[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 261-262]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        HAMAS--A HISTORY OF HATE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, Israel and Hamas are fighting each 
other in the Gaza Strip. The question is, what is this fighting all 
about?
  For centuries, the Jews and Muslims have fought over a strip of land 
in what we call the Holy Land called the Gaza Strip. It's a territorial 
dispute, but it's also a conflict of a religious nature.
  The Gaza Strip is a tiny sliver of land about two times the size of 
Washington, D.C., with a population of about 1.5 million people. It is 
bordered by the State of Israel on three sides and the Mediterranean 
Sea to the West.
  The modern war between Israel and the Palestinians began after Israel 
became a sovereign nation in 1948, after the end of World War II. After 
the Egyptian invasion of Israel in May of 1948 and the subsequent 
occupation of the Gaza Strip, large groups of Palestinian refugees 
began to arrive and live in Gaza.
  In the last half of the 20th century, territorial control bounced 
back and forth between Israel and its Muslim neighboring countries. In 
the 1990s, Israel transferred security and civilian responsibility for 
the Palestinian-populated areas of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. 
After that transfer, Palestinians elected Yasser Arafat to be their 
leader, a person who was by no means pro-Israel, but a leader at the 
very least who worked for peace between Israel and Palestine.
  In September 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew all of its settlers 
and soldiers and dismantled its military facilities in the Gaza Strip 
on the condition that the Palestinian terrorist groups, like

[[Page 262]]

Hamas, would stop terrorizing innocent civilians in Israel near the 
Gaza border, but that did not happen. Hamas continued its relentless 
attacks against the Jews, causing an escalation of tension in that 
region.
  Then in January of 2006, the people of Palestine elected Hamas to 
head the Palestine Legislative Council. The international community did 
not accept the Hamas-led government because it refused to renounce 
violence, refused to recognize the State of Israel, and refused to 
honor previous peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinian 
Authority.
  After a series of infighting between Hamas and more moderate 
Palestinians, Hamas militants succeeded in a violent takeover of all 
the military and government institutions in the Gaza Strip.
  So since 2000, Hamas terrorists have targeted over 1 million Israeli 
civilians in Gaza and Israel literally firing thousands of rockets, 
missiles and mortar shells into Israel. In just the past 10 days, Hamas 
has fired more than 500 rockets at innocent Israeli civilians, and 
there is no end in sight.
  The anti-Semitic hate speech propagated by Hamas leaders is no 
figment of anyone's imagination. It is real. It's enticing an entire 
generation of young people to become terrorists, all in the name of 
religion. Even our State Department has designated Hamas as a foreign 
terrorist organization for as long as that list has existed.
  But we don't have to take our own government's word for it. In 2005, 
a Hamas leader in Gaza told the media that, ``Neither the liberation of 
the Gaza Strip nor the liberation of the West Bank or even Jerusalem 
will suffice us. Hamas will pursue the armed struggle until the 
liberation of all our lands. We don't recognize the State of Israel or 
its right to hold onto one inch of Palestine. Palestine is an Islamic 
land belonging to all the Muslims.''
  Later in 2006, another leader said, ``Israel is not a legitimate 
entity, and no amount of pressure can force us to recognize its right 
to exist. Israel must be humiliated and degraded.''
  These are not the words of a people who desire peace and 
reconciliation. These are the words of a people who blatantly call for 
the complete destruction of Israel and will not stop at anything until 
that happens.
  What's worse, Hamas doesn't care what it takes to make this happen, 
even if that means killing its own people.
  Since the fighting began, Israel has allowed over 200 truckloads of 
food and medicine to enter Gaza, even under shellfire. Just today, 
Israel agreed to cease its ground operations for 3 hours every day so 
that humanitarian supplies can be taken into Gaza.
  But meanwhile, Hamas is not only preventing its own wounded civilians 
from crossing into Egypt to receive medical treatment, but they're 
stealing medicine and supplies meant for civilians and using them for 
their wounded terrorists.
  What makes Hamas even more inhumane is their willingness to put their 
own people in harm's way. Time and time again, Hamas has intentionally 
launched missiles into school yards and residential areas, putting 
Palestinians at risk, daring Israel to try and come after them, even 
hoping for Palestinian civilian lives to be lost in these attacks.
  It's time for the rest of the world to stand in solidarity with 
Israel in its fight against terrorism and demand that Hamas immediately 
end its rocket fire attacks on Israel and stop smuggling through 
tunnels between Egypt and Gaza. However, Hamas says it will never end 
their war against Israel until Israel ceases to exist.
  In the face of such hate, Madam Speaker, Israel is left with no other 
choice but to defend its people and its sovereign territory from these 
murderous terrorists.
  And that's just the way it is.

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