained and advanced 
militaries.
  As it pursues this goal, Israel should consider lessons from the 
United States' tactical experiences in Iraq. In particular, the battle 
of Fallujah in 2004 provides a painful case study in counterinsurgency 
warfare in an urban environment. After a violent, grinding fight 
through that city, the United States significantly failed to achieve 
the objectives of clearing the territory from insurgents. As the Modern 
War Institute at West Point assessed:

       Senior political leaders should not react emotionally in 
     war and direct immediate action against a densely populated 
     urban area when conditions for success are not present.

  In contrast, operations in Gaza may be more successful by following 
the model of the battle of Mosul in 2016 and 2017, where the United 
States worked with coalition forces in Iraq to wrest Iraq's third 
largest city back from ISIS militants. And I had the opportunity to 
visit, on the ground, our forces leading a coalition of Iraq forces 
against ISIS.
  The operation was conducted with patience and precision, and ISIS was 
successfully eliminated in Mosul. Even then, success was arduous and 
costly. As the Financial Times characterized it:

       The mission to clear the city of jihadi militants was 
     ultimately successful. But the fighting was intense, took 
     three times longer than planned, left 10,000 civilians dead, 
     and killed more coalition soldiers than expected.

  In prosecuting its current war, Israel must do a better job of 
following the

[[Page S2430]]

lessons of successful counterterrorism campaigns. At times, Israeli 
forces have conducted heavy bombing campaigns using weapons with large 
payloads, rather than more targeted operations that yield more 
successful, albeit slower, results.
  The IDF's willingness to bomb heavily populated areas to pursue Hamas 
leaders has changed both the perceptions and realities of this war. 
Protecting the civilian population is a strategic imperative in 
counterterrorism operations and the law of war. You want to separate 
the insurgents from the population and gain the trust of the population 
to continue to successfully conduct your operation against an 
increasingly isolated terrorist group. But, simply put, Israel's 
current strategy risks creating more terrorists than it is eliminating. 
Can you think of a 15-year-old who has lost his youngest sibling, his 
mother, his father, his grandparents? Where will his rage and fury and 
profound sadness be directed? That is a question I think we should all 
contemplate.
  The second issue we have to understand is the broken, polarized 
political environment that badly weakened Israel's national security 
before October 7. Prime Minister Netanyahu returned to power in 2022, 
facing charges of corruption and a criminal trial. His narrow political 
coalition is the most far right, conservative government in Israeli 
history. He has continued to make clear that he will never support a 
two-state solution.
  In a desperate attempt to stay in power, Netanyahu has emboldened the 
most far right members of his coalition. He has not only allowed 
extreme positions to be the stated goal of his administration, he has 
provided far right members of his coalition with ministries by which 
they can enact their agendas. His Minister of Finance, Smotrich, has 
fought his entire career to expand settler control in the West Bank and 
now has control over restarting payments to the Palestinian Authority. 
His Minister of National Security, Ben-Gvir, has been convicted on at 
least eight charges, including supporting a terrorist organization and 
incitement to racism.

  In facing his own criminal charges, Netanyahu worked to significantly 
weaken the Israeli judicial system for his own benefit. He did this 
despite hundreds of thousands of Israelis protesting in the streets. 
And we were there when those protests were going on last February. And 
he did this over the objection of his Israeli military reservists, who, 
at that point, said they would refuse to report to duty in protest. And 
he did this despite warnings from Defense Minister Gallant that the IDF 
would be weakened as a result.
  Adding to this toxic and destabilizing mix was Netanyahu's strategy 
for dealing with Hamas. For years, he purposely propped up Hamas as a 
means to ensure that his two-state solution would never come to 
fruition. As far back as 2012, Netanyahu told Israeli press that ``it 
was important to keep Hamas strong, as a counterweight to the 
Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.'' It was not just a 
counterweight. He knew that having Hamas in power in Gaza meant that a 
two-state solution would never be possible. This strategy to prop up 
Hamas also included allowing Hamas to receive suitcases full of cash 
coming from Qatar and other places. A former Defense Minister for 
Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman, blamed this tactic as one that directly 
paved the way for the October 7 attacks.
  Netanyahu's long, relentless pursuit of political survival and power 
are now fueling his strategy for war in Gaza--and it strikes me that it 
is his strategy, not Israel's direction; his future, not Israel's 
future that is the foremost factor at play.
  These factors add up to several hard truths that must be spoken from 
one ally to another, just as Leader Schumer did last week, with courage 
and principle.
  Most importantly, Israel can't use military force alone to reclaim 
peace and security for its people. Military force is used as a means to 
a political end. Military force itself will never provide the final 
answer.
  A political solution will take hard bargaining and diplomatic 
negotiations. Working with the United States, Qatar, Egypt, and other 
allies and partners, the Israelis must reach a temporary cease-fire 
that allows for the safe return of hostages, expansion of humanitarian 
assistance, and capacity to safely deliver assistance to the people of 
Gaza. The ongoing airdrop campaign and seaport efforts are a step in 
the right direction, but Israel must do more to ensure that the 
increase supply of food and other desperately needed supplies can reach 
the people of Gaza.
  There must be a realistic plan for day-after operations in Gaza. 
There needs to be a return to a framework for a two-state solution, 
where the State of Israel and a demilitarized Palestinian State exists 
side by side in peace and security. This plan will require buy-in from 
all--Israel, the Palestinian people, the world community, Arab 
neighbors. Israel should not and will not find the long-term security 
and peace it wants by indefinitely reoccupying the Gaza Strip.

  Finally, while it is a decision that will ultimately be made by the 
Israeli and Palestinian people, like Leader Schumer, I believe it is 
time for new leadership for both the Palestinians and the Israelis.
  Palestinian President Abbas is almost 20 years into what was supposed 
to be a 4-year Presidential term, and finding a successor for the 
Palestinian Authority is long overdue. A new Palestinian leader must 
recognize that the only path to peace, security, and prosperity is to 
renounce terror, to work with Israel, to work with regional partners 
for a path to statehood which is stable and peaceful.
  New leadership, as I indicated, also includes Prime Minister 
Netanyahu. Polling indicates that more than 75 percent of Israelis 
believes he should step down, and I agree with Leader Schumer that 
Netanyahu represents an obstacle to long-term peace in Israel.
  I have long been a friend and supporter of Israel's. I traveled there 
in the early nineties and have traveled there periodically since. More 
importantly, the United States has been Israel's closest ally for 75 
years.
  In 1948, when the Israelis declared their independence, the world was 
not particularly accepting except here in the United States, where, to 
his immense credit, President Harry Truman stood up and said that we 
will recognize and support the State of Israel. That profound bond 
exists today and, in my view and in my hope, will always exist. We 
can't have anyone break that bond.
  Great allies must hold each other to high standards, share hard 
truths when needed, and the U.S.-Israeli alliance is no different. So I 
urge Israel to change course in Gaza immediately, to work with all of 
us to establish ultimately and enduringly, we hope, a secure and 
peaceful Israel and the protection of its people, as well as a just, 
secure, and safe place where all people of that region can live safely.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Markey). The Senator from Kansas.