[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 7101]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                RECOGNITION OF ISRAELI INDEPENDENCE DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN P. SARBANES

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 11, 2011

  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Israeli 
Independence Day. Sixty-three years ago this week, the dream of so many 
Jewish people around the world became a reality. From desert and 
swampland emerged a nation that is now a leader in technology, medical 
advances and environmental research; and from the ashes of the 
Holocaust, a people was reborn.
  Israel remains an important strategic ally and the only true 
democracy in a very unstable part of the world. In the wake of World 
War II and its tragic legacy for the Jewish people, the United States 
has considered the existence of Israel a profound moral and spiritual 
imperative and was the first nation to recognize the state of Israel in 
1948.
  Even sixty-three years later, however, there are ongoing threats to 
Israel's stability. It is critical that all parties in the region 
recognize Israel's right to exist as well as Israel's right to insist 
on the basic security of its citizenry. Mr. Speaker, I stand here today 
to honor the men and women who have fought to defend Israel's 
independence year after year, to those who keep the hope for peace in 
the forefront of our minds, and with a strong commitment to seeing that 
dream become a reality.

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