[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12259-12260]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1330
                                  GAZA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cook). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in solidarity with our good ally and 
friend, Israel, as it defends its people from Hamas' deadly rockets.
  Every nation, Mr. Speaker, has the right to defend its citizens; 
indeed, it has a moral obligation to do so. And no people ever ought to 
live in constant fear that their homes, schools, businesses, places of 
worship, and hospitals might be the target of terrorists' rockets.
  Mr. Speaker, there is a town in southern Israel whose name is Sderot 
which has been the target of over 6,300 rockets since 2007. Mr. 
Speaker, I have been to Sderot, and I have talked to some of the 
families there. As the rockets fall, they gather their children in bomb 
shelters and sing them songs. I have been in the recreational 
gymnasium. It is itself a bomb shelter. Preschoolers learn to run for 
cover before they learn to read and write.
  If American communities were subjected to what the residents of 
Sderot--and now cities even as far north as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem--
have had to endure, I doubt very seriously whether we would show as 
much restraint as Israel has shown.
  There are two major challenges I hear to Israel's exercise of its 
legitimate self-defense, and I want to address both of them. First, 
undertaking this necessary response was not an easy choice for Israel, 
nor was the decision to agree to a cease-fire on Tuesday. Israel abided 
by the cease-fire

[[Page 12260]]

without any commitment from Hamas, and Prime Minister Netanyahu even 
fired--removed--his deputy defense minister for questioning that 
decision, so committed was the Israeli Government to trying to reach a 
cease-fire and cessation of danger to Israelis and to Palestinians.
  Tragically and appallingly--but I suggest not so surprisingly--Hamas 
not only rejected the cease-fire, but continued to rain missiles upon 
Israeli communities even while Israel had unilaterally stopped its 
defensive strikes. Secondly, Israeli forces have continued to do 
everything possible to prevent civilian casualties as they strike 
Hamas' leadership and its rocket launchers.
  Mr. Speaker, it is shameful that Hamas' reign of terror extends not 
only to Israelis, but to their own people, the Palestinians in Gaza, 
where Hamas continues to use innocent civilians as human shields while 
firing rocket after rocket after rocket after rocket at Israel.
  Prime Minister Netanyahu summed up his country's struggle earlier 
this week in the following way:
  We (meaning the Israelis, and I am quoting Prime Minister Netanyahu) 
we are using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they are 
using civilians to protect their missiles.
  We are using (the prime minister said) missile defense to protect our 
citizens, while Hamas is using its own citizens to protect its 
missiles.
  How sad. Just today, while Israel was observing a 5-hour cease-fire 
to allow humanitarian supplies to reach Gaza, we have seen news reports 
that Hamas continued firing mortar shells into Israel, in violation of 
that truce.
  This week has seen bitter tragedy for both Israelis and Palestinians. 
You have to listen carefully to the words of Rachel Fraenkel, the 
mother of one of the three murdered Israeli teenagers. When she learned 
of the brutal killing of a Palestinian teenager, Mohammed Abu Khedair, 
she said this:

       There is no difference between blood and blood.

  Of course, what she meant by that was the loss of her son and the 
loss of the Palestinian young man was an equal tragedy. He was gunned 
down by angry people motivated by the acts of terrorists to seek 
revenge on innocent noncombatants, in this case on children.
  Mr. Speaker, Hamas has the power to end this violence. I call on them 
to do so before more innocent blood on both sides is shed. The United 
States, of course, will continue to stand by its ally, Israel, and we 
will continue to hold in our hearts all of the families, including 
Rachel Fraenkel, and the family of Mohammed Abu Khaber, who are 
grieving the loss of loved ones as a result of Hamas' reprehensible and 
criminal actions.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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