[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 84 (Wednesday, May 15, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E503]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              ISRAEL AT 76

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                        HON. JENNIFER A. KIGGANS

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 15, 2024

  Mrs. KIGGANS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record 
remarks submitted at the request of a Virginia Beach constituent, Rabbi 
Dr. Israel Zoberman of Temple Lev Tikvah, and are a reflection of his 
views:

       At its 76th anniversary, the State of Israel, the Middle 
     East's only democracy and America's staunch ally, has been 
     plunged into a national trauma given the unfathomable October 
     7th massacres by Hamas, Iran's radical proxy, rivaling Nazis, 
     al-Qaida, ISIS and the likes' inhuman conduct with revolting 
     sexual violence aimed at enraging and destabilizing Israel's 
     psychological well-being. In 2006 Gaza's population callously 
     elected terrorist Hamas, America's avowed adversary, 
     rejecting international norms and Judeo-Christian values. 
     Those were the last elections held in Gaza. Hamas triggered 
     the current Gaza War bringing much suffering on their own 
     oppressed Palestinians as well as the Israeli neighbors who 
     benefitted them. Incredulously, majority of Palestinians yet 
     uphold Hamas and the October 7th vile assaults.
       The ensuing existential threats to Israel's very security 
     and essential deterrence, followed years of rockets' 
     bombardments that no nation would have tolerated. The world's 
     only Jewish entity and ironically a nuclear power, 
     experienced a described 9/11 tragedy, the darkest day since 
     its 1948 establishment, a second Independence War, and a page 
     taken from the Holocaust's unsettling lexicon. Israel was 
     forced to mobilize 350,000 civilian reservists while handling 
     the trying dislocation of thousands of Israelis from the 
     country's invaded south as well as the heated up north where 
     Hezbollah, the other Iranian and even more toxic proxy, 
     disallows normal living with its constant shelling from 
     Lebanon.
       Uprooting unrelenting Hamas from ruling Gaza which Israel 
     is rightfully insisting upon, is exacerbated by dense urban 
     terrain and a system of unparalleled tunnels, all shielding 
     an enemy with hellish treatment of torturing and murdering 
     hostages of all ages, including American citizens, with many 
     still captive without Red Cross visitation. The terrorists 
     use hospitals, schools and mosques as launching pads with 
     shocking impunity and a duplicitous United Nations. This mega 
     eruption affecting the entire region and beyond is directly 
     tied to the growing relationship between Israel and the Sunni 
     Arab world with the near historic alliance between Israel and 
     Saudi Arabia that belligerent Iran is seeking to forestall. A 
     game changer is the April 14th massive air onslaught 
     including over 100 ballistic missiles, though thwarted, 
     exposing Iran's intent to destroy the Jewish state. Israel's 
     limited response did however send a powerful message of 
     penetrating so close to Iran's threatening nuclear 
     facilities. The essential American support for Israel 
     benefits both allies, protecting the entire world.
       The provoked Gaza War increased Israel's familial bonding 
     with American Jewry, the largest Jewish diaspora, which Jews 
     at large have faced since October 7th an alarming rise of 
     antisemitism, repugnantly visible on American campuses. Dr. 
     Rabbi Daniel Gordis' recent book, Impossible Takes Longer 
     (New York: HarperCollins Publishers 2023), written for 
     Israel's 75th anniversary, lays bare Israel's astonishing 
     progress along with challenges in light of promises and 
     premises of Israel's May 14, 1948, Declaration of 
     Independence.
       The author asserts, ``Today, one needs to exert 
     considerable effort to recall the world as it was only 
     recently precisely because Israel's mere existence not only 
     has fulfilled the promise to afford Jews security and an end 
     to heartbreak but has been successful far beyond what Herzl 
     (Israel's founding visionary) and his compatriots could have 
     dared imagine.'' Thus, reflecting Israel's foremost asset as 
     a safe haven to a long--suffering people at the mercy of 
     others, finally seizing an historic opportunity to radically 
     alter as treacherous trajectory. Notwithstanding October 7th 
     shaking aberration catching Israel so agonizingly off guard, 
     just as the 1973 Yom Kippur War did fifty years earlier.
       Gordis ponders since a ``new Jew'' arose with Israel's 
     establishment, will Israeli society be one ``based on 
     freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of 
     Israel,'' so stated its Declaration of Independence. I 
     believe that Israel's under duress remarkable 
     accomplishments, along with world's leader in non-profits, 
     are admirable though lofty Jewish aspirations face a 
     regressive Middle East, and an Israel with unresolved core 
     issues of Judaism's intersection with democracy, calling for 
     a needed guiding constitution. Clearly, Israel spearheads the 
     indispensable defense of the West and its civilization which 
     the Jewish people mightily gifted.
       Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman is founder of Temple Lev Tikvah 
     in Virginia Beach, and son of Polish Holocaust survivors. He 
     is Kazakhstan's only born Rabbi (1945) and grew up in Haifa, 
     Israel.

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