[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 89 (Wednesday, May 22, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H3475-H3478]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ISRAEL UNDER ATTACK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 9, 2023, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Roy) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, anybody who is watching the world events 
unfolding today is well aware that our dear friends in Israel are under 
attack, but they are not just under attack by Hamas. They are, in fact, 
under attack from the anti-Western civilization radical progressives 
across the globe and, in particular, at the International Criminal 
Court.
  In all ways, with respect to this attack on Israel, on Western 
civilization, on our own values, on the abuse of an international 
organization with no real legitimacy, the international court, the 
United States should have Israel's back.
  Let's look back for a second at October 7. Let's look at what Israel 
is dealing with in addition to a long history of being under attack, of 
facing foes in the Middle East, of having to live in constant fear of 
attack, of having to live under the technology provided in a mutual 
relationship between the United States and Israel, the Iron Dome, with 
David's Sling, and with all the technology to shoot missiles down.
  How many Americans would like to be sitting in Manhattan, D.C., 
Austin, Dallas, San Francisco, or any other part of this country, 
knowing that the only reason they are safely sitting there is that the 
missiles that are constantly being fired at them are being taken down 
by technology? I don't think that would sit too well with most 
Americans. I don't think most Americans would sit back if rockets

[[Page H3476]]

were being fired into our Nation from Juarez into El Paso.
  I don't think we would just sit back and say that is great, fine, 
keep firing missiles, and we will just put up a shield and shoot them 
down. I think we would do something about it, and I think it would be 
pretty violent. I think we would be right to do so.
  Look at October 7 for our friends in Israel. Let's start with the 
fact that 22 American citizens were killed. Let's add to it that 1,000 
Israelis or more were killed and almost 3,000 injured. Mr. Speaker, 
4,500 rockets were fired from Gaza by Hamas into Israel, and 1,300 
targets were struck. Not since the Holocaust has this large of a number 
of Jews been killed in a single day. That is the truth.
  Hamas beheaded at least 40 babies. Let that sink in for a minute. 
Hamas beheaded at least 40 Israeli babies.
  Hamas terrorists not only raped and murdered Israeli women, but they 
forced husbands, families, and friends to watch. That happened. We have 
documentary evidence. We know this occurred.
  A compilation of those atrocities captured on video shows gunmen 
shooting the dead bodies of civilians in cars, militants in the process 
of beheading a body with a hoe, burnt corpses thrown in a dumpster.
  An eyewitness on October 7 said: ``To be afraid for your kids' life 
and your wife, it is a whole new level of fearing.''
  A survivor of the attacks in Israel on October 7 said: ``I just 
waited pretty much that they will come and murder me, my wife, and my 
kids inside our house. I thought maybe if the terrorists enter my 
house, I will go out so they will kill me and they will leave my family 
aside.''
  Another one: ``It was the worst horrific war scenes that you see only 
in movies around us.''
  Another: The gunfire ``was nonstop,'' and we were ``waiting and 
waiting, and it is continuing, and you hear only the weapons of 
Hamas,'' and realize ``no one is here to save us.''
  ``As a woman who was there, I can say that the fear is endless. It 
can't be described in words. To be a woman in captivity is to be in 
constant fear, but the men there also undergo abuse,'' said one woman 
who was abducted during the October 7 attack.
  There remain today over 100 hostages being held. So now steps in the 
International Criminal Court, the ICC. When President Trump came into 
office, he rightfully recognized the threat of the International 
Criminal Court. The international court was created under the guise of 
investigating and prosecuting the world's most serious crimes, but it 
actually represents a significant threat to our Nation's sovereignty.
  In 2020, when President Trump came into office, he issued an 
executive order punishing by way of sanctions anyone at the ICC who 
goes after the United States, United States servicemembers, or our 
allies, such as Israel.
  What did President Biden do in all of his infinite wisdom? He revoked 
those sanctions as soon as he got in office, effectively giving the ICC 
a free pass to target United States citizens and our allies, such as 
Israel.
  They made an escalatory and unprecedented step just recently 
threatening to issue illegitimate arrest warrants for Prime Minister 
Netanyahu and other Israeli officials for alleged war crimes in Gaza. 
The application marks the first time ICC has sought to prosecute a 
major United States ally or the leader of a democratic country.
  What you are seeing happen is an unprecedented assault on Western 
civilization on Israel and, by extension, on our sovereignty as 
Americans.
  I view this court as an illegitimate court. It has no authority over 
America. Technically, we are a signatory to the court because President 
Clinton signed on, but he did not submit it to the Senate for any kind 
of ratification, so it has no legal force in America. Do you think that 
the ICC will target Americans? You bet they will.
  If we don't act right now to quash what is occurring with the ICC 
targeting the Prime Minister of Israel--think about that. An 
international court with no real legal authority in the United States 
is targeting the Prime Minister of Israel for responding with military 
force to the attacks--rockets, murders, rapes, beheadings--levied 
against the citizens he represents as the Prime Minister, levied 
against them directly from Hamas.
  By the way, Israel is a nation that has taken the unprecedented step 
in history to give warnings to citizens, civilians in Gaza, up to 2 
weeks' advance notice. In one case, it dropped 15 million leaflets 
across Gaza to warn them that they needed to clear out because Israel 
was going to take out Hamas facilities, leaving text messages and 
voicemails, taking every step possible to warn civilians to move away 
from Hamas targets.

                              {time}  1930

  This is going to be studied for years to come what Israel has been 
doing to keep the civilian to combatant casualty as low as it is. We 
believe it is somewhere between 1 and 2. That is, frankly, well below 
the norms and the standards the United Nations talks about, well below 
some of the historic norms even for the United States.
  This must be stopped because when they are going after the Prime 
Minister of Israel they are going to go after us. Put that aside. We 
can't stand by and allow an international tribunal to be targeting our 
ally and friend Israel for simply defending itself against attack.
  This is why I was proud to join with Representative Mast from Florida 
and Representative Stefanik from New York to introduce the Illegitimate 
Court Counteraction Act to impose sanctions on the ICC officials who 
seek to go after U.S. citizens or our allies. It is modeled very 
similarly to the Trump executive order. It is also mirrored in 
legislation offered by Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas over in the 
United States Senate.
  As I have stated, the ICC, the International Criminal Court, is an 
illegitimate court. It represents a threat to the United States and our 
sovereignty. Frankly, we should be more aggressive than what we have 
put in this legislation. We are seeking to move quickly in a world in 
which the current administration is at war with Israel while they are 
trying to contend that they are allies.
  In 2021, President Biden reportedly ignored a request for a phone 
call with the Israeli Foreign Minister. Earlier this month, President 
Biden threatened to cut off Israel's military aid while they are 
fighting a war against Hamas. Now, he is actively criticizing Israel's 
military strategy on the world stage.
  In a Politico article it was stated: ``Top officials are publicly 
calling Israel's strategy in Gaza self-defeating and likely to open the 
door to Hamas' return--a level of criticism of the Middle East ally not 
seen since the war began in October.''
  The Biden administration betrayed Israel, and frankly, our own well-
being as a nation at the United Nations earlier this year when America 
abstained from a vote--abstained from a vote--when the United Nations 
was calling and demanding for an immediate cease-fire, which would have 
been a one-sided cease-fire, hamstringing Israel in its defense against 
Hamas.
  The United Nations lowered its flag to mourn the recent death of the 
``Butcher of Tehran,'' the President of Iran. The United States Deputy 
Ambassador to the United Nations, Robert Wood, stood for the moment of 
silence in honor of the former president of Iran.
  This is what this administration is doing. They are taking steps 
directly to undermine Israel. We have never seen this kind of 
unprecedented undermining of one of, if not our closest, ally at a time 
when they most need our support.
  I am not one to believe in blind support. I have, in fact, voted 
against funding here because I thought the funding was foolish and 
misguided because it included funding that would go to Hamas. We voted 
for, I think, about 15 or $16 billion of aid to Israel, something I 
generally supported, but it included $9 billion in humanitarian aid 
which we knew based on history, common sense, and experience would go 
to Hamas, and, in fact, it has.
  We should not blindly support anybody. We should not just write blank 
checks. We should not pat ourselves on the back for support. When you 
have got an International Criminal Court that has no legal force in the 
United States, when you have got an International Criminal Court 
threatening to go after the Prime Minister of our very

[[Page H3477]]

close, if not closest, ally for defending itself when it is having 
rockets fired at itself from enemies that beheaded 40 of their own 
babies, I am sorry, that criminal court needs to be forcefully 
condemned by the United States.
  At the same time this is all going on--and I hope we will bring 
forward this legislation forthwith. It is a good bill. It has, I think, 
60 cosponsors and growing with a cross-section ideologically of the 
Conference. I hope we will bring this bill forward when we get back 
from Memorial Day recess.
  I want to compliment the Speaker of the House,   Mike Johnson, for 
his work in trying to move this bill forward. I want to compliment the 
chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee,   Michael McCaul, for his 
work in trying to get this moved forward and working with a broad 
cross-section of us to get legislation to condemn the International 
Criminal Court, pass sanctions, force them to understand that if they 
are going to act against our ally, if they are going to take an 
unprecedented step of issuing warrants against the Prime Minister for 
alleged war crimes, that we will sanction them and that they will have 
no welcome mat in the United States.
  By sanctioning, we mean that all of the actors involved will not be 
welcome here. Their families will not be welcome here. Their visas 
would be revoked. Other penalties and measures, including any funds 
that potentially flow from the United States to get to the 
International Criminal Court, which are not supposed to occur but often 
do through these various NGOs, that we would take all the steps we can 
to undermine an International Criminal Court that has no basis.
  While that is going on remember this: At every stage of the war from 
October 7, the regime of Egyptian President el-Sisi has undermined 
Israel's war effort in a bid to prevent the Jewish state from defeating 
Hamas.
  Now, the financial interests of the el-Sisi family appeared to have 
been advanced significantly through cooperation with Hamas' efforts to 
build tunnels across the border with Egypt.
  Now, how do we know that? Well, in the last 10 days or so, going back 
to May 11, Israel revealed that during early stages of the IDF's, the 
Israeli Defense Forces' operation in Rafah--now pause for a second. The 
world geniuses, all of the elites in the world body said, no, Israel 
can't go into Rafah. They were adamant about it. These are war crimes. 
You can't go into Rafah. There are civilians there.
  Well, Israel has been going into Rafah. They need to root out the 
battalions there. They need to kill more Hamas. They need to destroy 
Hamas, leveling it to the ground, minimize civilian casualties and find 
every way they can to restore peace and well-being by destroying their 
enemy. We would want nothing less as Americans, I assure you.
  Israel revealed that during the early stages of their operation in 
Rafah, IDF forces discovered more than 50 underground tunnels that 
traversed the international border between Egypt and Gaza. This story 
is not getting nearly the attention that it deserves.
  What is it that the international bodies, what is it that the 
Palestinians in Gaza, the folks associated with Hamas and those that 
are enemies of Israel, what is it that they didn't want us to know?
  The scope of the cross-border tunnel project indicates that Egyptian 
authorities were not merely aware of Hamas' operation, they were 
supporting it. They were partners. They were making money. By the way, 
there are all sorts of existing international agreements dating back to 
1979 between Egypt and Israel.
  How much American money is flowing to Egypt? How much American money 
is flowing to the very countries, the very entities that are attacking 
Israel? Yet, here they didn't want people to go into Rafah. They didn't 
want Israel to go in. Why? Because they knew that the game was going to 
be given up, that there was a concerted, coordinated effort throughout 
the Middle East region to find ways to dismantle, disrupt, attack, and 
destroy Israel.
  That is the truth.
  This President is effectively supporting it. He is pulling back on 
the resources given to Israel, undermining the diplomacy, calling for 
one-sided cease-fires, funding Iran, lifting sanctions on Iran, 
allowing billions of dollars of their oil money to flow to China, which 
is enriching Iran and empowering China and undermining our national 
security, undermining our ally, Israel. That is all occurring right 
now, all while the International Criminal Court is targeting the Prime 
Minister of Israel.
  Now, this is nothing new. Egypt has tried to undermine Israel's 
military operations in Gaza every step of the way. Egypt has blocked 
the exit of Gazans from the war zone. Egypt has blocked humanitarian 
aid from entering Gaza while accusing Israel of genocide at the 
International Court of Justice.
  Egypt has threatened to abrogate its peace treaty with Israel and 
tied the future of peace to Israel's bowing to pressure not to operate 
in Rafah. Egypt has undermined hostage talks and waged political 
warfare against Israel at the United Nations and other international 
arenas.
  There is nothing new here, except we now know right in front of us 
the new information about Egypt reveals what we have known about the 
region's attack and assault on Israel.
  There are 50 tunnels, and they keep counting them. Bodies of hostages 
have been found in the tunnels. It has been clear that there has been 
the movement of weaponry through the tunnels.
  This is just more of the same from an administration that is 
endangering America on the world stage, undermining the safety and 
security of the American people, a disastrous, radical, progressive 
Democratic regime in the White House. Basically, all that regime is is 
propping up a President and using him as a puppet to carry out their 
radical leftist agenda.
  There has been no accountability for the disastrous Afghanistan 
withdrawal. There has been no justice for the 13 servicemembers who 
died there. There has been no accountability for the billions in 
military equipment left behind.
  This administration has created the worst border crisis in the 
history of our Nation and endangered our citizens. Authorities in this 
country apprehended an illegal alien just this week with a van they 
called a rape dungeon on wheels. They found children's toys inside with 
condoms and ropes.
  This is your country.
  This is happening in your backyard.
  There are little girls getting sold into the sex trafficking trade as 
we speak. An illegal alien from Nicaragua is accused of restraining and 
blindfolding a 12-year-old girl while attempting to sexually assault 
her. The alien illegally crossed the Texas border in October of 2021 
and was released--released. Mr. Speaker, 80 known or suspected 
terrorists have been encountered at the southwest border just in fiscal 
year `24--more than all of those encountered in FY `17 to `21 combined.
  Meanwhile, we have sent $175 billion for a proxy war in Ukraine. We 
have no clear strategy and no defined objective, no oversight on 
spending. This administration is endangering the citizens it is 
supposed to be taking care of under the Constitution and defending our 
borders and securing us against enemies foreign and domestic.
  That is the truth.
  There is no defense.
  If organizations like the ICC, the International Criminal Court, if 
organizations like the United Nations, if organizations like the World 
Health Organization, and the rest of them actually cared about human 
rights, they would be going after the real war criminals. They don't 
care about Hamas' crimes.
  Yeah, the ICC says they are issuing warrants for Hamas, but they are 
trying to constrain Israel from going out and attacking and destroying 
Hamas.
  What they care about is attacking and tearing down everything that is 
great and good about Western civilization that has done more for more 
people around this world than any other civilization in history.
  Whether the President knows it is going on or not, that is what the 
Biden administration's actions have all been driving towards these past 
3 years. They are destroying our sovereignty and weakening us on the 
outside while pushing chaos, economic ruin, and moral disintegration 
domestically.
  I hope my colleagues will support the ICC sanctions bill. It is 
important. I hope we will all support it.

[[Page H3478]]

  I have to address one other thing because while I think we will have 
unity among Republicans in pushing back on this International Criminal 
Court that is undermining our sovereignty and targeting our friend and 
ally Israel, and while I hope that we will be able to speak with one 
voice when we get back on that subject, there is another thing that is 
going on consistently here in this town.
  Mr. Speaker, 18 months ago some of us set out to change the 
institution. We set out to change the rules and open up the process to 
be able to have more amendments, have more voice for the entirety of 
the majority in the decisionmaking of the leadership.

                              {time}  1945

  For a while that resulted in some changes. Last year, we were able to 
get Republican and broad support for what we called the Limit, Save, 
Grow Act in order to put forward a vision for limiting the increase in 
debt while expanding fiscal responsibility.
  It was good legislation. We passed the strongest border security bill 
that we have ever passed. It had no amnesty in it. It had legitimate 
border security measures that have been rejected by Democrats, but 
would, by any objective measure, secure the border of the United States 
and almost assuredly would have meant that the killer who was paroled 
into the United States by the Biden administration would not have been 
able to be paroled and would not have been able to kill Laken Riley.
  We passed that bill. We passed that bill as Republicans, uniting to 
do that. We passed seven appropriations bills. We processed about 1,100 
amendments. We were able to move the ball forward in order to unite, in 
order to get this train back on track to see if we could do the 
appropriations process the right way.
  There are many people in this body, particularly among my Republican 
colleagues, who want to hide behind rules and hide behind votes on 
rules, taking down rules, to say that we are not actually carrying out 
regular order.
  Now, what does that mean for the average citizen out there? There are 
people in this town who want to have every excuse possible for blowing 
the budget of the United States, racking up debt, leaving the border 
wide open, sending more money overseas for endless wars, and then 
coming to us and crying about how, somehow, we don't get it. We don't 
get it.
  We are supposed to all work as a team and agree to all the rules. 
Does it matter what is in the rule? What good is unity if your unity is 
for a terrible and stupid and destructive purpose? What good is unity 
if unity is going to rack up more debt and destroy our budget and 
destroy our children's futures and empower bureaucrats, empower 
tyrants, take away liberty, leave borders open, allow people to die, 
empower China, and send money to Ukraine?
  What good are promises to say that you are going to secure the border 
of the United States before you deal with Ukraine and then do nothing 
of the sort? What good are rules that carry out that as a result?
  When you hear a Republican decrying the fact that some of us want to 
say no and stand athwart history, yelling stop, to quote William F. 
Buckley, ask them what they have done. Ask them what they have done to 
limit spending, cut spending, secure the border. Ask them if they have 
done anything they said they would do. Ask them. Ask them to prove it. 
Ask them to show their votes, because nothing is going to change in 
this town as long as people bow down to the power brokers who tell you 
how it is.
  I will again state on the floor of this Chamber, I answer to God, the 
Constitution, and the 750,000 people who sent me here. I answer to no 
committee chairman. I answer to no Speaker. I answer to no colleague. I 
answer to those Texans I represent and following the law.
  My election certificate is every bit as valuable as anybody else's 
here. If they don't like it and want to go home and explain why they 
saddle up with Democrats for more Democrat support and majority 
Democrat support and they want to try to explain their votes, go ahead.
  Explain the kill switches on cars that you voted for. Explain the 
Republicans who voted against defunding UNRWA last September 3 weeks 
before Israel was attacked by people funded by UNRWA. Explain that. The 
American people sent us here to change this place.
  I had a colleague just a minute ago in a meeting who was just saying: 
Been here 14 years and we have done none of the things that we set out 
to do.
  Amen.
  We have an obligation as Members of this body to actually do the 
things we said we would do. I believe that the efforts that we set out 
to do 18 months ago resulted in positive change, and I am not going to 
let go of those things.
  We did manage to hold nondefense spending flat. Defense spending that 
went up was paid for out of the hide of the IRS expansion and out of 
COVID money. We passed the best border security bill we could. We set 
the terms of the fight with the Limit, Save, Grow bill, for the defense 
spending bill. We put caps in place, which have already been busted. We 
started to push this place in the right direction and that is the 
direction we ought to go back to.
  Over the next 5 or 6 months, the American people are going to have 
choices to make. I believe that they ought to return a Republican 
majority of the House and give us a Republican majority in the Senate, 
and I think they ought to put Donald Trump in the White House.
  None of that will matter if Republicans aren't willing to come here 
and do what we said we would do and put every ounce of your election 
certificate on the line to do what you said you would do. We didn't 
come here to sit around for 2 years talking about how we get re-
elected. We came here to save the country.
  I hope that is what we will focus on doing. I hope most Americans 
will sit and watch my friend from Arizona's detailed explanations of 
where this country is headed if we do not seek, not just fiscal 
responsibility in the broadest sense, but, as he will no doubt say in a 
few minutes, smart ways that we go about doing what we can do to save 
this country with its mountains of debt piling up for a variety of 
reasons, all of which are things we can deal with if we just had the 
courage to do it instead of looking at each other talking about the 
next election. Once we get elected, we should do something with it.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________