[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5550]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1010
                           ISRAEL AND AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Pompeo) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POMPEO. I rise today in my role as Representative and with the 
perspective of both a Christian and a former soldier. I urge this body 
and our President to do all within our collective power to defeat 
Iran's efforts to build a nuclear weapon and delivery system, the 
combination of which presents a world-changing threat to every 
American, to every Israeli, and to citizens everywhere in our world.
  I've had the privilege to travel twice to the Holy Land. One cannot 
walk the Golan Heights or travel the hills around Jerusalem and fail to 
appreciate the momentous nature of these places. Even a quick survey of 
history reveals that this is among the most geopolitically and 
strategically important patches of land on Earth, and it is also the 
focal point of the world's three Abrahamic religions.
  Our Declaration of Independence speaks of a humanity endowed with 
rights by its Creator. The land we speak of here is the land where He 
walked, the land where He taught, and the land where my faith teaches 
me that He gave His life for each of us. And now this land is menaced 
by a dangerous and inimical enemy. One cannot stare long at a map 
without plotting the strategic course open to this enemy. In doing so, 
one is struck by the miniscule flight time for a missile departing from 
Iran for this land loaded with a weapon of mass destruction.
  Mr. Speaker, it's election season and our President appears to be 
more interested in dissuading Israel from defending its people than 
deterring President Ahmadinejad from achieving nuclear weaponry. 
Unfortunately, danger--this danger, particularly--knows no timetable, 
and political calculation amid such peril is an abdication of a 
Commander in Chief's responsibility.
  Mr. Speaker, we hear the President's team has said that an Israeli 
attack would destabilize the region. It is hard to doubt that, to a 
degree at least, this is possible. But more destabilizing by an order 
of magnitude would be the permanent threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. It 
is a folly to trade temporary peace for a permanent menace to world 
security.
  Mr. Speaker, our President's intelligence chief has said that the 
Iranians have not yet decided to build a bomb. To me, these words are 
reminiscent to those of Neville Chamberlain, who doubted that the Nazi 
command had finalized its decision to invade all of Europe, both east 
and west. The threat was either ignored or considered too irrational to 
be possible by a timorous and distracted world bent on avoiding 
conflict.
  Mr. Speaker, this body must unambiguously oppose the weakness our 
President has spoken of on this issue. Our Commander in Chief has 
fought against every Iranian sanctions measure that we have presented 
to him; he has casually mused about returning to pre-1967 borders, as 
if road-testing an idea; and he has consistently sided with the 
Palestinians on key issues surrounding American national security. It 
should be no wonder then that President Ahmadinejad feels emboldened, 
for weakness always breeds and invites aggression. In such situations, 
perceptions will influence outcomes--and possibly determine them.
  With this in mind, we must emphatically, and in no uncertain terms, 
display unwavering American commitment to the defense and support of 
Israel. The perception that we mean it, and that we mean it without 
reserve, will serve to inhibit Iran's nuclear ambitions as surely as a 
policy of American doubt, hesitation, and vacillation will serve to 
strengthen it.
  We are mindful, too, that our President has said, when he believed 
himself to be out of the reach of microphones, that he was tired of 
President Netanyahu. He said, ``I have to deal with him every day.'' 
This was an all-too-rare and certainly valuable glimpse into the heart 
of the President. It seems to confirm to me what many of us suspect and 
what gives President Ahmadinejad courage: that despite the careful 
language suggesting alignment between America and Israel, the President 
will crumble when Israel needs him most.
  Mr. Speaker, I will say in front of this microphone and on the record 
this morning that I'm tired. I'm tired of creating risks for America's 
democratic foothold in the Middle East; I'm tired of a badly mistaken 
notion that Israel is some way or another the aggressor; and I'm tired 
of the President speaking of a moral equivalence between Iran and 
Israel.
  There are but a few moments in history that have set the course for a 
relationship among nations, and I believe this is one of them. We must 
make a powerful and unequivocal commitment to the nation of Israel, and 
we must make an equally powerful and unequivocal commitment to prevent 
Iran from achieving nuclear weaponry. Iran must not be allowed for even 
one moment to doubt our will, and it must not be allowed to think twice 
about our willingness to act. The fate of the Jewish people and the 
American people--one and inseparable--depends on it.

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