[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16086]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    ISRAEL: AMERICA STANDS WITH YOU

  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to 
address the House out of order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from 
Arizona is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, a tyrannical government cares not 
about the fate of an individual citizen. But in a free country to 
murder a single innocent citizen is to provoke a fight with the entire 
nation. This is one of the great differentiations between Hezbollah and 
Israel. While desperately trying to retrieve two of her soldiers who 
were abducted by Hezbollah terrorists, Israel takes great lengths to 
minimize civilian casualties. Conversely, Hezbollah takes great lengths 
to maximize civilian casualties in Israel while making breathing 
barricades out of the innocent men, women, and children in Lebanon.
  Time and again Israel has made efforts for peace. Israel fully 
withdrew from Lebanon. Then she uprooted from Gaza. She was thanked 
with rockets, mayhem, and bloodbath.
  The recent kidnapping and murder of Israeli citizens and soldiers 
were definitive acts of war. Hezbollah terrorists, along with the 
nations of Syria and Iran, who support them, are the aggressors, Mr. 
Speaker. And now as Israel has risen up to defend herself, along with 
each of the individual citizens whom she loves, we hear cries from the 
U.N. and other quarters for Israel to restrain herself.
  What if, on 9/11, Mr. Speaker, the outcry was for the United States 
to restrain ourselves? Or what if Israel had listened to such calls for 
restraint 15 years ago when she learned that Saddam Hussein was 
building a nuclear reactor? The United States and our coalition forces 
would have faced terrorists with nuclear weapons when we lifted the 
iron hand of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
  You see, Mr. Speaker, Israel understands that the entire world faces 
an evil, poisonous ideology that causes mothers to leap for joy when 
their children blow themselves to pieces in order to kill other 
innocent human beings. Israel understands that a dark ideology like 
that must never be allowed to gain nuclear weapons.
  And why does the rest of the world not seem to understand that? This 
is the same ideology that murdered Olympic athletes in 1972, that took 
American hostages in Iran, that murdered Marines in their barracks in 
1993, that bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, Riyadh in 1995, the 
Khobar Towers in 1996, the embassy in 1998, and the USS Cole in 2000.
  And then, Mr. Speaker, this murderess ideology massacred nearly 3,000 
Americans on September 11.
  And today this is the same ideology that is launching rockets into 
Israel to kill innocent civilians. And, Mr. Speaker, lest we forget, it 
is the same ideology that is working feverishly to gain nuclear 
weapons, to terrorize the Western world in ways that we cannot yet 
imagine.
  Seven decades ago, Mr. Speaker, another murderess ideology arose in 
the world. The dark shadow of the swastika fell first upon the Jewish 
people of Germany. And because the world did not respond to such an 
evil, it began to spread across Europe until it lit the fires of World 
War II's hell on Earth, which saw atomic bombs fall on cities and over 
50 million people dead worldwide. All because, Mr. Speaker, the world's 
free people did not respond in time.

                              {time}  2245

  History has taught us that evil ideologies must ultimately be 
defeated in the minds of human beings. But in the meantime, in the 
meantime, Mr. Speaker, they must often be defeated upon the 
battlefield.
  The battle Israel fights in these days is a battle to protect all of 
humanity from an evil ideology that has no respect for innocent human 
life anywhere on the Earth. That is why, Mr. Speaker, Israel's war is 
our war, and if there is hope for peace and freedom in this world, free 
peoples across this world just unite to defeat this hellish ideology of 
terrorism. This time, Mr. Speaker, we must not wait too long.
  So may the people of Israel take comfort in these days, knowing that 
America stands with you. May you find victory, and may the light of 
God's peace shine down upon the streets of Jerusalem, forever.

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