[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 148 (Monday, September 23, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6324-S6325]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Israel

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, in May 2000, Israeli forces withdrew 
from southern Lebanon, but while the occupation ended, Hezbollah's 
appetite for waging war on Israel only grew, and its further deadly 
attacks on Israel invited the 2006 conflict.
  But the history of Israel's fight to defend its northern border and 
innocent civilians against Hezbollah terrorists bears eerie parallels 
to the stories of the brutal violence Hamas has perpetrated from Gaza. 
Israel withdrew there in August 2005, and by 2007, Iran-backed 
terrorists had bent the enclave to its all-consuming mission, which is 
war on Israel.
  But the most glaring through-lines in Israel's north and south are 
not the relentless bloodlust of terrorists. They are the predictable 
delusion of Israel's ``friends'' and the shameful cowardice of 
international authorities that claim to stand for peace.
  Take, for starters, how the Biden-Harris administration chose to 
welcome the U.N. General Assembly by signaling its openness--openness--
to resuming funding for UNRWA and how it apparently still clings to the 
fiction that an organization so thoroughly corrupted by Hamas that 
nearly a dozen of its staff directly--directly--participated in the 
October attacks is somehow reformable.
  But while the civilized world gathers in one place, the General 
Assembly might productively spend its time contemplating other pressing 
questions, for example: Why hasn't the U.N. Security Council managed to 
enforce resolutions 1559 and 1701 in Lebanon? These resolutions were 
passed to end and prevent further conflict between Israel and Lebanon 
by removing the threat Hezbollah posed on Israel's border and to end 
the threat Hezbollah posed to the State of Lebanon itself.
  And why has the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon allowed Hezbollah 
to build up massive stockpiles on Israel's border, in clear--clear--
preparation for war?
  Why has the U.N. looked the other way as Hezbollah has expanded its 
corrosive influence over the institutions of Lebanon's Government?
  But setting aside the failures of the so-called international 
community, this past weekend once again cast a spotlight on America's 
known naivete toward the glaring facts of Iran-backed war on our friend 
Israel.
  In an interview that might rightly attract scrutiny for its host's 
obfuscation of the facts on Israel's responses to Hezbollah terrorism, 
the White House National Security Communications Advisor said out loud 
what the Biden-Harris administration has been saying by its actual 
actions for nearly a year:

       We've been working since the beginning of the conflict, 
     October 8 . . . to try to prevent an escalation.

  So think about that. The only way to claim credit for working to 
``prevent an escalation'' is by pretending like Hezbollah's October 8 
attacks--or Hamas's October 7 massacre--weren't actually escalations 
themselves.
  Unfortunately, the administration official also seemed to suggest a 
moral equivalence--a moral equivalence--between Israel and Hezbollah. 
He suggested that ``military action, by either side'' would not be ``in 
either side's best interest'' and implied that an Israeli response 
would itself be escalation--once again, second-guessing Israel's 
interests, micromanaging their defensive efforts. Blaming Israel for 
escalation when it is clear--absolutely clear--Hamas and Hezbollah have 
been the instigators of this conflict. It is a tired playbook.
  The administration is telling the world that what America wants is a 
return to October 6, as if the status quo was either sustainable or 
peaceful. This, of course, is pure fantasy. Hamas broke a cease-fire on 
October 7.
  Or consider Hezbollah's history as the centerpiece of Iran's ``ring 
of fire'' around Israel: Just since the 2006 conflict, Hezbollah 
terrorists have imported tens of thousands of rockets to target Israel, 
deployed forces directly to Israel's border, and constructed tunnels 
that would allow them to emulate Hamas's October 7 invasion.

[[Page S6325]]

  Recent estimates suggest the terrorists possess up to 200,000 
rockets, missiles, drones, and precision-guided munitions, along with 
25,000 active-duty militants--all of it pointed south at Israel, and 
all of it, as Hezbollah's leader has boasted, is from Iran.
  Or consider Lebanon itself. Hezbollah is a cancer on the Lebanese 
State. It wields its power as a sectarian terror squad and leads a long 
trail of blood through its highest ranks of civilian government and 
civil society. Sunnis, Christians, Druze, and fellow Shiites--none are 
immune from Hezbollah's wrath.
  Then, again, National Public Radio refers to Hezbollah as a 
``political'' group. Perhaps the administration's officials' confusion 
is a symbol of their media diet or more likely the foundations of their 
foreign policy are fundamentally flawed.
  Remember the declaration by the President's National Security Advisor 
early last fall that the Middle East was ``quieter than it had been in 
decades.'' The absurdity of that boast in light of October 7 is 
striking enough, but even when it was written, it betrayed the 
administration's naivete toward glaring and abiding threats to Israel 
and America's national security interests in the region.
  Iran's agents in Syria and Iraq had already fired hundreds of rockets 
at American forces on this administration's watch. Since last October, 
these attacks have only metastasized, including into the Red Sea. So 
was this an acceptable status quo? Was Hezbollah's steady preparation 
for war? Was Hamas's expropriation of humanitarian assistance in order 
to build terror tunnels?

  The United States ought to stand with our friend Israel as it faces 
these terrorists down. The goal should not be simply to avoid 
escalating or to return to the status quo ante but to help Israel 
defend itself against terrorists bent--bent--on Israel's destruction.
  We have a stake in ensuring Israel emerges from this conflict 
stronger and these terrorist organizations and their Iranian patron 
weaker. These same terrorists want to expel the United States from the 
region. We are the Great Satan, in their own parlance. Instead, by 
their misplaced obsession with escalation, the administration and 
Washington Democrats are actually making Israel's job harder.
  If the President and Vice President want to see an end to the war in 
Gaza and prevent greater hostilities in Lebanon, then it is time to 
switch the focus of their diplomatic pressure.
  Every time the administration officials try to tie Israel's hand in 
public comments and every time a U.S. Senator threatens to hold 
critical security assistance hostage, Hamas, Hezbollah, and their 
patrons in Tehran are emboldened.
  If our colleagues want peace, it is time to show support for a nation 
founded on peace and resolve toward terrorists whose reason for 
existence is chaos and violence.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The senior Senator from Illinois.