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Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, we have heard some concerning statements on Israel in recent days from leading Democrats.

Last Thursday, the Democratic leader came to the floor to deliver a speech in which he took the extraordinary step of calling for a regime change in Israel. That is right. The Democratic leader of the U.S. Senate, who has, in the past, fiercely decried the prospect of foreign interference in U.S. elections, decided to insert himself into the internal electoral politics of a sovereign nation and a close U.S. ally. It was an incredibly troubling moment.

As I said, it wasn't the only troubling statement lately from a Democrat leader. The President has also recently inserted himself into Israeli decision making by criticizing Israel's war plan and saying it would be a ``red line'' for Israel to go after Hamas strongholds in Rafah on the southern border of Gaza--in effect telling Israel that Hamas should be allowed to continue to hold this region.

Both the President and the Democrat leader are entitled to their personal strategic opinions and their personal opinions on Israel's leadership. What they are not entitled to is to attempt to dictate the election process or the strategic planning of a sovereign nation.

There would be justifiable outrage if one of our allies attempted to dictate to our country when we should hold elections and whom we should choose to lead us. It is equally offensive for U.S. leaders to attempt to dictate war planning or election outcomes to one of our allies.

I also have to wonder where the similar statements are on, for example, Iran. Iran has been fomenting terror across the Middle East for decades--Hezbollah, the Houthis, Shia militias in Iraq and Syria, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and, of course, Hamas.

Hamas gets approximately 90 percent of its military budget from Iran. There is reason to wonder whether Hamas would even have had the capability to carry out its October 7 attack without its history of support from Iran. There is certainly reason to wonder what the Middle East would look like today if Iran hadn't spent decades funding and arming terrorist organizations.

Yet, in his entire State of the Union Address, the President mentioned Iran only once. The same goes for last week's speech from the Democrat leader. Where are the redlines for Iran, the calls for regime change? For that matter, where are the redlines for Hamas? Because, let's remember, that is how we ended up here. Israel didn't attack Hamas; Hamas attacked Israel.

President Biden himself has noted that October 7's brutal attack against Israeli civilians was the deadliest day for the Jewish people literally since the Holocaust. More than 1,100 individuals were killed. More than 240 hostages were taken, and 130 of those hostages still-- still--remain in Gaza, including 5 American citizens. This was not a war of Israel's making; the current war is the responsibility of Hamas.

Hamas has pulled its own citizens into the war zone because that is what they do. It has woven its terrorist infrastructure all through Gaza so that its fighters can easily slip into and outright hide behind the civilian population. The Israeli military has continued to discover Hamas tunnels networked beneath schools, hospitals, and the United Nations' headquarters in Gaza, UNRWA. The lives of its own citizens seem to mean as little to Hamas as do the lives of Israelis.

The world has seen the evil of Hamas and its indifference to life, and that is precisely why Israel must succeed in removing the threat of Hamas from its borders.

When Democrats do things like set redlines around an offensive operation into Rafah, they are supporting the conditions that will perpetuate this terror. No other nation would accept this threat just miles over its border, and we must not ask our longstanding ally Israel to make such a dangerous exception.

I hope and pray that Israel will succeed in permanently disabling Hamas and paving the way to a more peaceful future for Israelis and-- and--for Palestinians.

In an age in which the Democratic Party is increasingly surrendering to its most extreme-left wing, perhaps the President and the Democrat leader's comments should not have been unexpected, but, expected or not, they were inappropriate and troubling.

There is an old adage that when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Yet Democrats are out with a letter this morning that sets forth a new laundry list of conditions for Israel to meet.

Our focus should be on supporting our ally Israel and working for a future where both Israelis and Palestinians can live free from terror like Hamas's, and that requires clear-eyed focus on the task at hand of helping our allies defeat these terrorists, bring the hostages home, and restore peace.

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