[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10945]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1700
                           ISRAEL UNDER SIEGE

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, Israel has the absolute right to 
defend itself. It is under siege. In the north, it has the terrorist 
group Hezbollah; in the south, it has the terrorist group Hamas, both 
firing missiles into that Nation. Recently, six ships tried to break a 
blockade going into Gaza. Israel defends its borders and searches ships 
to make sure that aid going to Gaza is not from Iran and it is not 
weapons.
  But this was not humanitarian aid workers that assaulted the Israeli 
commandos, where 10 of them were hurt. It turns out that their goal 
was, of course, to have an international incident. The reason being, 
after these ships were stopped and then allowed to proceed into Gaza, 
the humanitarian aid was denied and refused by Hamas. Obviously, an 
international incident that had gone bad for Hamas.
  Recently, myself and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Peters), along 
with 128 Members of Congress have tried to make it clear to the White 
House that the United States should stand with our ally Israel, that we 
should make it clear to Israel, to America, and the rest of the world 
that Israel has the absolute right to defend itself in this situation 
and support the blockade and support their actions of the flotilla. 
This should be clear to all concerned throughout the world, especially 
Hamas and Hezbollah.
  And that's just the way it is.

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