[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 50 (Thursday, March 21, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S2495]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Israel

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, following Hamas's brutal attack against 
Israel on October 7, some 5 months ago, Republicans and Democrats came 
together, along with the President of the United States, and declared 
our support for Israel. We all condemned the Hamas terrorists, as well 
as Iran, which is the main support for this proxy of the number one 
state sponsor of international terrorism.
  We all watched in horror at the videos we saw of Hamas attacking 
innocent men, women, and children, and we all vowed to stand in 
solidarity with Israel as they did whatever they needed to do to defeat 
this evil.
  As time passed, it seems like the roar of support among some of our 
friends across the aisle, including the Senate majority leader, has 
softened, to say the least. Some of our colleagues have even gone so 
far as to cast blame on Israel for the violence that is unfolding in 
the Middle East. They are blaming the victim, not the perpetrator. More 
than two dozen Senate Democrats have even joined with liberal activists 
to demand a cease-fire.
  The quickest way to a cease-fire is for Hamas to lay down its 
weapons, but we know they are not going to do that because they are 
committed to the eradication of the State of Israel. ``Wipe them off 
the face of the planet'' is their goal.
  This once rock-solid support on a bipartisan basis has slowly eroded, 
and it reached a new low last week when the Senate majority leader came 
to the floor to excoriate not Hamas, not Iran, but Israel and its 
leadership.
  Israel, we know, is our single closest friend and ally in the Middle 
East, one of the very few democracies. Yes, they have messy politics. 
By the way, we have messy politics, too, here in this country, but we 
respect--we should respect--the sovereignty of that nation and their 
ability to make hard decisions on their own behalf without being 
lectured by the President of the United States and by the Senate 
majority leader.
  The majority leader criticized Israel's response to the October 7 
attack. He condemned Prime Minister Netanyahu's leadership, and he 
called--get this--he called for an election in Israel to replace him. 
In my time in the U.S. Senate, I have never seen anything quite like 
this. The majority leader's comments mark a sharp departure from his 
previous stance solidly in support of Israel. And, unfortunately, I 
presume for political reasons, he has decided to undermine our support 
on a bipartisan basis for Israel and to make it a partisan issue and to 
attack the leader of a sovereign ally and one dealing with the horrific 
aftermath of a terrorist attack.
  Can you imagine, in the wake of 9/11, if our closest allies had 
called upon the American people to change our President to align with 
their political preferences? We would have been insulted. We would have 
been offended and completely outraged. The suggestion that the leader 
in a foreign country knows the needs of a country better than its own 
citizens is appalling.
  On top of that, it undermines Israel's most critical job at this 
moment, which is to eliminate the terrorist threat against its own 
people. This is not like al-Qaida, thousands of miles away across an 
ocean. This is in the backyard of Israel. By browbeating Israel and 
criticizing its leaders, the majority leader has undermined the trust 
and confidence Israel needs in our commitment to continue to help them 
complete this job of eliminating the terrorist threat.
  Yes, innocent people are getting hurt, but that is not the fault of 
the victim. That is the fault of the perpetrator of this violence. And, 
yes, maybe some of us would like to see different tactics chosen on the 
battlefield, but that is not our call. We have to trust our friend and 
ally Israel to make the best decisions in defense of its own 
sovereignty and its own existence. And, yes, we can all have private 
opinions about how they are going about it.
  But the truth is America's role in this conflict should not be 
confused. We should not be saying: Well, on one hand, we support 
Israel. On the other hand, we think they are being too tough on Hamas.
  We need to support our closest friend and ally in the region. It is 
just that simple. It is the choice between good and evil.
  If you watch the videos of Hamas's attack against Israeli civilians 
on October 7--as I know the Presiding Officer has, and all of us have 
been exposed to it--you will recoil in horror as babies are killed, 
where women are sexually assaulted. I, actually, for the first time in 
my life, saw a video of a Hamas terrorist behead an innocent Israeli 
civilian--behead.
  That is what we are dealing with. That is what Israel is dealing 
with.
  There should not be confusion. We should be approaching this with 
complete clarity. For those of us who said we stand with Israel, we 
ought to lock arms on a bipartisan basis and reaffirm their right to 
exist and their right to make choices for their nation and their 
people, and we ought to support them as they go through what has to be 
a horrible experience for Israel.
  It is not just Hamas. Again, as the Presiding Officer knows and we 
know, in Lebanon, in the northern part of Israel, Hezbollah--another 
proxy for Iran--is shooting into Israel and attacking Israeli Defense 
Forces. We know that Houthi rebels in Yemen are also supported by Iran. 
Iran is the octopus. Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis are the 
tentacles or the proxies they use to do their evil. Then there are the 
Shia militias who have attacked American troops hundreds of times in 
Iraq and Syria.
  There should not be any confusion about this. There is the right side 
and the wrong side. There is the good, and there is the evil. America 
stands with Israel. The vast majority of Americans feel exactly as I 
do. We should trust the people of Israel to make decisions, certainly, 
about their own leaders.
  I mean, we don't like it when foreign countries try to interfere with 
our elections. What is the speech of the majority leader but an attempt 
by a leader of a foreign government to interfere with their elections? 
We need to maintain our position that Israel has a right to defend 
itself against Hamas, against Hezbollah, against any Iranian proxy or 
any entity or country or group that wants to destroy the Jewish State.
  So I regret the fact that this has become, it seems, like a partisan 
issue. This is the last thing that our Israeli friends and allies would 
want. They don't want this to be partisan politics because we know what 
happens here when things become partisan. One side supports an action, 
and the other side reflexively opposes that action. We can't afford to 
play politics with the U.S.-Israel alliance. Our support for Israel 
must remain unwavering regardless of whom they choose for their own 
leaders. We must support democracy. We must support sovereignty. We 
must support the enduring bond and the common values shared between our 
two countries.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.
  Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 
5 minutes, followed by Senator Tester for up to 10 minutes prior to the 
scheduled rollcall votes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.