[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6753-6754]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        CELEBRATING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. BERKLEY. Earlier today, this House passed the concurrent 
resolution recognizing the 60th anniversary of the founding of the 
modern State of Israel and reaffirming the bonds of close friendship 
and cooperation between the United States and Israel.
  I was not yet born in 1948 when the State of Israel declared its 
independence, but I grew up and was born into a family where the fact 
that Israel had been created meant everything to us, and I want to 
share with you why that is.
  I am the granddaughter of immigrants to this country that couldn't 
speak English. My mother's side of the family comes from Salonica, 
Greece. Prior to World War II, there was a vibrant Jewish community in 
Salonica. Over half the population, 80,000 people, were Jewish. By the 
time the Nazis finished with the Jews of Salonica, there were only 
1,000 out of the 80,000 Jews left.
  On my father's side of the family, we who come from the Russian-
Poland border, the entire culture, a vibrant culture that had existed 
for over 1,000

[[Page 6754]]

years, was exterminated along with most of the Jewish population of 
Poland.
  I grew up hearing stories from my grandmothers about what it was like 
in the countries that they came from and how happy they were to be 
Americans, to be Jewish Americans. My family had a profound sense of 
patriotism and pride in being Americans, but they also, and we also, 
are Jewish.
  And the fact that there is a country uniquely belonging to the Jewish 
people said something to us about the ability of surviving so that 
anything like what happened in World War II never happened again.
  A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of attending the 60th 
anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I had never wanted to go to 
Auschwitz before because of all of the horrors that took place there 
during World War II: People systematically slaughtered for the very 
mere fact they were Jewish; starved, killed, exterminated, gassed.
  But I did go to this commemoration. And I was told by the late Tom 
Lantos, my dear friend, a story while we were sitting there. Two weeks 
before this commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Israel 
Defense Force had their own commemoration. And the head of the Israel 
Defense Force got up at Auschwitz, and he said the following words. He 
said to the members of the Israel Defense Force who were there 
participating in this ceremony, We are 60 years too late, but we are 
here now; and with that, four Israeli jets buzzed over Auschwitz.
  That symbolism was not lost on anybody sitting there. If Israel had 
existed 60 years ago, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Jews could have 
been saved and kept from the gas chambers.
  If I wasn't Jewish and Israel didn't mean so much to me in a highly 
personal way, as an American, I would celebrate the birth of Israel and 
its existence. The modern State of Israel has rebuilt a nation, forged 
a new and dynamic democratic society, created a thriving economic, 
political, cultural, and intellectual life despite the pain of war and 
almost constant terrorist attacks, attacked in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 
1973, and all the time moving forward and expanding their economy, 
expanding their way of life, living in a thriving and vibrant 
democracy.

                              {time}  2045

  Our strongest ally, America's strongest ally on the planet is that 
little State of Israel; votes with us all the time in the United 
Nations, supports us, and we, in turn, support it because it is 
mutually beneficial to both the United States and to the State of 
Israel.
  It would be my fervent dream that before the next anniversary of 
Israel, that there would be a Jewish State of Israel living side by 
side in peace with a Palestinian state that was also democratic, with a 
free press, free speech, and a vibrant economy and a way of life where 
people could reach across those divides and live a better life 
together.
  And with that, I yield back the balance of my time with great pride 
in the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel.

                          ____________________