[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 24, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5327-S5328]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Israel

  Mr. President, later today, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu 
will address a joint session of Congress. I believe this invitation to 
speak was ill-timed and one which the Prime Minister should have had 
the good sense to decline. But if there is one thing we know about 
Prime Minister Netanyahu is that he never misses an opportunity to 
further his political agenda.
  Let me be clear: There are nations and proxy groups that seek to 
destroy Israel, and that is not something we can or ever should take 
for granted. We have seen this with the horrific slaughter by Hamas on 
October 7, the subsequent Iranian missile barrage, the ongoing attacks 
by Hezbollah, and the continued holding of innocent Israeli hostages, 
including Hersh Goldberg-Polin with ties to my State of Illinois. That 
is why I have long supported helping Israel in its self-defense.
  But let me also make clear that support for Israel's right to exist 
is not a blank check for extremist policies of Prime Minister 
Netanyahu.
  Even before the October attack, Netanyahu was pursuing a deeply 
troubling agenda compelled by his self-interested desire to hold 
together his far-right coalition and avoid legal problems.
  He enabled illegal settlement expansion, entertained outrageous 
proposals to annex the West Bank, advance policies that would have 
undermined Israel's judicial independence, and ignored any long-term 
vision for peace with the Palestinians.
  Pressure from Israel's friends, including President Biden, to rethink 
those policies were often brushed aside or manipulated to create 
domestic political support in Israel.
  Tragically, it has been clear for years that neither the current 
Israeli nor the current Palestinian leadership have a vision of 
political will to find a lasting peace for two people--with tragic 
consequences.
  Shortly after the October 7 attack by Hamas, many of us warned our 
Israeli friends to learn from our own mistakes we made in the fog of 
rage and pain following September 11, 2001. But I fear these lessons 
have been lost upon Netanyahu, and the cost for Israel and Palestinians 
alike has been heartbreaking.
  Netanyahu has failed to create a postconflict plan, has ignored 
increased settler violence in the West Bank and extremists blocking 
humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.
  When I think about the right of Israel to exist, it is pretty clear 
to me, start to finish, that is the basic foundational position to 
take: the right to defend themselves, of course. October 7 was proof 
positive that that is necessary.
  But you take a look at the course of the war in Gaza ever since: 
39,000 innocent Palestinians have died; 90,000 have been injured. The 
scenes that come back to us from what is happening in Gaza are 
heartbreaking. To think that these children are dying of famine and 
starvation because they have stopped the shipments of humanitarian aid 
into Gaza in a regular, orderly way, that is unacceptable.
  In the end, I fear the devastating civilian toll in Gaza will not 
only be judged a moral and humanitarian calamity but a likely strategic 
failure by the Israelis as well.
  I have long supported a two-state solution for Israel and 
Palestinians. In fact, out of the terrible Yom Kippur war came an 
unimaginable, yet lasting, peace between Egypt and Israel.
  So with the right leaders on both sides, it can be done. And the 
United States has a responsibility for a renewed push on all sides 
toward this goal, one in which Israel and Palestinian children can once 
and for all live together in peace and dignity.
  A pending cease-fire that would see hostages released, humanitarian 
aid increased, and eventually lead to a desperately needed outcome 
seems finally within reach.
  Last night, at the invitation of Ben Cardin, our colleague from 
Maryland, I met with some of the hostage families here in the Capitol. 
I cannot imagine what it must be like, many of them wondering if the 
person whom they

[[Page S5328]]

love--their sons, their daughters, their wives, their friends--are even 
alive today. Unimaginable.
  We have to bring this to an end. And a cease-fire agreement with 
Hamas is the only way to get that done.
  Instead of stirring the same old pot, I urge Prime Minister Netanyahu 
to share such a vision for the future when he speaks to the U.S. 
Congress today.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hickenlooper). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.