Opposing Any Endorsement Or Further Consideration Of Report Of The United Nations Fact Finding Mission On The Gaza Conflict

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, this resolution should not be coming before us. I agree that there is an anti-Israel bias at the United Nations. But at this moment in history, it should be the responsibility of every Member of this House to help bring the parties in the conflict in the Middle East back to the negotiating table.

We need to resurrect and advance a peace process, so that rockets never again fall on innocent Israeli civilians and the terror of Gaza is not repeated. This resolution does not do that. This resolution heightens the rhetoric of division.

Regardless of what you think of the Goldstone Report, it makes an important recommendation: that it is incumbent upon both Israel and the Palestinians, in particular Hamas, to carry out credible investigations into actions by their forces that led to the harm and loss of civilians.

I regret that we are not calling upon all parties to return to the peace table so that the rockets and bombs may be silenced in the Middle East, once and for all.

I regret that this resolution is on the House floor increasing the politicization and the polarization and the heated rhetoric so characteristic of the crisis in the Middle East.

So, Madam Speaker, I will vote ``no'' today on this resolution.

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