BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHOCK. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We come together tonight to talk about a very important issue and a very important relationship that we enjoy with our only true democratic ally in the Middle East, the State of Israel.
We've seen in the last week this issue come to light with the instability in that region, with the new facility that was just discovered and made public on Friday by the United States, Great Britain and her allies. This just reinforces in the minds of many of us in Congress the importance of us remaining steadfast in making sure that the State of Iran, that country, does not receive a nuclear weapon and that we do all that we can to support our ally, the State of Israel, and peace in that region.
I was fortunate to be a part of a delegation that traveled to Israel. In fact, there were 25 Members who traveled the first week of August to Israel on a fact-finding trip; 25 Republicans, which was the largest delegation of Republicans ever to visit the State of Israel at once. The Republican delegation was led by our whip, Eric Cantor. The following week the Democrats were led by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and my understanding was there were over 30 Democrat Members who went on that trip, which is the largest number of Democratic Members to travel to Israel all at one time.
If you do the math, that's over 50 Members, which is well over 10 percent of the Congress traveling to that region within a 2-week period and I think underscores the importance that this Congress believes that relationship is and the need for us to press for peace and the need for us to support our allies.
I want to take some time to reflect on my views of what I learned on that trip and some reflections of what I learned on that trip. Also here tonight, I have one of my good friends and allies who has joined me to share his experiences as well.
I would like to take this time to yield to my good friend, Mr. Thompson.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHOCK. Well, thank you for your insights, and obviously I share those observations and would like to take the opportunity to share some of my own. First, let me say that I thought the trip to Israel reinforced what I had already known and that was that the Israeli citizens want peace. I saw this message on the faces of young soldiers. I've heard a passionate thoughtful cry for peace in Prime Minister Netanyahu's words, and I even prayed for peace with Israelis as they ended their prayers on Shabbat.
Furthermore, I found that like every nation in this world, Israel is a nation of contrasts. Specifically, it is a land hemmed by unambiguous borders, yet filled with lines that have been blurred beyond recognition. New and old, the archeological and the militarily strategic, the political and the religious were all indistinguishably bundled together until each lost its own identity and had become part of the same interwoven fabric.
Each day's itinerary was packed with life-changing events; the oppressive heat that hit me every time I stepped off the bus also seemed to also challenge all of my preconceived ideas about Israel. And while I found our agenda to be filled with the study of distorted lines, there were always those stark borders which clearly separated Israel from her neighbors and delineated fact from fiction.
I found this truth as we toured the Western Wall. As I watched old rabbis press their heads against the blocks of Herod's Temple, I found no ambiguous lines. I was clearly standing at the foundation of modern Israel. Conversely, I did not hear Israel's genesis in the echo of my footsteps through the solemn corridors of Yad Vashem. True, I heard an irrefutable argument against the unforgettable atrocities that happened when the world's Jewry does not have a land to call its own. While important, Yad Vashem's lesson does not speak to Israel's birthright. Plainly, Israel does not exist because of the Holocaust.
Unfortunately, I believe President Obama crossed this unmistakable border in his Cairo speech, linking the history of Israel not to the Western Wall or Masada but to the actions of a mad man. President Obama implied that Israel was thrown together to ease the guilt of a post-World War II Europe. I find this absurd. One can easily trace the tenacity of Masada straight through
2,000 years of history to the weary resolution on the faces of David Rubinger's famous photo ``Paratroopers at the Western Wall.''
Israel does not date to the instability caused by Adolf Hitler, but to the stability engendered by Abraham. Additionally, the President spoke of mutual respect but failed to show the Israelis the same respect he displayed to Palestinians. He spoke of the daily humiliations endured by Palestinians, but did not mention the daily fears endured by the residents of Sderot as they go about their lives tethered to bomb shelters.
The President also crossed the border between fact and fiction when he put settlement construction on a pedestal as the principal bargaining chip for peace, thereby providing cover for Palestinian leaders to harden their opposition to all construction in the settlements. This misstep was completely unnecessary. It is well known that Israel has no intention of building new settlements. However, the nation also has no intention of stopping normal life in the settlements; and, unfortunately, the President inadvertently called for the latter.
Admittedly, this is a difficult topic for us to understand, and it was only on my trip that I realized the line between Israeli parents and grown children is much more blurred than it is here in the United States. I love my mother dearly, yet I do not wish to have her live right next door to me. However, many Israelis want exactly that. They want to walk to their father's house for Shabbat and employ their mother as a readily available and reliable baby sitter.
Settlements need what is referred to as natural growth, but this term is a misnomer. The settlements have no intention of growing the geographic size of their settlements. Instead, they want a natural filling in of the existing land. They want their son to be able to build a house on the vacant lot next to their home. To deprive settlers of this ability is to deprive them of living the Israeli lifestyle. I wish President Obama had toured the Alfei Menashe settlement with us so he could have learned this lesson himself. The President also needs to learn that the world cannot preach from on high to Israel.
When the President tours U.S. cities, he does not encounter bus stops that double as bomb shelters. When he sees groups of crowded students around the White House, he does not see assault rifles slung over the chaperone's shoulders. He does not live in fear. And due to these facts, the President does not have the capability to lecture Israel on what she must do to keep peace or to make her citizens safe.
Finally, I turn my attention to the largest topic facing Israel, the Iranian threat. Using more than 7,000 centrifuges, Tehran has amassed enough uranium to produce a nuclear device. At their current pace, Iran would be able to produce two more atomic weapons each year, provided they find ways to further enrich this fuel. Never before--not India, not Pakistan, not even North Korea--has a group of criminals so defiant of international law had such destructive capability; and as the people of Iran have become more vocal in their pleas for responsible leadership, the ayatollahs have become more erratic and unpredictable.
As such, we must quickly and decisively act to end this danger. Without a doubt, the United States has failed to do enough to stop Iran from becoming a proud owner of the bomb. It is true, Congress has taken a multitude of votes on this issue. However, the majority of these were simply press releases disguised as legislation. To right this wrong, I have added my name in support of multiple bills this year to strengthen sanctions against Iran.
By no means are these pieces of legislation sufficient. The United States must use every unilateral and multilateral tool it has at its disposal to cut off Iran economically, diplomatically, and politically until this shadow of a state abandons its diabolical goals.
These actions can only help Iran make the decisions sooner. Iran must see it can stand with peace, prosperity, and the international community, or it can continue to live in squalor and obscurity, relegated to the trash heap of the international community with the other juntas, regimes, and cabals.
When I think about the threat of Iran, I am reminded of the saying that those who do not study history are destined to repeat it. I'm reminded of my tour of Yad Vashem. I recall an eerily similar declaration to annihilate Jews. I remember a leader who perverted a religion to justify his actions. And I am reminded of the famous British Parliamentarian Edmund Burke, who once said, ``The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,'' which is exactly what too many Christian leaders did in that day: nothing.
This eerie similarity exists today, not with a leader who quotes the Bible but with one who quotes the Koran. His comments echo those of Hitler's; his stated goal is the same.
So what is necessary for peace? I would contend that there will be no peace until leaders around the world regardless of faiths denounce such comments, until leaders within the Muslim community reject this rhetoric, and until leaders of the Islamic states shun such hate speak within their borders. Whether someone builds a second garage or a second home within a defined community is not what stands between war and peace. A community of citizens who pervert a religion to justify hate and murder are what stand in the way of peace. This is precisely what we should all fear. It was radical Islamic terrorists who attacked the United States on September the 11th, who blew up subways in the UK. This ideology is the true barrier to peace.
I am reminded of a note that was left by the terrorists in Spain during the Madrid bombings. They said, ``We will win and you will lose. Because you love life, and we seek death.''
Therein lies the real problem with Iran. Unlike the threat of mutual destruction during the Cold War with Russia and the U.S., both knowing that if one attacked, the other would retaliate, we are now dealing with a regime that is not a socialist state like Russia but a religious state, whose leader espouses no fear of death but rather a clearly defined goal to destroy the state of Israel. This threat must be at the center of our President's and Congress's attention for the sake of Israel's security but also for the sake of our own.
Settlements, the West Bank, and a President who seems more interested in giving dictation rather than providing assistance--when spoken aloud, these problems seem rather insurmountable. I believe they are not. There is a path to peace which is as clear as the border formed by the security barrier. We only need to have the courage to take the first step on this path by ensuring Israel has our undeniable support.
Fortunately, we are not alone. The vast majority of Americans support Israel. We recognize that Israel stands as a lone beachhead of democracy in the Middle East. We know that we take our security for granted and do not judge those who are not afforded this luxury. In short, regardless of the muted lines within Israel, we know where the stark borders between our supporters and detractors are in the Middle East.
During our meeting with Shimon Peres, he said, ``Israel and her neighbors seem to be able to live in peace. We just have a problem writing it down.''
Focusing on the real threats to peace and democracy around the world, requiring leadership on the part of the Arab states to root out terrorists within their borders, and continuing to support and stand by our ally in the region, as, Mr. Netanyahu definitively stated, ``With God's help, we will know no more war. We will know peace.''
With that I yield to my good friend from the state of Louisiana, Dr. Fleming, for his impressions of his trip to Israel and the state of the region there in the Middle East.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHOCK. Okay. To your point, I think what you're suggesting is, number one, should any of these properties be, quote, given back or surrendered, but, number two, should that really be the focus of our effort towards peace.
It seems to me a little disingenuous on the part of our administration to suggest that somehow what stands between the current situation and a path road to peace is the issue of settlements is really a misnomer.
The reality is the State of Israel has shown throughout their history that they are the ones who have bargained in good faith and time and time again shown a willingness to give up lands as they have and only to their own peril; as you mentioned, what you saw in Sderot with the bomb shelters and the people who have suffered as a result of them giving up the Gaza Strip.
But the issue of Israel willing to give up this settlement or that settlement or redraw the boundaries, you and I both heard from Netanyahu's own words that they're not wedded to any set boundary. But what we also heard was out of the lips of the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, which was his unwillingness to accept Israel as a Jewish state.
Therein lies the real problem with the pathway to peace and a two-state solution: the Palestinians' unwillingness at this point to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. I would only also add that while we are talking about settlements, Iran continues to march towards acquiring a nuclear weapon. While I certainly respect this administration's plans to begin talks and to negotiate and to try and solve this diplomatically, I would remind the American people, and my colleagues here, that this is the same administration that we want to talk to that has lied to the international community and hidden from them a nuclear facility which the world was just made aware of last week.
So I would only question the sincerity and the ability for us to truly negotiate with trust with this regime who up until last weekend we were not even aware of an additional nuclear facility. So it's very alarming. I will tell you, I don't know what my distinguished colleagues here feel, but we have two bills that are still in this Chamber, H.R. 2194, which is the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act, and then the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act, which was H.R. 1327. Both of those bills have a majority of Members of Congress supporting it. And it just seems to me a shame that this body has not acted on that legislation to put another tool in the chest of President Obama as he goes forward to negotiate with Iran, the fact that these sanctions are there if and when they become necessary to use.
And I would just yield back.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHOCK. Well, I agree, and it's why it's so important that we impress on this body the importance that we take up the legislation that we mentioned earlier dealing with sanctions, but also, we raise this issue in this body.
You know, we've been so focused on the issue of health care the last couple of months, and while this is an important issue that the President has made throughout the past year, the reality is we need to look no further than September 11 to know that, if this country is not safe, if your allies are not safe, and that if terrorism is allowed to breed around the world, that really nothing else matters, and that nothing can be more detrimental to our economy and our way of life than for terrorism to breed, to be successful and, ultimately, be able to attack democracy, as we saw with our markets here after September 11, the great job loss, the great tumble that it took as a result of the attacks of September 11.
We need to remain vigilant in not only keeping our country safe but also supporting the allies around the world, and I think it's why my friends here tonight have spent some time talking about this important issue, which has been raised last week by the discovery of this facility, that the State of Iran has attempted to keep from the international community.
And one has to ask the question: why? If their intentions are what they say they are, if their intentions are pure and simple, if their intentions are non-nuclear or non-weapons grade, if their intentions are simply to provide energy to their people, certainly that is not something that requires the dark of night or secret. That is something that you would think one would be happy for full disclosure.
And our own estimates suggest that the centrifuges in that facility are not designed to produce energy-grade uranium but, rather, weapons-grade uranium. And so I think it adds to the doubt in many of our minds and the concern for our President to move rather quickly for, if not this facility, perhaps some others that we don't know about that are still out there.
So I thank the gentlemen for being here tonight and sharing their perspectives of our trip to Israel and also impressing on the public the importance of us taking up the issue of Iran and dealing very swiftly with sanctions and, if not sanctions, supporting Israel's efforts to stop a nuclear Iran.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT