[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 19 (Wednesday, January 29, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S462]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Israel

  Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, like all of us, I was enormously relieved 
by the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza, the gradual release of 
hostages, and a surge in humanitarian aid for the 2 million desperate 
Palestinians who are trapped inside Gaza.
  Despite the daunting challenges ahead and the many factors that could 
derail negotiations to implement stage 2 of the agreement, I am 
cautiously hopeful that this could be the beginning of the end of a war 
that has traumatized millions of Palestinians and Israelis for more 
than 16 months.
  There will come a time for the accounting of the conduct of the war, 
which has caused such appalling loss of Palestinian and Israeli lives, 
including tens of thousands of children, of health workers, aid 
workers, and journalists, and massive destruction of property, 
including practically every hospital and every school and university in 
Gaza. These things must not be forgotten, and that means investigating 
and holding people accountable under the laws of war.
  But today I want to speak briefly on an issue that is key to the 
lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis that we seek, and that 
is the creation of a viable, secure, independent, and demilitarized 
Palestinian state.
  The war in Gaza was triggered, of course, by the merciless slaughter 
on October 7, 2023, of 1,200 innocent Israelis, Americans, and others 
and the abduction of some 250 hostages, many of whom have died. But, as 
we all know, the Middle East conflict began many decades earlier and 
some would say centuries ago. Ethnic hatred and religious intolerance 
passed down from one generation to the next have fueled seemingly 
endless violence perpetrated by extremists on both sides, and it has 
created a chronic state of insecurity for Israelis and insecurity, 
humiliation, poverty, and hopelessness for Palestinians.
  In the West Bank, Israel's ever-expanding settlement construction, in 
violation of U.N. resolutions and contrary to U.S. policy, has created 
a patchwork of separate and unequal enclaves and illegal outposts, 
provoking frequent acts of deadly violence by Israeli settlers and also 
by Palestinian extremists.
  Gaza, with the overt support of the Netanyahu government, became an 
open-air prison for 2 million impoverished Palestinians dependent on 
international aid and under the ruthless control of Hamas.
  Throughout this period, the wealthy Arab states have called for a 
Palestinian state, but they have expended minimal political capital or 
resources in furtherance of that goal--a lot of talk, very little 
action.
  Successive Palestinian leaders have squandered opportunities to make 
necessary political and economic reforms, while Mr. Netanyahu has 
worked to create conditions on the ground that would actually make a 
Palestinian state impossible.
  Despite this grim reality--and it is a grim reality--the attention 
focused on the remarkable life of President Jimmy Carter after his 
death on December 29 reminded us that even in the most difficult 
circumstances, peace is possible between longstanding enemies. It 
happened. But that possibility depends on the quality of the 
leadership.
  If there were ever a time when the leaders of Israel, the Palestinian 
Authority, their Arab neighbors, and the United States should put the 
interests of regional peace and economic cooperation and development--
including an independent Palestinian state--over personal and political 
ambition, it is now. It is now.
  Gaza is in ruins. Hamas and Hezbollah, still a threat, pose less of a 
threat than at any time in recent history, and the horrific Assad 
regime is gone. Iran is also weaker. Most Israelis, Palestinians, 
Lebanese, and Syrians want peace. But given the absence of visionary 
and courageous leaders in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the 
possibility that a path to a Palestinian state will emerge really does 
depend on the Trump administration using its diplomatic influence far 
more forcefully and effectively than previous U.S. administrations, 
including the first Trump administration, were willing to do. We have 
got to act.
  And it will require the same of Congress, which in the past has 
restricted itself to enacting tighter and tighter sanctions on the 
Palestinians, causing increasing desperation and resentment for 
innocent Palestinians, while at the same time, opposing any incentives 
on Israel to stop settlement construction and settler violence.
  There are those who believe that because of Israel's construction of 
settlements, walls, fences, separate highways, factories, and farms in 
the West Bank, that the West Bank and Gaza can never be reconfigured 
into a viable Palestinian State. And having seen a current map of the 
West Bank, I can certainly understand that.
  But others reject the very idea of a Palestinian State as 
incompatible with Israel's security, without proposing any alternative 
that would preserve Israel as a democracy in which all its citizens, 
regardless of ethnicity or religion, have equal rights. Given Hamas's 
horrific attack on October 7, I can also easily understand that.
  Then, on January 25, President Trump called for the ``cleaning out'' 
of Gaza, suggesting that a million and a half Palestinians should be 
resettled in Jordan and Egypt. And, you know, seriously, there are just 
so many things wrong and unrealistic with that reprehensible and 
unworkable idea, that it barely deserves a response beyond the 
predictable and immediate repudiation by all those who would be 
impacted. It is not serious.
  But to me, as elusive as it may seem, there really is no solution 
that offers lasting peace and continued U.S. support other than two 
independent states: Israel and Palestine, side by side.
  The Palestinian State will only be possible if both sides are 
pressured to make the difficult compromises both sides have so far 
refused to make. And only the United States and our heretofore 
reluctant Arab allies can exert the kind of pressure that is necessary 
to bring people to an agreement.
  There have been far too many missed opportunities and disappointments 
since the Oslo and Camp David Accords, and far too much needless death 
and destruction resulting from the unchecked ambitions of leaders 
motivated by their worst instincts.
  And history will judge us, whether we seize this moment to finally 
chart a different course--a course that does enable Israelis and 
Palestinians to finally accept that there is no turning back the clock, 
that both are here to stay, and that as many Palestinian and Israeli 
neighbors have shown throughout the years of conflict and loss, they 
have far more in common than their differences.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Maryland.