[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14305]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               EVERY COUNTRY HAS A RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF

  (Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to condemn 
Hezbollah and Hamas for the recent kidnappings and killings of Israeli 
soldiers.
  These acts of aggression have forced Israel to defend itself and its 
citizens and will have a damaging effect on the prospect of peace in 
the Middle East. If someone attacked across our borders and sent 
rockets into the United States and had killed or captured our own 
soldiers, you had better believe we would want to defend ourselves. 
Israel has the right to respond just like we would.
  Israel fully withdrew from southern Lebanon in May of 2000 and from 
Gaza earlier this year only to suffer hundreds of unprovoked attacks 
from both areas since then. This is not the first time Hezbollah has 
taken action against Israeli soldiers. It also kidnapped and killed 
three soldiers in October of 2000.
  These attacks are an attempt by Hezbollah to open a second front, so 
to speak, after the kidnappings in Gaza and their attack on Israel's 
sovereignty. Hezbollah's actions require Israel to defend itself, and 
Israel's actions to take out terrorist camps along its borders to 
prevent this from happening again are warranted and justified. Israel 
has to defend itself from these terrorist organizations that want to go 
back to pre-1948 before there was Israel. They don't want Israel on the 
map.
  These countries with influence over Hezbollah must move quickly to 
bring the return of these soldiers.
  Mr. Speaker, I condemn the acts of Hezbollah and Hamas and ask my 
colleagues to do so as well.

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