[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 61 (Wednesday, April 10, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2684-S2685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Israel

  Mr. WELCH. Madam President, it has been more than 6 months since 
Hamas's horrific attack on October 7 that killed 1,200 innocent 
Israelis and led to the capture of 240 hostages. Around 130 people are 
still being held hostage, and an estimated 100 are alive and remain in 
captivity in absolutely horrific conditions. The cruelty that has been 
and continues to be inflicted on them is horrendous, and obtaining 
their freedom becomes a more urgent priority every day.
  In the past 6 months, Israel's indiscriminate bombing has obliterated 
most of Gaza's infrastructure. Nothing has been spared. More than 
33,000 Palestinians have been killed. Another 7,000 are believed to be 
buried beneath the rubble. And among the dead are hundreds of aid 
workers and health workers. Nearly 2 million people have been 
displaced. Aid trucks are lined up for miles in Egypt waiting to get 
into Gaza, while the bombs and shells keep exploding. The magnitude of 
this calamity is staggering.
  Now, 6 months into this war, Prime Minister Netanyahu has announced 
that a date has been set for an invasion of Rafah. Rafah today is 
jammed with an estimated 1 million desperate, destitute Palestinians 
who were ordered by the Israeli military to leave their homes in the 
north--homes that have since been demolished--and who are now 
sheltering under plastic with the few possessions they could carry and 
not nearly enough food.
  And last week, less than a month after Jose Andres briefed me and 
other Senators on the daunting challenges his remarkable organization, 
the World Central Kitchen, faces in getting food to desperate families 
in Gaza, Israeli missiles destroyed three of their vehicles and killed 
seven of their aid workers.
  The descriptions and coordinates of the World Central Kitchen 
vehicles that were targeted had been shared with the Israeli military. 
There was nothing about those vehicles or the people in them that could 
reasonably have been confused with Hamas. The vehicles were far apart. 
They were labeled as World Central Kitchen vehicles. Each was targeted 
and destroyed separately.
  The deadly attacks on aid and health workers in Gaza have become 
shockingly common. World Central Kitchen and other humanitarian 
organizations, which so many people depended on, have had to suspend 
operations in Gaza. This incident and the killings of other aid and 
health workers must be thoroughly and independently investigated. 
Calling it a mistake begs the question: We need to know what happened 
and why.
  This outrageous attack on aid workers and Prime Minister Netanyahu's 
plans to invade the very place his government told Palestinians to go 
is the latest evidence that the way the Netanyahu government is 
conducting this war is terribly wrong. It is yet another tragic reason 
why a cease-fire is immediately needed.
  Our priority must be to secure a cease-fire to free the hostages and 
get adequate food, water, and medical care to the Gazan population 
before more innocent people die needlessly. This was affirmed 
unanimously in the resolution recently adopted by the U.N. Security 
Council.
  But rather than acknowledge Israel's responsibility to implement that 
resolution and secure a cease-fire, Prime Minister Netanyahu criticized 
the United States for allowing it to pass. He said the U.S. abstention 
harms both the war effort and the effort to release hostages.
  I could not disagree more. After 6 months of relentless bombing, the 
war in Gaza has been a disaster. It has been a disaster not only for 
the Palestinian people but for Israel, for the United States, for the 
hostages, and for the cause of peace and security in the Middle East.
  Last week, families of the hostages were among the tens of thousands 
of Israeli protesters calling for Netanyahu to resign.
  We need to ask ourselves what could possibly need to happen before 
the United States finally stops financing a war strategy that has so 
disproportionately killed civilians, used food as a weapon, made Gaza 
unlivable, and that has no realistic vision of a peaceful future for 
either Palestinians or Israelis.
  I believe that the time has already come. Israel does not need more 
bombs for Gaza. The United States should stop paying for this.
  What Mr. Netanyahu consistently fails to acknowledge is that the 
American people are paying for this war--a war that most Americans do 
not support. It is their tax dollars that have purchased the bombs, 
tanks, artillery shells, machine guns, and ammunition that have been 
used by Israel in what has become a war not just against Hamas but a 
war against the Palestinian people.
  Overwhelmingly, Vermonters who have contacted me, like a substantial 
majority of the American people, are absolutely horrified about what is 
happening in Gaza.
  In all the years he has served as Prime Minister, Mr. Netanyahu has 
never articulated the vision for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian 
conflict. To the contrary, he has been on a mission--which he has 
confirmed publicly--to destroy any possibility of a future Palestinian 
state while preserving Israel as a Jewish state.
  Those goals are fundamentally incompatible, if Israel is to remain a 
democracy. And we support the Jewish democratic State of Israel. Yet, 
on March 22, the Netanyahu government announced the largest seizure of 
land in the West Bank since 1993.
  Nothing can excuse the brutality of Hamas--we all know that--which, 
for years, has squandered precious resources that could have been used 
to improve the impoverished lives of the people of Gaza.
  But just as Hamas's atrocities and the Iranians and others who aid 
and abet them should be absolutely universally condemned, so must we 
recognize that there is a long history to this conflict.
  For years, the United States--Republican and Democratic 
administrations and this Congress--has unconditionally supported 
increasingly extreme rightwing governments led by Mr. Netanyahu, even 
though he has consistently acted in ways that are directly contrary to 
our policies, our principles, and our national interests.
  In the West Bank in the past 3 years alone, Israeli land seizures, 
settlement construction, demolitions of homes, and violence against 
Palestinians have soared, in flagrant violation of international law.
  But rather than hold the Netanyahu government accountable, U.S. 
government officials keep repeating the same tired refrain that such 
actions are ``an obstacle to peace.'' And nothing changed. And despite 
evidence of human rights violations by Israeli soldiers, the Leahy Law 
has never been applied to Israel--not by this administration or any of 
its predecessors. And, meanwhile, Congress has continued to approve 
billions of dollars unconditionally for the Netanyahu government.
  I have spoken many times about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Month 
after month, as Gaza was being destroyed, I and others have called for 
greater access for aid trucks and the protection of civilians and aid 
workers. I have called for indefinite cease-fire. President Biden has 
called for a cease-fire. Vice President Harris has called for a cease-
fire. And so has the U.N. Security Council.

[[Page S2685]]

  And Prime Minister Netanyahu has ignored it all, the humanitarian 
crisis has grown steadily worse, and the war is far from being won. 
Netanyahu's strategy in Gaza is reminiscent of that famous quote of an 
unnamed U.S. major in Vietnam who said:

       It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save 
     it.

  That is what is happening to Gaza. It won't work here, as it didn't 
work there.
  Nobody--nobody--disputes Israel's right to go after the perpetrators 
of the October 7 massacre. But that atrocity and that security failure 
did not provide license for Israel to go to war against an entire 
population killing tens of thousands of defenseless people, targeting 
aid workers, preventing lifesaving aid from getting to the victims--all 
while the hostages remain trapped underground not knowing if they will 
survive another day.
  This is not the Israel the American people have supported and 
defended--with my support--with $300 billion since its founding 75 
years ago--far more aid than we have provided to any other country.
  As Jose Andres said:

       Israel is better than the way this war is being waged. . . 
     . You cannot save the hostages by bombing every building in 
     Gaza. You cannot win this war by starving an entire 
     population.

  The words of Chef Andres.
  I recognize that the Prime Minister makes his own decisions, and it 
is for the Israeli people to hold him accountable. But he is not--and 
in my view, has never been--a credible partner for the United States. 
Combating ruthless terrorists like Hamas is a challenge we face, Israel 
faces, the world faces. But this war is not making any of us safer from 
terrorism. It is creating the next generation of terrorists.
  With an invasion of Rafah looming, the Biden administration has 
warned Mr. Netanyahu that unless there is a credible plan to relocate 
the Palestinians who are trapped there, such an invasion would cause 
unacceptable civilian losses. That, however, does not appear to have 
dissuaded Prime Minister Netanyahu.
  World opinion has shifted sharply against Israel and the United 
States. The administration, while calling for a cease-fire and more 
humanitarian aid, is simultaneously sending more bombs and ammunition 
to Israel. It is an inconsistency that is not sustainable.
  It is long past time for the U.S. to adopt a consistent policy, to 
stop financing a war strategy that was deeply flawed from the very 
beginning--a strategy of unending death and destruction without any 
plan for what comes next.
  Instead of prolonging this catastrophe, let's use our influence and 
our resources to advance a consistent policy for the Middle East--a 
policy that has to be grounded in the recognition that the people of 
Israel will never be secure without upholding the inherent rights and 
dignity of the Palestinian people as well.
  After 6 months of war, the situation, regrettably, in Gaza is worse 
than ever. Hamas is not defeated, nor do the experts that I have spoken 
to believe it can be. Gaza is all but destroyed. Two million 
Palestinians lack the basic necessities of life and have nothing to 
return to.
  We need to change course. The hostages need to come home. The killing 
needs to stop. The war must end.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.