[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 170 (Tuesday, October 17, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5025-S5027]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Israel
Mr. President, now, on a different matter, I was encouraged to hear
that President Biden will visit Israel tomorrow. As the Jewish State
mourns the victims of the barbaric October 7 attacks and as Israel
forces continue their work to root out the terrorists responsible, it
is important for the President to represent Israel's closest ally and
bear witness to the destruction wrought by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic
Jihad, and their patrons in Tehran. The President will have a number of
responsibilities on this consequential trip.
First, he needs to console a grieving nation while demonstrating
America's firm resolve to back Israel in its time of need.
The American people feel the pain of our friends in Israel, and we
mourn our citizens--our own citizens--who were slaughtered alongside
Israelis by these savages. In our grief and in our anger, America's
interests and Israel's interests are truly intertwined, and our
policies must be as well.
President Biden needs to demonstrate our support for the difficult
but necessary steps Israel must take to destroy the terrorists'
capacity to wage war. He needs to reject the false moral equivalence
that Israeli's perennial critics are using to mask anti-Semitic hatred.
He needs to resist the already mounting pressure in the media and in
diplomatic channels to constrain Israel's efforts to defend itself.
He needs to make it clear that his administration will do everything
possible to give Israel the time and the space that it needs to conduct
the required military operations, for as long as it takes. As long as
it takes.
In his words and actions, President Biden must also deter Iran and
Hezbollah from further additional involvement in this terrorist war.
The deployment of carrier battle groups, a marine expeditionary unit,
and additional fighter squadrons to the region are a good first step.
But deterrence requires both capabilities and credibility.
The President needs to show that he means business. His tone, his
statements, and his actions need to send an unambiguous message to Iran
about America's resolve. No more splitting hairs about whether
intelligence demonstrates Iran's direct involvement in the October 7
attacks. The Supreme Leader has rejoiced at the images of dead
Israelis.
A senior Iranian official called it ``a proud operation,'' and Hamas
has a history of thanking Iran for its support in public. No more
absurd suggestions that seeking to free up $6 billion in Iranian assets
doesn't embolden Tehran.
We have reams--reams--of evidence that the regime that chants ``Death
to America'' and ``Death to Israel'' puts its money where its mouth is.
Ultimately, President Biden must also accept that the fundamental
assumptions of his administration's Iran policy were morally and
practically bankrupt.
The President's team begged Iran to reenter the Obama
administration's flawed nuclear deal. Iran sensed their desperation and
played hard to get.
Then the administration sought to deescalate tensions by overlooking
Iranian plots against American citizens and former officials and
ignoring Tehran's growing repression at home and aggression abroad.
Well, Iran had other ideas. They like killing Americans as much as
they like killing Israelis. After all, the way that Tehran sees it,
America is the Great Satan to Israel's ``Little Satan.'' And we should
expect that, until Iran's rulers are afraid of us, they will continue
to undermine America's influence, to test our boundaries, and to kill
our citizens.
The administration's previous Iran policy is now history. The
President must go back to the drawing board and should start by doing
what I have recommended to him since he took office: Work with
Republicans to craft a bipartisan Iran policy that will survive his
administration, a plan that addresses all aspects of the threat Iran
poses, and, more immediately, the President needs to show Iran and its
terrorist proxies like Hezbollah that further involvement in this
conflict will risk crippling economic sanctions and the decisive use of
American military strength.
The terrorists and their sponsors with Israeli and American blood on
their hands represent a clear and present danger to the United States,
to our allies, and our interests. It is long past time for America to
meet this threat with serious and credible deterrence.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, there are days and events that are almost
unspeakable, and October 7, 2023, is one of them. The slaughter of
hundreds of innocent Israelis--men, women, and, unthinkably, children--
at the hands of Hamas terrorists was a terrible witness to the evil of
which mankind is capable. The stories and images that have emerged are
searing: a bloodied infant seat, parents tucking their 10-month-old
twins into hiding before being murdered by the attackers, a mom and dad
killed with their three young children.
As a father and a grandfather, I cannot imagine the terror those
parents must have felt as they realized Hamas gunmen had moved into
their villages. It is a terrible fact of war that the innocent are
often drawn into the crossfire, but to make war on the innocent, to
target the innocent deliberately, is perhaps the greatest evil of which
man is capable.
Mr. President, it is nearly unimaginable to think that someone could
look at Hamas's attack and find any cause for joy or celebration, and
yet in the days following the attacks, we have seen far too many people
right here at home--including at our so-called top universities--
attempt to defend or even celebrate the indefensible. And while the
First Amendment protects their right to speak, I hope that we as a
society can categorically reject the view that anything can justify or
excuse the deliberate murder of babies and children.
Mr. President, Israel is currently working to bring a swift end to
Hamas's reign of terror, and it should have the full support of the
United States in this mission. The United States has long provided
security assistance to Israel, including an ongoing memorandum of
understanding that supports foreign military financing and missile
defense assistance through fiscal year 2028.
In 2021, we passed supplemental funding to restock the Iron Dome
system in response to rocket attacks from Hamas, and I anticipate
Congress will soon consider a supplemental in response to this attack.
We must also use every resource available to prevent escalation and
expansion of this war and ensure that Israel does not end up fighting
on multiple fronts.
We can already see that other hostile actors are angling to enter the
fray. Iran is actively threatening Israel. Hezbollah, which is backed
by Iran, has fired rockets and artillery across Israel's northern
border with Lebanon. And we need to band together with our allies to
make it clear that any attempts to escalate this war would be a grave
miscalculation.
It is also past time to hold Iran--a long-time funder of Hamas,
Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations--to account for its role
in fomenting unrest and destabilizing the Middle East. I have not been
shy about calling out the Biden administration's poor track record on
being tough on Iran, in particular, the administration's misguided goal
of re-signing a flawed nuclear deal and attempting to appease the
country's leaders with billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
Just over a month ago--on September 11 of all days--the
administration lifted a freeze on $6 billion in Iranian assets, which
would likely have resulted in the freeing up of additional funds for
Iran's hostile activities. I am glad that the President listened to
calls from Senator Blackburn, me, and others to block Iran's access to
these funds, and I hope that the Senate can soon pass legislation to
permanently freeze these assets. We need to make it very clear to
Iran--and to any other country that would seek to imitate the
Iranians--that there will be consequences for aiding and abetting
terror.
Mr. President, 30 Americans have now been confirmed to have died in
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Israel. As I speak, we have 13 possible American hostages being held by
Hamas. We also have an estimated up to 600 Americans in Gaza in harm's
way, including a family that my office is working with. We must get
them out.
Mr. President, in the midst of war and Hamas's brutality, it is
important to remember our own sense of humanity and innocence on both
sides. Hamas's utter indifference to human life was on full display on
its rampage through Israeli villages, and that indifference extends,
unfortunately, to the lives of its own people. Hamas has tangled its
terrorist infrastructure throughout and under an incredibly dense urban
population center, ensuring that innocent lives will always be in
harm's way in attacks on legitimate terrorist targets.
And as Israel prepares to go after targets in Gaza, Hamas is now
discouraging--and, it appears, actively trying to prevent--civilians
from heeding Israel's calls to evacuate. Apparently, Hamas believes
that dead Palestinians will advance its cause and keep the focus on
Israel's response, not the abject brutality that Hamas unleashed on
October 7. And we must be resolute in exposing and condemning this
callousness.
We must also work to ensure that the response of free countries
conveys the respect for human life that is so woefully lacking in the
terrorists and that we do everything we can to ensure that innocent
civilians on both sides in this conflict are protected as much as
possible and that humanitarian aid reaches innocent Palestinians and is
not intercepted by Hamas terrorists.
Mr. President, the Jewish people have suffered much, but their
story--and the story of Israel--is one of resilience, and the United
States stands with Israel at this most challenging time. My prayers
this week are with the grieving families in Israel and all the
suffering and for the permanent defeat of Hamas and a just and lasting
peace.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Padilla). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, as we all know, the war between Israel and
Hamas is intensifying this week.
Just as any sovereign nation would have the right to defend itself
against a terrorist attack, Israel has that right as well. It took
swift and decisive action to retaliate against the terrorists who
invaded its land and murdered its people, but Israel now has the
responsibility to eliminate Hamas's leadership and to make sure that
Hamas is incapable of mounting a similar terrorist attack against
Israel in the future.
To that end, the Israel Defense Forces are preparing a ground assault
against the Hamas forces in Gaza. Obviously, this is a terrible
situation, but we shouldn't be confused about the right and the
necessity of Israel to defend itself and to eliminate the Hamas threat.
Deterrence is the best way to maintain the peace and to keep bad actors
like Iranian proxies, like Hamas, from doing what they did in Israel.
But, with that having failed for a variety of reasons, it is now
important to give Israel the flexibility they need in order to do what
they must.
Hamas's unprovoked attack on Israel has killed nearly 1,400 people,
including 30 Americans. That point should not be lost. American
citizens have been killed in Israel by this terrorist attack. In
addition, nearly 200 people have been taken hostage, and their fate
remains in question. And, given the way that Hamas has used Palestinian
civilians as human shields, the number of casualties in Gaza continues
to rise.
Hamas's war on Israel is not fueled by a quest for liberation or
freedom or anything noble but, rather, by hate. This is a clear attempt
to eliminate the Jewish State by any means necessary, a goal of the No.
1 terrorist state in the world, which is Iran, and their proxies--Hamas
in the south, Hezbollah in the north.
Hamas's war on Israel is pure evil, and the United States cannot and
will not be silent. We have the responsibility, moral and otherwise, to
support Israel with our words but, more importantly, with our actions.
The United States must support Israel without delay or hesitation. We
must commit ourselves to defeating this evil by, with, and through our
Israeli allies.
I, like many of us, am a student of history because it helps us
understand the challenges we are experiencing today and realize that
many of those challenges have precedents--things that have happened in
the past that should inform us about how we should respond today. As
Israel and Hamas continue fighting, it can be easy to mistake this as
some isolated or, perhaps, local or regional conflict, but that could
not be further from the truth.
I think back to what British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said
in the fall of 1938 about the escalating conflict between Nazi Germany
as it prepared to invade Czechoslovakia.
Neville Chamberlain famously said:
[It is] a quarrel in a far away country between people of
whom we know nothing.
Well, today, 85 years later, it is easy to see how misguided those
views were, because less than 2 years after Chamberlain's remark, Nazi
bombs fell on London. This faraway quarrel quickly escalated into a
global war that became the deadliest conflict in human history.
I say this only to emphasize that the United States and our allies
cannot brush aside this conflict and treat it as an inconsequential
regional dispute. This is, in my view, a war between good and evil, and
the world is carefully watching to see how America responds.
There is no question that among the most engaged spectators are
Russia and China. Russia's war against Ukraine has been raging for more
than a year and a half, and it is watching--Russia is watching--to see
if America's support for Ukraine erodes to the point where Russia can
gain an upper hand. Mr. Putin is depending on our fatigue or our being
distracted from the job at hand, helping Ukraine defend itself.
At the same time, China is preparing its plans to invade Taiwan.
President Xi has instructed the People's Liberation Army to be ready to
do so by the year 2027, but as we know, there is no guarantee of any
particular timetable. President Xi could decide to go at any time.
China is hoping that the United States will be distracted by the
conflict in the Middle East as it continues to build contingencies
related to Taiwan.
Both see the war--both, that is Russia and China see the war--in
Israel as a global distraction that could work to their benefit. Now,
this is not a reason to avoid U.S. support for Israel. In fact, it is a
good reason America's attention and support are so critical at this
time. Russia and China and, really, the rest of the world, including
our friends and allies, are watching our actions very closely. They
want to know whether we are dependable, whether our allies can rely on
us to stay in the fight against this evil.
Russia and China are seeing just how far they can push the boundaries
of international norms before members of the rules-based international
order react. What we are doing for Ukraine, together with our European
allies, and what we will do for Israel are subjects of great interest
in Russia and China. We cannot bow down in the face of attacks on
freedom-loving people whether those attacks happen in Israel, Ukraine,
or Taiwan.
Now, I know many of us are not eager to embrace America's leadership
role in the world. We think, well, we have got problems here at home--
and we certainly do--but America's leadership is indispensable in
rallying similarly minded nations to fight evil like this attack
against Israel. Without the United States' leadership, it will never
happen.
As the fighting in Israel continues, the United States must remain
committed to two clear objectives. First and foremost, we must support
Israel, and we must provide Israel, along with our other allies, what
it needs not only to fight but to win this war. They don't need our
direction or our lecturing. They know what they need to do, and we need
to help them do it. That includes military aid, intelligence support,
and humanitarian assistance, today and in the future, to help Israel
[[Page S5027]]
defend its sovereignty and protect its people in a very, very dangerous
neighborhood. Israel is the lone beacon of democracy in the Middle
East, and we have a national interest in supporting one of our most
critical allies as it responds to this terrorist invasion.
Our second goal is to prevent this war from widening. Hamas does not
operate in a vacuum. It is a beneficiary of funding, weapons, and
training from Iran--the world's leading sponsor of international
terrorism.
I have been disturbed as I have read some press reports where Biden
administration officials have said: Well, we don't see Iran's
fingerprints on this attack. But that is like looking at this situation
through a soda straw--ignoring history; ignoring the fact that Iran has
been at war with the West, including the United States, for decades,
killing American soldiers in Iraq by providing explosively formed
penetrators, using proxy groups like Hamas and Hezbollah to commit
terrorist attacks. So Iran's fingerprints are definitely on this
attack. They may have been surprised about the timing of the attack,
but attacking Israel and killing innocent Israelis is the way they do
business.
As I have said for years now, Iran has provided Hamas with the money,
the weapons, and the military training that it uses against Israel and
other allies of the United States. According to the State Department,
Iran provides up to $100 million a year to the Palestinian terrorist
groups, including Hamas--$100 million a year. And people in the Biden
administration have said: We don't see Iran's involvement in this
attack.
Give me a break. It doesn't matter if Iran called the plays for the
attack or knew about the specific timing. Tehran has bankrolled Hamas's
arsenal and its capabilities and is cheering on Hamas as it kills
innocent Israelis--men, women, and children.
Iran gave Hamas the tools it needed to attack Israel and to further
its goal of eliminating the Jewish State. The question now is, Will
Iran use this opportunity to escalate? That is why U.S. warships are
positioned in the Mediterranean--to provide the deterrence necessary to
deter Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah, from joining the
conflict.
Our second goal must be to prevent this conflict from widening
outside of Israel. The United States has a long and proud history of
supporting Israel, and it is important for Hamas and its allies to
understand that America's support for Israel is not just about empty
words. We are committed to providing Israel with the resources it needs
to defend itself whether that comes in the form of weapons,
intelligence support, humanitarian assistance, or anything else.
Israel has received longstanding support from the United States and
our allies, and I hope that Iran and Hezbollah recognize the high cost
of expanding this conflict.
In an era of near-constant division and disagreement in Congress, I
am glad this is an issue that has garnered broad, bipartisan support.
Republicans and Democrats are united in purpose, as are the American
people. We are committed to aiding Israel's fight against these
terrorists and defending democracy in every corner of the globe.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Delaware.