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Floor Speech

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I am pleased to be able to follow my colleague from Nebraska in urging us as Members of Congress--really, us as Americans--to come together in a show of solidarity as we speak about the awful war that we are seeing unfold in Israel; of the unspeakable actions that we have seen by the terrorist group Hamas; of the awful, the barbaric, the genocidal violence and murders that we have witnessed that have been committed against thousands of innocent Israelis, beginning on October 8.

None of us can unsee what we saw that morning, throughout that day, and then in the ensuing days that followed. We may be thousands of miles away here in the United States, but we are reminded of it daily when we turn on our televisions, when we open the newspapers, when we open our social media--the atrocities, the brutality, the kidnapping of civilians, the murdered children, elders, women. These coldblooded crimes that have been committed by Hamas terrorists are unimaginable and absolutely unforgivable; and our hearts are just heavy.

In just talking with people, as I have had an opportunity to be on multiple coasts this week, from Alaska to Tennessee to California to here in Washington, DC--on the airplanes in between--people are just heavy with sadness, with grief, for what we are seeing in Israel, for what we are seeing as to the Israeli people. It is hard to imagine what so many families are going through right now.

So, at a time like this, when sometimes you are not quite sure how to proceed or how to move, it is so important to make sure of those words of commitment, of those words of support: that we stand with you, that we unequivocally--unequivocally--support Israel.

We unequivocally support Israel's right to defend their people from these brutal terrorist attacks. We unequivocally stand against Hamas, which, as Secretary of Defense Austin has said, has deliberately committed acts that match and even exceed the absolute evils inflicted by ISIS. We must assure the world that we stand with Israel and against the brutal genocide that we see from these terrorists. We must be unwavering; we must be ironclad; we must be resolute in our commitment to Israel. And we use these words time and time again.

Here in the Senate, there is a resolution that has been introduced-- signed by almost every single Member of this body--that reaffirms Israel's right to self-defense; that calls on all countries to unequivocally condemn Hamas's war on Israel; demanding that Hamas release--safely release--all hostages; condemning Iran's support for global terrorism, including its support for terrorist groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad; calling on the United States to lead an international effort, including through sanctions--as the Senator from Nebraska was just outlining--to deprive of Hamas and Iran and other Iranian groups their sources of funding.

So these words of support, whether through a resolution or words on the floor, are so important as they are, but they also have to be matched by our deeds, by our actions. For Congress, that means ensuring that the Israel Defense Forces has the resources that they need to defend their people.

First and foremost, the Iron Dome must be at full strength to protect civilians from short-range rockets. The enormous strain that these Hamas attacks have placed on the Iron Dome, of course, means that the system is low on interceptors. We can and we must resupply Israel and help ensure rockets launched by Hamas cannot penetrate their defenses.

Congress must come together to provide funding and all the munitions and equipment that Israel may request. This is not a time for us to hem and haw here. We can't bog down in political infighting. This is their time of greatest need. We must provide Israel and her people with everything that they ask of us. We have to be there. We must be there for our strongest ally--today, tomorrow, and going forward.

So for those Americans at home who are asking, ``What can we do?'' we can individually--we can individually--step forward. You can support our efforts here in Congress, but you can also support our Jewish friends and our neighbors who are seeing a surge in anti-Semitism at home and abroad.

In Anchorage, over the weekend, there were several different gatherings of solidarity for Israel. I had an opportunity--I wasn't able to participate. I was there virtually. I was on an airplane for the first one, but I was able to meet with Rabbi Greenberg the day after. It was heartwarming to hear the solidarity that came out from so many in our Anchorage, in our Alaska community embracing our Jewish neighbors.

But I tell you, it was very heartbreaking when he showed me a picture of the assembly of armed security that had come together for this event to be there to provide protection. To know that security and protective details are needed in our domestic synagogues where people of Jewish faith gather is heartbreaking, and it is heartbreaking to acknowledge that this is a reality here in this country.

The FBI just released a statistic that showed anti-Jewish incidents were the most common religion-related hate crimes, totaling 1,124 reported incidents in 2022 alone. Not a single one of us should accept those numbers or the acts behind them, nor should we accept the fact that they are growing worse in these months ahead.

So, please, check in. Check in on friends who not only have to confront the existential threat their homeland, Israel, is facing but who are also facing hatred here at home. Anti-Semitism comes in many forms, and we must do everything we can to combat it.

Of course, we have all seen the story in the news of the 6-year-old Chicago boy who was killed because he was Muslim--stabbed, stabbed by his landlord, and his mother stabbed. To see this peaceful family who had nothing to do with the conflict in Israel destroyed by an act of racist violence is beyond comprehension.

We must never tolerate hate in any form against any people in Israel, in America, or anywhere else.

So we join countless Americans in prayer--prayer for the families of those who have lost loved ones in Hamas's terrorist attacks on Israel, those who are held as hostages, prayer for the innocents in Gaza, and prayer for the Americans who have to watch their loved ones face danger at home and abroad.

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