[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 83 (Tuesday, May 14, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S3674]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 ISRAEL

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, on a different subject, I want to speak on 
President Biden's recent decision to withhold certain offensive U.S. 
weapons from Israel that might be used in an assault on Rafah.
  I support President Biden.
  It is not, as some have characterized, a failure to support Israel in 
a dangerous region after a genuinely horrific Hamas attack--and October 
7 was such an attack. It is instead a warning from one of the most pro-
Israeli U.S. Presidents to an ally that a full-scale assault on Rafah 
could not only add to the already catastrophic humanitarian situation 
in Gaza but undermine any long-term stability in the region.
  Let me also remind those critics that President Biden recently helped 
coordinate, with the use of American forces, a dramatic defense of 
Israel against an Iranian assault.
  Anyone who doubts Joe Biden's commitment to Israel is misguided. But 
he has reached his limit with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his response 
in Gaza and focus on his own political survival more than anything 
else.
  His blunders protecting civilians and allowing the flow of aid were 
noted in the national security memo reported to Congress last week. Let 
me elaborate. Last week, several of us met with the Jordanian King, 
Abdullah II--a deeply thoughtful leader who knows the region well. He 
is a key ally of the United States, and he has made peace with Israel. 
He, like Middle East expert Tom Friedman, argued that simply leveling 
Gaza and furthering the humanitarian crisis without a long-term 
strategy for peace is no strategy at all for Israel. A path forward can 
only happen with the support of Arab nations in the region.
  President Biden has been urging Prime Minister Netanyahu to offer 
this broader vision, one that likely includes normalization with Saudi 
Arabia and eventual peace with a Palestinian State--a vision that could 
be undermined with a massive assault on Rafah.
  As Tom Friedman posed to Netanyahu in a recent column, ``What do you 
want more--Rafah or Riyadh? Do you want to mount a full-scale invasion 
of Rafah to try to finish off Hamas--if that is even possible--without 
offering any Israeli exit strategy from Gaza or any political horizon 
for a two-state solution with non-Hamas-led Palestinians?''
  Shortly after the horrific attack on October 7, I warned our Israeli 
friends to learn from our mistakes made in the fog of rage and pain 
after September 11. You do not want ill-thought occupation of Gaza to 
become your Fallujah, and, as also learned in Iraq, one needs the trust 
of the local civilian population to help counter terrorist groups.
  We were speculating recently on how many innocent civilians have been 
killed in Gaza in an effort to eliminate Hamas. The number is 
staggering. This is another reason President Biden reached his limit 
with Netanyahu. The devastating civilian toll in Gaza is not only a 
moral and humanitarian problem; it is a strategic failure.
  More than 40 years ago, an American President was furious about the 
photos of civilians killed by Israeli shelling in Lebanon. That 
President then called Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, dressed 
him down sharply, and told him the excessive assault had to end. Over 
the course of this President's term, he used the power of U.S. weapons 
sales, including delaying or withholding certain warplanes and arms, to 
influence Israeli war policy as well as to criticize Israeli actions in 
the region at the U.N. Security Council. That President was Ronald 
Reagan.
  Reagan wrote in his diary about the difficult call with Begin:

       I was angry. . . . I told him it had to stop or our entire 
     future relationship was endangered.

  So I urge those who are resistant and vocal about President Biden's 
actions to reflect on Ronald Reagan's similar moves to help our Israeli 
allies from making strategic, tragic mistakes four decades ago or 
reflect on the words of former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan, who before his 
death concluded that Israel over the years ``achieved a long string of 
impressive tactical successes but also disastrous strategic failures.''
  I have long supported a two-state solution for Israelis and 
Palestinians. In fact, out of the devastating Yom Kippur War came an 
unimaginable yet lasting peace between Egypt and Israel. It can happen.
  So with the right leaders on both sides, it can be done, and we have 
a responsibility in the United States for a renewed push on all sides 
towards this goal--one in which Israeli and Palestinian children can 
once and forever live in safety, peace, and dignity.
  I yield the floor.

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