Standing with Israel As It Defends Itself Against the Barbaric War Launched By Hamas and Other Terrorists
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 771) standing with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows: H. Res. 771
Whereas on October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists launched a massive, unprovoked war on Israel by air, land, and sea, including firing thousands of rockets;
Whereas this heinous assault took place just after the 50th anniversary of the start of the multi-front 1973 Yom Kippur War against Israel;
Whereas Hamas terrorists crossed the land border and began slaughtering Israelis and abducting hostages in towns in southern Israel, including children and the elderly;
Whereas since October 7, 2023, Hamas launched over 4,500 rockets into southern and central Israel;
Whereas since October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists have killed over 900 Israelis and injured more than 2,600 others;
Whereas at least 11 United States citizens in Israel are among those killed by Hamas since October 7, 2023;
Whereas since October 7, 2023, Hamas is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians;
Whereas the expansion of this war to other fronts by Hezbollah, Iran, or others would create an even more devastating regional catastrophe;
Whereas Hamas is a United States-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization;
Whereas Iran has long provided support to Hamas and other terrorist groups and proxies, and prior United States Government unclassified assessments indicated that, ``Iran has historically provided up to $100 million annually in combined support to Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command'';
Whereas Hamas used rudimentary, civilian equipment, such as bulldozers, paragliders, and rubber boats in its assault on Israel, demonstrating the importance of fully enforcing tight controls on what materials go into the Gaza Strip, including through thorough vetting of assistance;
Whereas under the 2016 U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding, the United States pledged to provide Israel $3.3 billion per year in Foreign Military Financing Program assistance and $500 million per year in missile defense for 10 years, which Congress has appropriated annually;
Whereas section 1273 of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 authorized not less than $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing Program assistance for Israel for each of the fiscal years 2021 through 2028, in accordance with the 2016 U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding;
Whereas Congress has responded with additional appropriations beyond the terms of the 2016 U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding as needed, including in March 2022 when Congress appropriated an additional $1 billion for Iron Dome defense system after the May 2021 conflict in which Hamas launched more than 4,400 rockets at Israel; and
Whereas Israel is a major non-NATO ally and Major Strategic Partner of the United States: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) stands with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists;
(2) reaffirms Israel's right to self-defense;
(3) condemns Hamas' brutal war against Israel;
(4) calls on all countries to unequivocally condemn Hamas' brutal war against Israel;
(5) calls on Hamas to immediately cease these violent attacks and safely release all living hostages and return the bodies of deceased hostages;
(6) mourns the over 900 Israelis and 11 Americans killed and over 2,600 others wounded in Hamas' unprovoked attack on Israel;
(7) reaffirms the United States' commitment to Israel's security, including through security assistance in accordance with the 2016 U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding;
(8) urges full enforcement of the Taylor Force Act (title X of division S of Public Law 115-141; 132 Stat. 1143) and other restrictions in United States law to prevent United States foreign assistance from benefiting terrorists, directly or indirectly;
(9) condemns Iran's support for terrorist groups and proxies, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad;
(10) urges full enforcement of United States sanctions against Iran to prevent Iran's funding of terrorist groups, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad; and
(11) stands ready to assist Israel with emergency resupply and other security, diplomatic, and intelligence support.
Mr. Speaker, on Saturday, October 7, Israelis awoke to rockets raining down on them from Gaza, and gunmen broke down their doors and invaded their homes.
Hamas terrorists killed babies and toddlers. They killed elderly grandmothers and grandfathers. They killed moms and dads. They killed teenage kids in their homes. No one was spared from their brutality.
Following World War II, my father's war, I never believed the world would bear witness to the slaughter of the Jewish people as we have seen at the bloody hands of Hamas. October 7 was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Additionally, Hamas is holding 220 hostages, including Americans. This is a flyer with a picture of a mother and son taken hostage by Hamas, #bringthemhomenow.
They are using them as human shields and threatening to execute them. They must all be released unconditionally now.
This is one of the darkest moments in the history of the State of Israel.
I was in one of the kibbutzim right on the border of Gaza last year, meeting with members of the community. I saw their daycare center. That very same kibbutz was overrun by 70 Hamas terrorists. Many of the residents I met were slaughtered.
Most viciously, the babies and the children I visited in the daycare center were slaughtered, shot to death, beheaded, and burned alive.
When the press says it didn't happen, they are just wrong. It did because I have seen the pictures of the burned babies and the decapitated children and the blood that you see here in the babies' cribs.
For God's sake, what is going on in this world today?
In one of the most horrific stories to emerge, a pregnant woman had her baby cut out in front of her very eyes as they murdered her baby before her and before they shot her in the head.
Simply put, Mr. Speaker, they are monsters.
At a music festival to celebrate peace, chaos, gunfire, and explosions ripped through the air, piercing hundreds of bodies with bullets and shrapnel. While the attendees attempted to flee the area, gunmen surrounded them from every direction. In total, 260 attendees assembled in peace to enjoy music were massacred.
Among others, atrocities we have heard reported include children with their hands bound, shot in the back of the head execution style; women who were raped and slaughtered, one of whom was dragged through the streets of Gaza; families, including babies and young children, burned alive in their homes in front of their parents; the beheading of Israeli soldiers; and parents gunned down as they shielded their children before the onslaught of gunfire.
This is sheer terror. It is evil. It cannot stand in this world.
We are witnessing in real time Hamas carrying out their covenant that outlines their goal of eradicating Israel through jihad. In fact, their covenant states: ``Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.''
They specifically discuss jihad, noting: ``The day that enemies usurp part of Muslim land, jihad becomes the individual duty of every Muslim. In face of the Jews' usurpation . . . , it is compulsory that the banner of jihad be raised.''
Mr. Speaker, it was indeed raised on October 7.
To be completely clear, despite repeated efforts by Israel to secure peace, the ``Hamas Covenant'' states: Peace ``initiatives, and so- called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. . . . There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by jihad.''
This declaration calling on the annihilation of the Jewish state must be confronted with zero equivocation.
That is why I worked with my good friend, Ranking Member Meeks, to introduce this bipartisan resolution.
It condemns in the strongest possible terms the atrocities of Hamas and reiterates Israel's right to defend herself, along with America's unwavering support for the State of Israel.
All roads lead back to Iran. Their fingerprints are all over this attack. They have consistently funded Hamas and other Palestinian groups to the tune of $100 million per year.
This resolution condemns Hamas and Iran for its support of terrorist groups such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic jihad while also calling for all sanctions on Iran to be fully enforced.
I urge my colleagues to support this important resolution. It will send a clear message across the world that terrorists and their sponsors will be held to account for their atrocities, their crimes against humanity, their crimes of genocide.
On December 7, 1941, in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt said it was ``a date which will live in infamy.'' So, too, will October 7, 2023, live in infamy.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished chairman and the ranking member for this extraordinarily important resolution.
Mr. Speaker, our great friend and ally Israel, with significant assistance from the United States, continues to respond to the cowardly Hamas invasion that includes Hamas' psychotic terrorist butchering of innocent civilians, rape, hostage-taking, the beheading of babies, and daily indiscriminate missile attacks that are reminiscent of Nazi buzz bombs and V-2 rockets.
Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu has said in the past that he would never allow a second Holocaust, nor should we.
Anti-Semitism is at the root of Hamas' violence against Israel and every Jewish man, woman, and child. Israel's right to defend itself from this brutal invasion is absolute.
Hamas' 1988 charter explicitly demands the absolute destruction of the State of Israel and proclaims: ``Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it. . . . ''
Article 7 of the Hamas charter demands the slaughter of all Jews and says:
The Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.
Article 13 explicitly rejects initiatives for peace and reconciliation and states, ``Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement.''
In its 2017 charter, Hamas reiterated its goal of wiping Israel off the face of the Earth and said: ``There is no alternative to a fully sovereign Palestinian State on the entire national Palestinian soil, with Jerusalem as its capital.''
Like the Nazis before them, Hamas and its chief terrorism sponsor, Iran, are committing genocide against the Jews.
The United States--and all people committed to human rights and the rule of law--must stand with Israel. That means our support and prayers and the weapons systems to defeat Hamas.
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to support this bipartisan resolution, which has been offered by our chairman Mike McCaul and our ranking member Greg Meeks.
I was born with an appreciation for the people of Jewish faith. My birthplace of Charleston, South Carolina, at the time of the American Revolution had the largest Jewish population in the New World who had come here to escape oppression and to achieve freedom, which they achieved in America.
I am grateful today to be the chairman of the Subcommittee on Middle East, North Africa, and Central Africa and co-chairman of the Israel Caucus.
Just 7 weeks ago today, I met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is so courageous and is serving there in Jerusalem.
I pledged then my support of Israel to defend itself from a nuclear Iran, which also includes, of course, support of Israel from the barbaric invasion of Hamas, the puppets of Iran who have conducted murder, killing hundreds of persons, 1,200 at least, and even possibly more that, indeed, are puppets of Iran to kill people in Israel.
Sadly, we are in a conflict we did not choose with dictators with rule of gun invading democracies with rule of law.
On October 7, which is the Israeli equivalent of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, I was grateful to be attending the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Copenhagen, Denmark, where with Finland and Sweden, Western civilization has never been more united to defend Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
America's resolve for Israel I saw firsthand on May 14, 2018, leading a House delegation to fulfill President Donald Trump's opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem with the extraordinary Ambassador David Friedman.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues of both parties to support the resolution.
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Mr. McCAUL.
Mr. KEAN of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, for yielding me time.
On the morning of Saturday, October 7, Hamas launched the most brutal and expansive surprise attack on Israel since the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago.
The world stood in shock as reports and images began to surface of civilians murdered, young children beheaded, and Holocaust survivors being dragged into Gaza as hostages. Like many of my colleagues in this Chamber, I spent the past weeks engaging with the Jewish community leaders in my district, reassuring them of their communities' safety and speaking with constituents who had to flee back to the United States.
I stand here in support of this overwhelming bipartisan resolution, which has almost every single Member of the House of Representatives as a cosponsor.
As the House of Representatives, we support Israel's right to self- defense and survival. We stand against Hamas, against its terror, and against its masters in Tehran. We stand with Israel in its fight for survival and against anti-Semitism in all of its forms.
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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, Mr. Meeks, as well.
Mr. Speaker, that is how the Foreign Affairs Committee operates. The fact that this is the most bipartisan resolution in modern history with 425 cosponsors, over 97 percent of this body, speaks volumes. It sends a strong message to the people of Israel that the United States Congress and the American people stand firmly behind you.
The Hamas Covenant states, ``Ranks will close, fighters joining other fighters, and masses everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty, loudly proclaiming: `Hail to Jihad.' This cry will reach the heavens and will go on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the invaders vanquished, and Allah's victory comes about.''
In response to this, we will strengthen our resolve to stand with our ally Israel. This resolution sends a clear and unequivocal message that the United States House of Representatives and the American people condemn the barbarity of the genocide and war crimes perpetrated by Hamas. We want to make it clear that Israel has the right to defend herself to prevent an event like this from ever happening again.
We assure you that the United States will be shoulder to shoulder with Israel supporting her right to self-defense.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 412, nays 10, answered ``present'' 6, not voting 5, as follows: [Roll No. 528] YEAS--412 Adams Aderholt Aguilar Alford Allen Allred Amodei Armstrong Arrington Auchincloss Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Balint Banks Barr Barragan Bean (FL) Beatty Bentz Bera Bergman Beyer Bice Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (NC) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Boebert Bonamici Bost Boyle (PA) Brecheen Brown Brownley Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budzinski Burchett Burgess Burlison Calvert Cammack Caraveo Carbajal Cardenas Carey Carl Carter (GA) Carter (LA) Carter (TX) Cartwright Case Casten Castor (FL) Chavez-DeRemer Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Ciscomani Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Cline Cloud Clyburn Clyde Cohen Cole Collins Comer Connolly Costa Courtney Craig Crane Crawford Crenshaw Crockett Crow Cuellar Curtis D'Esposito Davids (KS) Davidson Davis (IL) Davis (NC) De La Cruz Dean (PA) DeGette DeLauro DelBene Deluzio DeSaulnier DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Dingell Doggett Donalds Duarte Duncan Dunn (FL) Edwards Ellzey Emmer Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Estes Evans Ezell Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fletcher Flood Foster Foushee Foxx Frankel, Lois Franklin, Scott Frost Fry Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Gallego Garamendi Garbarino Garcia (TX) Garcia, Mike Garcia, Robert Gimenez Golden (ME) Goldman (NY) Gomez Gonzales, Tony Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Gottheimer Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grijalva Grothman Guest Guthrie Hageman Harder (CA) Harris Harshbarger Hayes Hern Higgins (LA) Higgins (NY) Hill Himes Hinson Horsford Houchin Houlahan Hoyer Hoyle (OR) Hudson Huffman Huizenga Hunt Issa Ivey Jackson (IL) Jackson (NC) Jackson (TX) Jackson Lee Jacobs James Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kamlager-Dove Kaptur Kean (NJ) Keating Kelly (IL) Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Khanna Kiggans (VA) Kildee Kiley Kilmer Kim (CA) Kim (NJ) Krishnamoorthi Kuster Kustoff LaHood LaLota LaMalfa Lamborn Landsman Langworthy Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latta LaTurner Lawler Lee (CA) Lee (FL) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Letlow Levin Lieu Lofgren Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Luna Luttrell Lynch Mace Magaziner Malliotakis Mann Manning Mast Matsui McBath McCarthy McCaul McClain McClellan McClintock McCollum McCormick McGarvey McGovern McHenry Meeks Menendez Meng Meuser Mfume Miller (IL) Miller (OH) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Mills Molinaro Moolenaar Mooney Moore (AL) Moore (UT) Moore (WI) Moran Morelle Moskowitz Moulton Mrvan Mullin Murphy Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Nehls Newhouse Nickel Norcross Norman Nunn (IA) Obernolte Ogles Owens Pallone Palmer Panetta Pappas Pascrell Pelosi Peltola Pence Perez Perry Peters Pettersen Pfluger Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Posey Quigley Raskin Reschenthaler Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rosendale Ross Rouzer Roy Ruiz Ruppersberger Rutherford Ryan Salazar Salinas Sanchez Santos Sarbanes Scalise Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Scholten Schrier Schweikert Scott (VA) Scott, Austin Scott, David Self Sessions Sewell Sherman Sherrill Simpson Slotkin Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Smucker Sorensen Soto Spanberger Spartz Stansbury Stanton Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Steube Stevens Strickland Strong Swalwell Sykes Takano Tenney Thanedar Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Titus Tokuda Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Turner Underwood Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Vargas Vasquez Veasey Wagner Walberg Waltz Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Williams (NY) Williams (TX) Wilson (FL) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Yakym Zinke NAYS--10 Bowman Bush Carson Green, Al (TX) Lee (PA) Massie Ocasio-Cortez Omar Ramirez Tlaib ANSWERED ``PRESENT''--6 Casar Castro (TX) Garcia (IL) Jayapal Pressley Velazquez NOT VOTING--5 Correa Gonzalez, Vicente Lesko Payne Van Orden
Ms. BROWN changed her vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Stated for:
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