[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15998]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 INCREASE OF VIOLENT ATTACKS IN ISRAEL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, a strong Israel means a strong 
United States, and a strong United States means a strong Israel. That 
is why I want to offer my condolences to the families of the Israelis 
murdered by Palestinian terrorists in Jerusalem yesterday.
  The increase in these attacks is a grim reminder of the need for the 
United States--now, more than ever--to stand side by side in support of 
Israel and its right to defend itself and her citizens. I condemn these 
terror attacks, and I call on President Obama and leaders of other 
responsible nations to do the same and to hold Abu Mazen and the 
Palestinian leadership accountable for these actions.
  We must recognize the importance of U.S.-Israel cooperation across a 
wide spectrum of areas, but particularly our cooperation on security 
and defense issues.
  In the past year, I have had the opportunity to not only see 
firsthand what our joint efforts have produced with the Iron Dome 
antimissile defense system, but also why this is such an important 
venture. Last August, I led a congressional delegation trip to Israel 
to discuss our bilateral relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu and 
other top-ranking Israeli officials. The one thing that we heard 
repeatedly in almost every meeting was how thankful the Israelis were 
for the United States Congress' continued support for the Iron Dome and 
other defense missile systems and our belief in Israel's need to 
maintain its qualitative military edge over its enemies.
  Iron Dome has become known for its accuracy after its remarkable 
performance in 2012, especially in November of that year during 
Operation Pillar of Defense, when Hamas terrorists fired thousands of 
rockets indiscriminately into Israeli civilian populations. The sheer 
numbers were astounding, and the rate of success is a testament to the 
U.S.-Israeli cooperation.
  So when we arrived in Israel in August of 2013, less than a year 
after Pillar of Defense, one of the first things that Prime Minister 
Netanyahu said to us was:

       Thank you for Iron Dome. It truly saved countless innocent 
     Israeli lives.

  We visited a deployed Iron Dome battery in northern Israel to see 
this remarkable piece of technology. We also met the incredible young 
men and women of the Israeli Defense Forces who operate the Iron Dome 
batteries. It was impressive and inspiring to see how well these young 
people handled the weight of such an incredible burden, but that is a 
testament to the Jewish people and to Israel.
  The next time I witnessed firsthand the importance of Iron Dome was 
just this past summer, Madam Speaker. We were in Israel and in Jordan 
to get a better understanding of the situation in the Middle East. We 
had arrived in the region about 2 weeks after the news that Hamas had 
kidnapped three Israeli teens, Eyal, Naftali, and Gilad. We were in 
Israel the day that the heart-wrenching news came out that the bodies 
of these three young boys had been found riddled with bullets in the 
territories. It was an incredible moment of sadness, of loss, of 
despair for the entire nation, and we grieved with them when we 
attended the funeral of the three teenagers.
  But Israel had no time to grieve over its loss of these three because 
Hamas had been engaged in rocket attacks against Israel that began when 
the three boys were abducted and murdered. Their intensity increased as 
the search began; and once Israel found the bodies, Hamas began firing 
rockets, hundreds of rockets into innocent Israeli civilian 
populations.
  Amid the constant barrage of rockets and the continual blares of 
warning sirens, Iron Dome once again proved its worth and importance. 
It successfully shot down rocket after rocket aimed at the Israeli 
people over the course of the latest operation called Protective Edge.
  The performance of Iron Dome, Madam Speaker, shows how great both 
Israeli and American technology and expertise are, and why it is 
vitally important that our two countries continue to work together on 
projects such as Iron Dome, David's Sling, Arrow, and many others.
  Congress recognizes this fact, and that is why we continue to fund 
these major projects in a bipartisan manner, because we understand the 
threats that Israel faces and we understand the importance of Israel's 
right to defend herself to ensure her continued existence.
  I authored and the House passed the U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership 
Act, which bestows upon Israel a unique status as a major strategic 
ally of the United States, and I hope that one day soon we will be able 
to pass this bill again in the new Congress and send it to the 
President for his signature.

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