Congressional Record, Volume 170 Issue 119 (Tuesday, July 23, 2024)

[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 119 (Tuesday, July 23, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5170-S5172]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Israel

Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the state of the war

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between Israel and Hamas. Tomorrow, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu will speak before a joint session of Congress. I hope he will
propose a significant change in his approach to the war. I hope he will
offer his resounding thanks to President Biden for his steadfast
support of the defense of Israel. I hope he will thank this
Democratically led Senate, the majority leader, and our Republican
colleagues for our early support of the supplemental appropriations
bill that provided billions of dollars to strengthen Israel's defenses
and provide humanitarian support to Gaza.
It has been more than 9 months since Hamas carried out its horrific
attack against the Israeli people. Hamas terrorists killed more than
1,200 men, women, and children, and took 250 hostages. Unspeakable acts
of terror were committed on October 7, and they will never be
forgotten.
In the wake of this attack, the United States has stood resolutely by
Israel's side, providing billions of dollars of aid and intervening to
shield Israel from attack by Iran and its proxies.
For more than 75 years, Israel has been one of our closest allies.
Since its founding, Israel has relied on America's friendship, and we
have been proud to give it. It is because of this friendship, not in
spite of it, that we must insist the Israeli Government change course
in its war against Hamas. Israel's leaders must refocus their efforts
to peace, stability, and the core tenets of Israel's democracy.
Several months ago, I came to the Senate floor as chairman of the
Senate Armed Services Committee and as a friend and longtime supporter
of the Israeli people to say that the war had veered off course. I
urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to learn from the United States' lessons
in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I urged him to develop a realistic long-
term plan for Gaza, including a framework for a two-state solution.
Instead, Prime Minister Netanyahu has not just ignored the guidance of
Israel's friends and allies, he has doubled down on his worst instincts
and the dangerous ambitions of the most extreme elements of his
coalition government.
The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. Gaza is a tiny enclave, but it
is home to more than 2 million people who have been living in a war
zone for 9 months. Tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians have been
killed. Nearly half a million Gazans are facing life-threatening food
insecurity. Efforts to increase humanitarian assistance have fallen far
short.
Mr. Netanyahu and his government have failed to develop an exit
strategy for Gaza. They have no plan for a sustainable future for the
Palestinians and no plan to establish security and rebuild Gaza's
destroyed cities.
Even more alarming, Israel now faces the threat of a second front on
its northern border with Lebanon. Hezbollah--better trained and better
armed than Hamas--continues to clash with the IDF, threatening all-out
war. At the same time, violence in the West Bank could boil over at any
moment, which could spark wider regional conflict.
As I said in March, I believe that good allies and good friends stand
together, but great allies and great friends are willing to speak hard
truths and hold each other to the highest standards, especially around
the conduct of war.
With Prime Minister Netanyahu in Washington this week, I am again
compelled to say that the Israeli Government must change its path.
There are three specific issues that the Israeli Government must
address if it hopes to secure lasting peace. First, it must change its
strategy in Gaza from a counterterrorism operation to a
counterinsurgency campaign. Second, Israel must wrest control of its
government back from the far-right extremists who have seized power.
Third, Israeli leaders have to recognize that a two-state solution is
the only viable path for peace and stability for the Israeli people.
To start, we have to acknowledge that Prime Minister Netanyahu lost
his way in leading Israel's war against Hamas. He appears unwilling or
unable to understand that his military strategy cannot destroy a group
like Hamas. He continues to drive a costly, high-tempo counterterrorism
campaign when he should be pursuing a counterinsurgency campaign.
The differences between these two strategies are important. A
counterterrorism operation, like the one the IDF is carrying out, is
about applying military power to crush terrorist fighters and prevent
attacks.
Certainly, Israel has degraded much of Hamas's military power. U.S.
analysts have judged that Hamas no longer has the capabilities to carry
out another attack like October 7. But Hamas is not just a terrorist
group; it is an ideology and a political organization with deep roots.
Political ideologies like Hamas cannot be bombed into submission.
Instead, Mr. Netanyahu must shift to a counterinsurgency strategy.
Counterinsurgency campaigns seek to address the root cause of the
insurgency and strive to win the support of the local population, while
building legitimacy for a responsible government. Israel's objective
should be to weaken Hamas's support among Palestinians and ultimately
isolate it from political and military lifelines.
But in times of trauma, every nation's first reaction is fear and
anger. Much like Israel's horror on October 7, the United States
experienced a deep national trauma on September 11, 2001. We, too,
responded militarily, but it took us far too long to learn that a
sustainable peace cannot be won solely on the battlefield. The best
armies in the world cannot defeat a terrorist ideology.
Nine months into Israel's war against Hamas, it is clear that there
is no way to wipe out the Hamas ideology through military might alone.
This is not just my opinion. Current and former Israeli political and
military leaders, including members of Mr. Netanyahu's own Cabinet,
have warned that Israel's current strategy is not viable for long-term
victory.
Last month, the chief Israeli military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel
Hagari, said:

Those who think they could make Hamas disappear are wrong.
Hamas is a political party. It is rooted in people's hearts.

It was because of this strategic failure that Benny Gantz, a former
Israeli army general, Defense Minister, and member of Netanyahu's war
cabinet, announced his resignation last month. He argued for months
that Israel needed to fundamentally change its approach to the war, but
Netanyahu could not be reasoned with.
I agree with Mr. Gantz on this issue. Prime Minister Netanyahu's
conduct of the war has backfired strategically. Hamas wants to keep
Israel in a state of perpetual war, and Netanyahu has fallen into that
trap. His government must shift from a counterterrorism strategy to a
counterinsurgency strategy.
Much of Mr. Netanyahu's intransigence may be attributed to the
political allies he surrounds himself with. As a way to cling to power,
Netanyahu has made common cause with far-right extremists who pursue
their own agendas at the expense of Israel's security. These extremists
have been elevated to some of the highest Cabinet positions of the
government and have encouraged Netanyahu's most misguided policies,
including his attempts at changes to the Israeli judicial system.
One of these figures is Itamar Ben-Gvir. As a convicted terrorist,
Ben-Gvir was deemed too extreme to serve in the Israeli military.
Nonetheless, in order to secure his coalition, Prime Minister Netanyahu
placed Ben-Gvir in charge of the Ministry of National Security, which
oversees the Israeli National Police.
Ben-Gvir has openly advanced his desire for the ethnic cleansing of
Palestinians, including in Gaza. He has advocated for the settlement of
Israelis in Gaza after the war and has organized a campaign to hand out
assault rifles to Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Importantly, Ben-Gvir has threatened to topple the governing
coalition if his radical demands are not met. In particular, he has
pressured Mr. Netanyahu to reject a hostage deal or cease-fire with
Hamas that would include the release of Palestinian prisoners. Ben-
Gvir's extreme agenda is eroding Israel's stability and adherence to
the rule of law.
Another Cabinet Minister is Minister Smotrich, a notorious, radical
settler activist with a troubling record. As Netanyahu's Minister of
Finance and Adjunct Minister in the Ministry of Defense, Smotrich
leverages his official

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power to advance his agenda of annexing the West Bank for Jewish
settlers and evicting Palestinians from the area. With Prime Minister
Netanyahu's implicit support, Smotrich has steadily shifted control of
administering the West Bank to his handpicked cronies in the Defense
Ministry.
The Israeli activist group Peace Now has assessed that 2024 has been
the ``peak year'' for Israeli land seizures in the West Bank.
As Finance Minister, Smotrich has abused his power by freezing
distribution of Palestinian tax revenues as leverage to force the
annexation of Jewish settlements. These tax revenues constitute almost
all of the Palestinian Authority's budget, including its police and
security personnel.
Earlier this month, Smotrich released some funding back to the
Palestinian Authority in exchange for the authorization of five Israeli
settlements that had been built illegally. This is extortion, plain and
simple, and it has been condemned by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet
Yellen and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
I highlight these far-right Cabinet leaders because their extreme
personal and political agendas are impacting the government's military
decisions in Gaza, whether through threats or cajoling, Ben-Gvir,
Smotrich, and others have pushed the government into prosecuting the
war and governing Israel the way they see fit.
In announcing his resignation last month, Mr. Gantz told the press
that he had ``become exasperated with Netanyahu for agreeing on one
thing in the wartime cabinet and then doing the opposite because of
pressure from his far-right coalition partners.'' In his resignation
speech, Gantz lamented that ``faithful, faithful strategic decisions
are met with hesitation and procrastination due to political
considerations. Unfortunately, Netanyahu prevents us from progressing
to real victory.''
These dynamics caused former Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud
Barak to publicly warn that ``[this war] appears to be the least
successful war in history due to the strategic paralysis in the
country's leadership.''
Prime Minister Netanyahu is beholden to the far right. He needs his
rightwing partners to stay in his coalition, and in turn, they cannot
abandon him because he is their best chance to accomplish the
objectives of their nationalist agenda.
Until there is a change in the direction of Israel's leadership, the
far right will continue to drive Israel's security and the war in Gaza
into the ground.
The failings of the Netanyahu government are not just a matter of bad
strategy or the Prime Minister's willingness to rely on radical
political partners to stay in power, it is also his own opposition to a
two-state solution. As has been clear for decades, Prime Minister
Netanyahu is unwilling to recognize that a two-state solution is the
only viable path to peace and security for Israel. He has been
thwarting this option since his first term as Prime Minister in 1996.
One of Mr. Netanyahu's most reliable assets for preventing a two-
state solution has been Hamas. As far back as 2012, Netanyahu told
Israeli press that ``it was important to keep Hamas strong, as a
counterweight to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.'' He knew
that by empowering Hamas in Gaza, a two-state solution would never be
possible. In fact, between 2012 and 2018 alone, Netanyahu allowed an
estimated $1 billion to flow into Gaza, at least half of which reached
Hamas.
According to the Jerusalem Post, in a private meeting with members of
the Likud Party in 2019, Netanyahu explained his rationale as this:

The money transfer is part of the strategy to divide the
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. . . . In that way, we
will foil the establishment of a Palestinian state.

This open hostility to a two-state solution has only hardened in the
aftermath of October 7. In February, Netanyahu bragged:

Everyone knows that I am the one who for decades blocked
the establishment of a Palestinian State that would endanger
our existence.

And in just the last week, he led the Knesset in passing resolution
that rejects a two-state solution.
Mr. Netanyahu has never been shy about his desire to prevent a two-
state solution. His record is now clear beyond a shadow of a doubt. We
should not be surprised that he continues to stand in the way of peace.
With this troubling record laid out, I feel compelled again, as a
friend of Israel, to say that Prime Minister Netanyahu has put Israel
on a disastrous path. His leadership is eroding Israel's security,
health, and democracy.
In March, I came to the floor to call for new leadership for both the
Israeli and Palestinian people. I stand by that call. Ultimately, these
are decisions for the Israelis and the Palestinian people.
But while Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to lead his nation, I
urge him to return to the cease-fire framework he agreed to in May with
the Biden administration. This plan includes a sensible and phased
approach to bring the hostages home, increasing lifesaving humanitarian
assistance to Gaza, and a realistic approach to day-to-day security and
governance in Gaza.
Israel will not find the long-term security and peace it wants by
indefinitely reoccupying the Gaza Strip. In addition, the Prime
Minister, working with the United States and other regional allies and
partners, must achieve a diplomatic solution on the Israeli-Lebanon
border. Now is not the time to risk opening a second, potentially more
dangerous, confrontation with Hezbollah that could spill over into a
larger regional war.
Further, Mr. Netanyahu should immediately disavow the far-right
members of his Cabinet and stop their efforts to inflame violence in
Gaza and the West Bank that is making a two-state solution all but
impossible.
Finally, President Netanyahu must accept the legitimacy of a two-
state solution, where the State of Israel and a demilitarized
Palestinian State can exist side by side in peace and security. This
plan is difficult and will require a buy-in from Israel, the
Palestinian people, Arab neighbors, and the international community,
but it is necessary and essential. The inability to embrace a two-state
solution has profound consequences for the State of Israel, its
security, its standing in the world, and its ability to remain a
democracy.
As I prepare to join my colleagues in listening to Prime Minister
Netanyahu's address tomorrow, I remain deeply skeptical of his
leadership and willingness to change course, but I hope he will finally
listen to his friends and allies who only want the best for Israel.
The United States is Israel's oldest friend. But as a friend, we must
insist that Prime Minister Netanyahu fundamentally change the path he
has put his country on. The eyes of the world and history are upon it.
With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.