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Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, along with Americans all across our country, I am appalled at what has happened in Israel over this last week. It is hard to watch the brutality of Hamas's attack on Israel. It is hard to believe that the terror Hamas perpetrated is something human beings are capable of doing.

Last week, Hamas militants stormed the Israel-Gaza border in a despicable, deadly attack against Israeli civilians--men and women, children, and the elderly, Israelis and foreigners, Americans. Hamas killed person after person with no regard for human dignity. The militants seized and kidnapped almost 200 hostages, including many of our own American citizens. When civilians in small Israeli towns came out of hiding after sheltering for their lives and praying they would be spared, they came out to find corpses in their streets, doors riddled with bullet holes, the ground stained with human blood, houses burning and collapsing. They have told journalists of the horror they felt when they stepped out into the wreckage and were met with the smell of decaying flesh.

This is obscene. This is hideous. We can and should all agree on that.

Secretary of State Blinken, on his visit to Israel, said he saw images of a baby covered in bullet holes, soldiers who had been beheaded, and people burned alive in their cars.

He said:

If images are worth a thousand words, these images may be worth a million.

How do we respond to such a tragedy? Not only are these actions depraved and inhumane, they have been perpetrated against one of our closest partners in the world. Hamas's goal in this attack--its goal in kidnapping babies and elderly women--was to shock Israel to the core, to bring it to its knees, so that vicious terrorist groups could get the upper hand--Hamas from the west and now Hezbollah to the north.

Hamas and Hezbollah will not get the upper hand. Israel will defend its sovereignty and its people, standing tall. And we will support them.

Now is not the time for the United States to shrink back from the world stage and let Israel stand in isolation. We must stand up against terror. We must stand up against the kidnapping of little babies. We must stand up against the rape and torture of innocent citizens. We must stand up against those who would grasp at political power by committing war crimes. If we can't stand up against this, what can we stand against?

And, in response to this terror, we must stand with Israel. In response to a brutal attack on its sovereign territory, we must stand with Israel. In response to the heinous massacre of its citizens, we must stand with Israel. Israel has the right and the responsibility to defend itself against this unconscionable aggression. We must provide its government with the support it needs to defend its territory and its citizenry. We must take steps that allow Israel to regain its footing and make the difficult decisions it needs to make as a sovereign nation.

The United States and Israel are bound by shared values and strategic interests, and we are now further bound by shared tragedy. Hamas has American blood on its hands after this attack. Some of our own citizens are being held hostage underground in Gaza. We must act to show terrorist groups and their close friend, Iran, that we will not abide the slaughter and kidnapping of Americans.

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee, I am working with my colleagues and the administration to ensure that the United States is able to provide Israel with the support and the resources it needs to eliminate this threat.

Our allies and partners, as well as our adversaries, are closely watching how our country will respond to Hamas's loathsome attack. Our actions should encourage allies and partners to follow suit in supporting Israel and in denouncing this terrorism; and our actions must deter our adversaries from taking advantage of the volatility in the Middle East and further destabilizing that region.

Our focus in the region must turn to one adversary in particular: Iran. The Iranian regime bankrolls terrorist activity throughout the Middle East. Iran provided Hamas with the weapons it used against Israel. The regime directly supports Hezbollah--the group that Israel is now facing from across its border with Lebanon.

For the time I have served in the Senate, I have supported efforts to curb Iran's incessant attempts to sow chaos in the Middle East; and, today, those attempts are coming to a head. We need to gather all of our economic and diplomatic strength so we can send a strong message to Iran. By countering Iran, we will help Israel, but it will advance American interests as well. We all know that Iran is hell-bent on destroying the United States of America. Its proxy forces continue to attack our forces regularly in Iraq and in Syria. The risks are too great to allow Iran to accelerate this conflict.

My Republican colleagues and I sent a letter last week urging President Biden to immediately convene the G7 nations and take coordinated action to isolate Iran using severe sanctions. Our letter also called on the President to reverse a decision allowing Iran access to a $6 billion fund, which had previously been frozen under sanctions.

We urge President Biden to, instead, lead America's partners and allies in securing agreements from as many nations as possible, agreements to take the most severe economic and diplomatic action possible under the law against Iran. The U.S.--the United States--must lead in imposing multilateral sanctions against Iran and continue to lead in making certain that those sanctions are then enforced.

This week, my colleagues and I introduced legislation that would revoke the $6 billion fund. The United States must not allow funding to flow to state sponsors of terrorism. As Americans, we must come together in a bipartisan manner to keep terrorism in check and to stand with our ally Israel.

I call on my colleagues here in Congress, as well as the administration and people across our country, to continue to unequivocally condemn the evil acts committed by Hamas, Hezbollah, and their primary sponsor, Iran. We must stand together to support Israel and to protect both Americans and Israelis being harmed by the conflict and the bloodshed in the Middle East.

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