[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 196 (Wednesday, November 29, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5678-S5680]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISRAEL
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I rise to say a few words about the awful
situation in the Middle East. As you know and the American people know,
there have been five wars--five wars--in the last 15 years between
Israel and Hamas.
How do we end the current one and prevent a sixth war from happening
sooner or later? How do we balance our desire to stop the fighting with
the need to address the root causes of this conflict?
And here is the sad truth--and it really is a very sad truth. For 75
years, diplomats, well-intentioned Israelis and Palestinians, and
government leaders all over the world, including Presidents of the
United States, have struggled to bring peace to this region. And during
that time, among many other things, an Egyptian President and an
Israeli Prime Minister were assassinated by extremists.
Do you know why? Because they tried to bring peace to the region.
This is an incredibly difficult and complicated issue, and nobody has
any simple solution to it.
As one of the first Members of Congress to call for a humanitarian
pause to the bombing, I have been very encouraged to see that pause
finally happen over the last 5 days and to see its extension earlier
this week. That is a very positive development.
This temporary cease-fire has brought some relief to Gaza and to the
families of the more than 100 hostages released so far. The break in
fighting has let an average of 200 trucks per day to enter Gaza,
carrying desperately needed food, water, medical supplies, and the fuel
necessary to distribute aid, pump water, and run hospitals and
bakeries.
While this is only 40 percent--and people must recognize this, before
the war, there were 500 trucks coming in a day, and now, there are
200--it is still a very substantial improvement over where we were a
few weeks ago.
It seems to me that our job now is to keep working to extend this
window further and to get more aid in and to get more hostages out--
more aid in, more hostages out. Right now, critical talks are under way
that will hopefully provide the United Nations the time it needs to
establish a sustained humanitarian operation that can meet people's
basic needs and provide shelter and medical care. And let us be clear:
The needs in Gaza are beyond enormous.
For those of us who want not only to bring this war to an end but to
avoid future ones, we must first be clear-eyed about the facts. On
October 7, Hamas--a terrorist organization--unleashed a brutal attack
against Israel, killing about 1,200 innocent men, women, and children
and taking more than 200 hostages.
No one--no one--in the U.S. Senate, no one in Congress, denies that
Israel has the right to respond to that murderous attack.
Unfortunately, however, under the leadership of its rightwing Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under indictment for corruption and
whose Cabinet includes outright racists, Israel unleashed what amounts
to almost total war against the Palestinian people.
Israel's widespread bombing has left nearly 15,000 people dead--that
is in a 7-week period--15,000 people dead, two-thirds of whom are women
and children. And tens of thousands of others were wounded.
Israel's military campaign, up to this point, according to U.N.
estimates, damaged or destroyed 45 percent of the housing in Gaza--45
percent--and displaced nearly 1.8 million people. The Israeli attacks,
up to this point, have killed 109 United Nations workers and left
millions of Gazans on the brink of starvation, lacking medical care,
electricity, or fuel.
This is a humanitarian catastrophe that risks, among other things,
igniting a wider regional conflagration. We all want this horror to end
as soon as possible. To make progress, however, we must grapple with
the complexity of this situation.
First, Hamas has made it clear, before and after--after--their
October 7 attack that its goal is perpetual warfare and the destruction
of the State of Israel. Several weeks ago, a spokesman for Hamas told
the New York Times:
I hope that the state of war with Israel will become
permanent on all the borders, and that the Arab world will
stand with us.
Let me repeat it. This is the Hamas spokesman:
I hope that the state of war with Israel will become
permanent on all the borders and that the Arab world will
stand with us.
So that is the first point.
The second point is that, if we go back a little bit in history, we
understand that Israel has done nothing in recent years to give hope
for a peaceful settlement--maintaining the blockade of Gaza, deepening
the daily humiliations of occupation in the West Bank, and largely
ignoring the horrendous living conditions facing Palestinians. Massive
poverty existed in Gaza before October 7. Something like 70 percent of
the young people in Gaza were unemployed.
How is that for a reality in terms of despair and hopelessness? Those
are the conditions that existed before the Israeli attack.
Needless to say, I do not have all of the answers to this never-
ending tragedy. But for those of us who believe in peace and for those
of us who believe in justice, it is imperative that we do our best to
provide Israelis and Palestinians with a thoughtful response that maps
out a realistic path to addressing the reality we face today.
Let me just give you a few of my thoughts as to the best way forward
and how the United States can rally the world around a moral position
that moves us toward peace in the region and justice for an oppressed
Palestinian population.
To start with, in my view, we must demand an immediate end to
Israel's indiscriminate bombing, which is causing and has caused an
enormous number of civilian casualties and is in violation of
international law.
The main point here is: Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the
Palestinian people. Israel cannot bomb an entire neighborhood just to
take out one Hamas lieutenant. That is simply not acceptable and not
something the United States should be complicit with.
Further, we must extend the humanitarian pause that exists right now
so that the United Nations has the time to safely set up the
distribution network needed to prevent thirst, starvation, and disease,
to build shelters, and to evacuate those who need critical care.
Once again, we are looking at an unimaginable humanitarian crisis,
and the U.N. is going to need as much time as it can get to try to help
people in desperate need. This window will also allow for talks to free
as many hostages as possible. And I think we all would like to see
every hostage returned to their loved ones. This extended pause must
not precede a resumption of a discriminate bombing. Israel will
continue to go after Hamas, but it must dramatically change its tactics
to minimize civilian harm.
If long-suffering Palestinians are ever going to have a chance at
self-determination and a decent standard of living, there must be no
long-term Israeli reoccupation and blockade of Gaza. If Hamas is going
to be removed from power--as they must be--and Palestinians given the
opportunity for a better life, an Israeli occupation of Gaza would be
absolutely counterproductive and would benefit Hamas. Imagine Israeli
soldiers all over an occupied Gaza. For the sake of regional peace and
a brighter future for the Palestinian people, Gaza must have a chance
to be free of Hamas. There can be no long-term Israeli occupation.
To achieve the political transformation that Gaza needs--and Gaza
desperately needs a political transformation--new Palestinian
leadership will be required as part of a wider political process. And
for that transformation and peace process to take place, Israel must
make political commitments that will allow for Palestinian leadership
committed to peace to build support. What I think people all over the
world want to see and what
[[Page S5679]]
the people of Gaza want to see is leadership that will take care of
their needs, provide for them, allow them self-determination, not
leadership in perpetual warfare with Israel.
Israel must also guarantee displaced Palestinians the absolute right
to return to their homes as Gaza rebuilds. And I am very concerned by
some of the remarks we hear from Israel, from some Israeli leadership,
questioning that basic right of people to return to their communities.
People who have lived in poverty and despair for years, as people in
Gaza have, cannot be made permanently homeless. Israel must also commit
to end the killings of Palestinians in the West Bank and freeze
settlements there as a first step to permanently ending the occupation.
Those steps will show that peace can deliver for the Palestinian
people, hopefully giving the Palestinian Authority the legitimacy it
needs to assume administrative control of Gaza, likely after an interim
stabilization period under an international force.
Finally, if Palestinians are to have any hope for a decent future,
there must be a commitment to broad peace talks to advance a new two-
state solution in the wake of this war.
The United States, the international community, and Israel's
neighbors must move aggressively toward that two-state goal. This would
include dramatically increased international support for the
Palestinian people, including from wealthy Gulf States. It would also
mean the promise of full recognition of Palestine pending the formation
of a new democratically elected government committed to peace with
Israel.
Let us be clear--and I think this is the main point that I want to
make this evening--that we should be clear that all of this is not
going to happen on its own. Left alone, sad to say, Israel is not going
to bring this about.
Prime Minister Netanyahu's Likud Party was explicitly formed on the
premise that ``between the Sea and the Jordan [River] there will only
be Israeli sovereignty.'' And the current coalition agreement
reinforces that goal. This is not just ideology. This idea that Israel
has the right to control everything between the sea and the Jordan
River, that is just not ideology. The Israeli Government has
systematically pursued this goal.
The last year saw record Israeli settlement growth in the West Bank
where more than 700,000 Israelis now live in areas that the United
Nations and the United States agree are occupied territories. They have
used state violence to back up this de facto annexation.
Sadly, tragically, since October 7, the United Nations reports that
at least 208 Palestinians, including 53 children, have been killed by
Israeli security forces and settlers. This cannot be allowed to
continue.
Mr. Netanyahu has made clear where he stands on these critical
issues. Now is the time for us to make clear where we stand on these
issues. And the truth is that if asking nicely worked, we wouldn't be
in the position we are today. Asking nicely just is not going to bring
about the kinds of changes that are needed.
The only way these vital and necessary changes will occur is if the
United States uses the substantial leverage we have with Israel, and we
all know what that leverage is. For many years, the United States has
provided Israel with substantial sums of money, with close to no
strings attached. Currently, we provide $3.8 billion a year to Israel,
no strings attached.
President Biden has asked for $14.3 billion more on top of that sum
and asked Congress to waive normal, already limited oversight rules.
This blank check approach must end. The United States must make clear
that while we are friends of Israel, there are conditions to that
friendship and that we cannot be complicit in actions that violate
international law and our own sense of decency. That includes an end to
indiscriminate bombing, a significant pause to the bombing so that
massive humanitarian assistance can come into the region, the right of
displaced Gazans to return to their homes, no long-term Israeli
occupation of Gaza, an end to settler violence in the West Bank and a
freeze on settlement expansion, and maybe, most importantly, a
commitment to broad peace talks for a two-state solution in the wake of
this war.
Over the years, people of good will around the world, including
Israelis and Palestinians, have tried to address this conflict in a way
that brings justice to the Palestinians and security for Israel. Israel
is entitled to security, to be free of terrorist attacks.
Now, I and some other Members of Congress have tried over the years
to do what we could. Obviously, painfully, we did not do enough. Now,
we must recommit to this effort. The stakes are just too high to give
up. It is clear that Netanyahu and his extreme rightwing government are
not going to do this on their own, which is why the United States must
use its leverage to force these necessary changes and push hard for a
wider political process that leads to a two-state solution.
These should be the conditions of our solidarity, including in the
supplemental spending bill, which we will soon be considering.
Israel is a longtime friend and ally of the United States, and I
respect that, but when there is this level of destruction and bloodshed
and when tens of billions of dollars have been requested, it is more
than reasonable for the United States to have a say in where our
taxpayer dollars go and how they are spent. This is money that comes
from the taxpayers of the United States.
Israel has an absolute right to defend itself, but it does not have
the right to use American taxpayer funds in violation of international
law or with little regard for civilian casualties. Now, I know that
when we use the word ``conditioning,'' people become very alarmed. Oh
my God, terrible idea. Virtually every dollar that we appropriate has
conditions attached to it. If you are on food stamps tonight, you have
got conditions. If you are on unemployment, you have got conditions. If
you are on section 8 housing, you have conditions. We have conditions
on everything. We don't give away money. We say you have to be eligible
for it; this is what you have got to do; these are the requirements.
That is conditioning.
Conditioning, in fact, has been, for a long time, seen as a key to
U.S. policy regarding foreign governments, including Israel, not a new
idea. The United States has routinely conditioned aid on countries,
including Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, to name a few. Presidents
Carter, Reagan, H. W. Bush, and Clinton, all conditioned aid to Israel
to secure changes in their policies.
President Reagan actually suspended certain arms deliveries and
threatened to stop all military aid due to Israel's war in Lebanon.
That is a condition, a pretty strong condition. Sending $14.3 billion
to Netanyahu's government on top of the $3.8 billion we provide every
year and the billions of arms the United States has already provided
with no strings attached would be a huge mistake, out of step with
longstanding U.S. policy, and not something I believe that the American
people want to see.
I have laid out what I believe some of these conditions should be,
and that is an end to the indiscriminate bombing that we have seen, a
guarantee that displaced Palestinians will have the right to return to
their homes, no long-term occupation or blockade of Gaza, a freeze on
the West Bank settlements there, and a commitment to broad peace talks
for a two-state solution.
Those are some of the conditions that I think we have more than a
right to demand when we provide money to Israel.
Finally, let me end this on a personal note. There is no question
that people all over this country have strong disagreements on the war
and some of the issues that I have been discussing tonight, and that is
what is part of the democratic process. And in a democracy like ours,
it is natural that these issues be debated, and people have different
points of view.
But what we cannot do, under any circumstances, is turn to violence
because of our differences--not to violence and not to bigotry. And I
have to say that, tragically, in my home State of Vermont, in the city
that I live, a city of 40,000 people, Burlington, VT, we have
experienced this form of violent hate.
And just as I am sure you know, 3 days ago, three young men, lovely
young men going to college, celebrating Thanksgiving in Burlington,
[[Page S5680]]
VT, were shot, and one of them is in very serious condition. So as we
all hope and pray for the recovery of Hisham and Kinnan and Tahseen,
the three young men who were shot, and we await the findings of the
investigation into this terrible act, let me say this again loudly and
clearly: Hate has no place in my State of Vermont or anyplace else in
America. With Islamophobia, anti-Arab hate, anti-Semitism, and racism
on the rise in this country, we must--must--come together and remain
resolute in our commitment to fighting all forms of bigotry and
intolerance.
I yield the floor.
____________________