[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11565-11566]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 ISRAEL

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I rise to dispel a dangerous notion, 
one I have seen too frequently in newspapers, heard on TV and among 
people, commentators and others in the wake of the violence in Israel.
  The dangerous notion is that there is a moral equivalence between the 
actions and reactions of Israel and the Palestinian State to the 
violence and response in the Middle East--or the Palestinian people 
more so than the State. It must be said there is no moral equivalence 
between the actions and reactions of Israel and Hamas and the 
Palestinian Authority to the violence that has occurred there.
  Two instances make that very clear. We all witnessed terrible 
tragedies occurring in that tortured region of the world. We are now 
all familiar with both the kidnapping and cold-blooded murder of three 
Israeli boys and, in what seems to be payback, the killing of a young 
Palestinian teenager. Both were abhorrent--both were abhorrent--and the 
losses of the families on both sides cannot be understated, but I think 
what we ought to focus on--we all know each side has its fanatics. Each 
side experiences tragedy of the highest order. What I am saying does 
not apply to all the people on either side, particularly the 
Palestinian side, but the reaction is what counts.
  What was the reaction among too many Palestinians to the murder of 
these three boys? They were almost exultant. They were treated as 
heroes. The mother of one of the supposed murderers, people who are 
suspected of the murder of the Israelis, Abu Aysha,

[[Page 11566]]

said: ``If he [my son] truly did it--I'll be proud of him till my final 
day.'' That is what she said: ``I'll be proud. . . . ''
  Those who were purported to kill the three Israelis were regarded as 
heroes, not just among a small segment in the West Bank and in Gaza but 
among large numbers of people. There were parades. They were honored. 
That was the reaction.
  Let's compare that to Israel's reaction when a group of Israeli 
fanatics killed the Palestinian teenager. The Israeli people, in large 
part, were aghast. They said we have to find who did it and bring them 
to justice. Prime Minister Netanyahu called them terrorists, those who 
might have killed that Palestinian, equal to the terrorism on the other 
side of the three who killed the Israelis.
  Israel made every effort to find those and have now made arrests. 
While the leader of the Palestinian Authority condemned the killing of 
the three Israeli boys, there was no such effort on the Palestinian 
side to find those who did it, to bring them to justice. There were no 
calls of universal condemnation.
  How can we compare the two sides? How can people say: Oh, the 
Israelis. Oh, the Palestinians. It is one big fight. They are all the 
same.
  It is not. Again, regretfully, there are fanatics on both sides, and 
I abhor the Israeli fanatics. They make things bad for the vast 
majority of Israelis who want to live in peace in a two-state solution, 
but the vast majority of Israelis condemn the Jewish fanatics. The vast 
majority of Palestinians seem to praise the Palestinian terrorists. 
Hamas, one of the two main governing organizations in Gaza and the West 
Bank, loudly praises the kidnapping and killing of the three Israeli 
boys.
  Is there moral equivalency here? Are both sides sort of acting the 
same?
  By the way, when you read Palestinian textbooks and go to schools and 
read about what the children are taught--vitriolic hatred, not only of 
Israel but of the Jewish people--you sometimes understand maybe why not 
support but condemn and sort of gain some inkling of understanding of 
why so many are filled with hatred. But who is putting out those 
textbooks? Not just Hamas--the Palestinian Authority and many 
Palestinian governing units.
  So the reaction of Israel, its government and its society, to the 
killing of an innocent Palestinian youth and the reaction of the 
Palestinian authorities and people, in large part, to the killing of 
three Israeli youths showed there is no moral equivalency because the 
reaction was totally different.
  Then let's take what happened yesterday. It is the same thing. You 
read all the headlines, Israelis and Palestinians fighting with each 
other, rockets sent on both sides, air raids sent on both sides, but 
let's look at what happened. Hamas sent rockets into the heart of 
Israel to kill innocent civilians--no warnings, not in response to 
anything Israel did. They just decided to send these rockets. Some 
commentators say it is because they are weak now that Egypt will no 
longer let them get all those supplies through the tunnels.
  What is Israel's response? Of course they have to eliminate the 
rockets and rocket launchers, but what other society sends leaflets to 
the houses that have these rocket launchers, saying: Please vacate.
  What other society tries to call people on cell phones to say: Leave. 
We have to get rid of the rocket launchers. We don't want to kill 
innocent people.
  That is what Israel did. Did Hamas send any warnings to the people of 
Sderot or Beersheba or Jerusalem or Tel Aviv that they were going to 
indiscriminately send rockets into civilian areas? No. Did Hamas do 
this in response to Israel? No. So this idea again in the papers--oh, 
both sides are fighting, what can we do, they are both sort of equally 
wrong--is morally abhorrent to me and to many others.
  There is, in conclusion, no moral equivalency, no moral equivalency 
to weigh these two states and, frankly, in large part, with two 
exceptions, how two societies react: the horrible murders of young 
people, Israel, sad, condemning the Israelis who did it, and too many 
Palestinians praising the Palestinians who did it. In response to 
rockets sent into civilian areas, Israel tries to limit its response to 
military targets and lets civilians who might be near those targets 
know they should evacuate.
  We all pray for peace in the Middle East. I certainly do. There has 
been too much death, too much anguish, too much insecurity, but we are 
not going to achieve peace by equating the two sides and saying they 
are equivalent, morally or in any other way.
  The steps the beleaguered nation of Israel takes to try and protect 
itself are far different than so many of the aggressive actions of too 
many on the Palestinian side, with too much support from too many of 
the Palestinian people.
  There is no moral equivalency.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.

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