Recognizing the Jewish State of Israel

Floor Speech

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I have just come back from a bipartisan trip to Israel where we met with top officials and really celebrated the alliance between the U.S. and Israel. Israel obviously is in a very dangerous neighborhood, and they were absolutely justified to carry out the bombing strikes in Syria where Hezbollah terrorists were attempting to get arms from Iran.

What happens is Iran sends the weapons, the missiles through Syria into Lebanon to arm the Hezbollah terrorists. No nation would put up with having terrorists prepared to attack them without striking back. So I think it is very, very important that we support Israel in its quest to rid itself of the scourge of terrorism.

Peace in the Middle East will come about when both sides recognize the other's right to exist. The problem has been that many of the Arab nations do not recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish State, and I think that really needs to change. I am glad President Obama said that he supports Israel in doing whatever it needs to do for its own self-defense, and I'm pleased that talks are being started with the help of Secretary Kerry to try to get peace talks online again. But again, in my estimation, peace will only happen when the Arab nations recognize the Jewish State of Israel.

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