[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8333-8336]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 ISRAEL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) will control 
the remainder of the hour.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I am so grateful that I have 
such a dear friend from Iowa as Mr. Steve King. There's no price you 
can put on a dear friend like that. Thank you.
  I would like to continue on in this discussion about the President's 
speech. I'm not quite sure what the President had in mind when he 
decided to rush over to the State Department and make a speech, when he 
knew the Prime Minister of our dear ally, Israel, was traveling to come 
to the United States. He knew that when he gave the speech that the 
Prime Minister would be at a great disadvantage. It was a speech, as I 
understand it, that wasn't run by the Prime Minister, was quite a 
surprise to him, and, in fact, when there were hints that the President 
might make the statements he did, there was a pleading not to do so.

                              {time}  2040

  I don't know if those are stories or, actually, how it occurred. 
That's no way to carry on international relations. It's certainly no 
way to treat our friends. It's not hard to understand that when it 
comes to international relations, if you treat your enemies better than 
you treat your friends, then

[[Page 8334]]

your friends will desire to be your enemies, and you will get what you 
desire.
  I don't know what the people in the White House are thinking; this is 
a friend. You don't do this to friends. So he jumps out and goes to the 
State Department where he has got a captive audience. Well, I say 
captive, apparently from what's on statements that have been made, the 
president of the Islamic Society of North America, which is a listed 
coconspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial for funding Hamas, a 
terrorist organization, this president of the listed coconspirator of 
funding, or in the Holy Land Foundation trial for funding Hamas, made 
comments about the speech because he had been invited to be in the 
inner sanctum of our State Department by this administration.
  This administration, this President, chose to make a speech, 
basically slapping a friend in the face, and at the same time invite 
the president of a listed coconspirator for funding terrorism to be in 
attendance so he could talk about how wonderful the speech was. The 
same Imam Majid, the president of the Islamic Society of North America 
that we find from reading the transcript of the speech that the number 
two person in the National Security Administration, the deputy National 
Security Adviser, said this spring, as he addressed the All Dulles Area 
Muslim Society, which they like to call ADAMS, for short, he thanked 
Imam Majid, the president, this listed coconspirator, for his remarks 
and also to talk about how wonderful his prayer was at the White House 
Iftar celebration last year, which is the celebration in Islam that 
marks the end of the fasting of Ramadan.
  And in the remarks, the deputy National Security Adviser of the 
United States commented on the President noting that this was really a 
continuation of the Iftar celebration that Thomas Jefferson had, once 
again, marking that the President is not getting good information about 
our Nation's history.
  There are not 57 States; we are not, as the President said, producing 
more oil now than we ever have. You don't have to go back that far. We 
were producing 9.6 million billion barrels a day, and now we are 
producing 5.5. Do the math, if somebody will be honest enough to give 
the President the right information.
  He says we never had more people on the border than we do right now. 
Somebody show the history of 1916 when a President--who I don't have a 
great deal of admiration for, Woodrow Wilson--knew that it was wrong to 
have a Mexican bandit, or a bandit group led by Pancho Villa come into 
the United States and be responsible for killing a handful of American 
citizens.
  That was enough to motivate the President at that time to call up 
something new called the National Guard and to send General Pershing 
down there with over 10,000 troops to go into Mexico, root out the 
troublemakers--many were killed even though he didn't catch Pancho 
Villa, but the murders stopped. The intrusions into the United States 
across our sovereign border stopped. The 100,000-plus National Guard 
troops that were placed on our border in 1916 made sure that the 
intrusions stopped.
  And by General Pershing going in, they made sure that they were not 
going to want to come try that again. That's how you deal with domestic 
or foreign terrorism. You can't try to love people and you can love 
your enemies and in Christianity we are taught to do that. And as 
individual Christians, that's what we are supposed to do.
  But when we take an oath to defend this Constitution, when we have 
the responsibility of an oath to defend this Nation, to provide for the 
common defense, then it is incumbent upon us to provide for the common 
defense, and we have a different standard for which we have to answer.
  So, yes, Christians are supposed to love one another. But the 
government's responsibility, as noted in Romans 13, is, as the 
scripture tells, someone tempted to do evil. If you do evil, be afraid, 
because God does not give the government the sword in vain.
  We have a responsibility to provide for a free society and a safe 
society where people will be free to love each other and to make free 
choices. And, yes, when there is a religion that has been hijacked by 
radicals that says you give people freedom of choice, that's wrong, we 
need to have a caliphate. We need to have a religious leader that tells 
everybody what they can do. That way we avoid all the debauchery that 
you can see on any evening news in America.
  The trouble is, God gave us freedom of choice. We can choose well or 
we can choose poorly, and the government ought to ensure, any 
government ought to ensure that people have that opportunity to do that 
as well.
  So, after the President's speech, which basically amounted to a slap 
in the face of the leader of our friend, Israel, after the inaccurate 
representation by the White House that, gee, this is where all the 
talks have always started, well, not exactly. That was the point to 
which the Clinton administration pushed Prime Minister Barak, when he 
was the Prime Minister of Israel and, who knows, God knows, I think God 
hardened Arafat's heart so that when the Clinton administration had 
pushed Prime Minister Barak, what I think was far too far, which would 
have made Israel indefensible by any conventional means when Arafat had 
basically everything that he wanted, except the extinction of Israel, 
Arafat's heart was hardened and he said, no, I am not entering the 
deal, thank goodness for Israel. So Israel remained a defensible 
Nation.
  Now, when the White House, when the President tried to walk back his 
comments and explain--and as someone besides me has said before, when 
you hear someone say what I said was, it normally means that it isn't 
what they said. It's them trying to get a better twist than actually 
was the words that were said.
  But in the President's speech, where he tried to massage the words 
that he had given on Thursday, the President's word, and I have got a 
transcript of his speech here, President Obama said, ``The United 
States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with 
permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and 
permanent Israeli borders with Palestine.''
  He goes on and says, ``The Palestinian people must have the right to 
govern themselves and reach their potential in a sovereign and 
contiguous state.''
  So this is the President's speech after he has been chastised by so 
many in his own party and so many across America who apparently are 
better friends to Israel than our President. He has had time to think 
about it, to pour over and make sure he doesn't make a mistake of 
saying something this time that he doesn't mean.

                              {time}  2050

  So if we want to give the President the benefit of the doubt that he 
made mistakes on what he said Thursday, then let's look at what he said 
this past weekend, and that should be what he really meant because he 
had time to massage the words he said.
  I think it is helpful to look at a map of Israel right now. This is 
the West Bank where Palestinians are located, but it's under the 
control, ultimately, of Israel right now. This was originally Israel's 
territory after 1967. This down here is the Sinai Peninsula where Egypt 
is now.
  After Israel was attacked unprovoked, Israel defended itself and took 
the Sinai Peninsula, took over the West Bank, took over Jerusalem, and 
took over the Golan Heights up here. And that was a defensible state. 
But Israel--and I didn't really understand it fully until I went to 
Israel for the first time. I couldn't understand, Why do you guys not 
get it, that when you unilaterally give away land trying to buy peace, 
you lose the land and you provide a staging area from which you are 
ultimately attacked again?
  But once I had been in Israel and I saw locations of families and 
friends being blown up by suicide bombers, saw the location of children 
and families that were killed, terrorized by rockets, now about 12,000 
of them, I understood a little better. They are so tired of

[[Page 8335]]

being terrorized and losing friends and family that they're willing to 
say, Look, we'll give you this area up here in Lebanon that we were 
able to control after the '67 war when you attacked us, we will give it 
back to you if you'll just leave us alone.
  Patrick Henry said, People cry, peace, peace, but there is no peace. 
Israel wanted peace, so they gave away northern Israel, what's now 
colored as part of Lebanon. And so it wasn't but a few years ago 
Lebanon starts attacking, comes across the border, takes hostages, 
attacks Israel from the very area which Lebanon had been given in 
Israel's unilateral quest for peace.
  Now, during the times before they controlled the Golan Heights, this 
area is quite high. It overlooks the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan 
River. And it was real easy to just lob artillery shells from the Golan 
Heights into Israel, terrorizing farmers and killing. It was 
indefensible. So by the grace of God, after they were attacked, they 
took the Golan Heights, and they still hold them. And it is an area 
that by holding they can avoid having cheap mortars that are a lot 
cheaper than rockets just being lobbed over into their settled areas, 
their civilized areas, killing and terrorizing all the more.
  The West Bank--my hats go off to Prime Minister Fayyad for the 
efforts he has made in trying to bring up the West Bank and the 
Palestinian areas. I was critical because Palestinians have received 
billions of dollars, and yet they have not been building homes for the 
rank-and-file refugees, which seems to indicate to me they wanted to 
keep fomenting hatred toward the Jews, toward the Israelis.
  Now let's take the President's words that he had time to massage. He 
learned from his mistake on Thursday, supposedly. He says that it 
should result in two states with permanent Palestinian borders with 
Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Well, you've got the Gaza Strip that Israel 
unilaterally gave back, and now they have suffered thousands and 
thousands of rockets, terrorism, and death as a result of that generous 
gift of the Gaza Strip back. If you'll just leave us alone, we'll give 
you this wonderful strip. They gave it back. People cried peace, peace, 
but there was no peace. There is no peace now. They're still ready--if 
you'll just leave us alone--to make peace.
  But under the President's words, gee, he uses the statement, in a 
sovereign contiguous state. Well, Palestinians have the Gaza Strip and 
they are occupying the West Bank. For that to be contiguous, there's 
only one of two things that can happen, and that is, if you cut Israel 
up, or you give all of this area to the Palestinians that are now 
completely in signed agreement with a terrorist group, Hamas, then you 
give all of this for the use of a terrorist group, Hamas. And so then 
that would fulfill the President's desire as he had time to massage it 
and think about it, giving all of this land to Hamas, Palestinians, all 
of this area up here.
  Well, but wait a minute. He said that after he described the borders 
that we would demand for the Palestinians, he said they would have a 
border with Egypt and with Jordan, comes clear up here, and that Israel 
would have permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. Well, he described 
the borders he wanted for the Palestinians. So his massage words, it 
seems, would mean that for Israel to only have borders with the 
Palestinians, you also have to give Palestine up here into Lebanon so 
that you have this little area, this little strip left for Israel, 
because that's what the President said.
  After he had days to think about his mistake on Thursday, this is the 
best that he can do? We're going to give Israel a little strip?
  And, by the way, can you imagine if Canada or Russia or China, one of 
their leaders, made a speech and said, United States, by the way, we 
think you ought to give away Arizona? You know, you've got drug 
smugglers up there; it would be a lot safer. You basically let them 
have it anyway. Why don't you just give it to the drug smugglers?
  Can you imagine that? Well, that's the interdiction of a meddling 
President. He is trying to tell another sovereign state where they can 
have their borders and where they can't. That is not what you do to a 
friend.
  And I know that we're winding down to the minutes, and I know that 
some people have been taught or miseducated about our history. Well, we 
are not going to be in session here on June 6. June 6 is the 
anniversary of D-day, when we lost thousands and thousands of Americans 
who were trying to retake a beachhead in Europe and eliminate the 
horrible force that was taking away freedoms and killing 6 million 
Jews.
  And so to conclude tonight, Mr. Speaker, I want to read a prayer. 
Since we are not going to be in session on June 6, I want to read the 
prayer that Franklin Delano Roosevelt read live on national radio on 
June 6, 1944.
  President Roosevelt said these words:
  ``My fellow Americans, last night, when I spoke with you about the 
fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States 
and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater 
operation. It has come to pass with success thus far. And so, in this 
poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer.''
  And then Roosevelt's prayer begins:
  ``Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon 
a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, 
and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them 
straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their 
hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
  ``They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For 
the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come 
with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know 
that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will 
triumph. They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest--
until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. 
Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

                              {time}  2100

  ``For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight 
not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to 
liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill 
among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their 
return to the haven of home.
  ``Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, 
Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom. And for us at home--fathers, 
mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, 
whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them--help us, Almighty God, 
to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great 
sacrifice.
  ``Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of 
special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I 
ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we 
rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of 
prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
  ``Give us strength, too--strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the 
contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our 
Armed Forces. And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long 
travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our 
sons wheresoever they may be.
  ``And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our 
sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the 
keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary 
events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment--let not these deter 
us in our unconquerable purpose.
  ``With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our 
enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. 
Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into 
a world unity that will spell a sure peace--a peace invulnerable to the 
schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in 
freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

[[Page 8336]]

  ``Thy will be done, Almighty God, Amen.''
  The words of Franklin D. Roosevelt on D-day, June 6, 1944.
  Mr. Speaker, with that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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