Israel

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, more Jews died on October 7 than have died since the Holocaust. As the war in the Middle East wages on, the world is learning more details about the horrors being unleashed by Hamas, which, as the world now knows, is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. This has been going on for a long time.

Over the past week and a half, we have heard horrifying stories of atrocities committed against the Israeli people. Last week, I met at Temple Emanu-El, a synagogue in Dallas, TX, and talked to a mom named Kim who has two sons who were born in Dallas. They are native Texans, American citizens, and are now fighting in the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces.

Another woman had been a teacher of a kibbutz in Israel but had recently relocated to the United States. She recounted watching her phone all of a sudden becoming deluged with messages from that kibbutz about Hamas killers coming in and indiscriminately killing babies, children, and other civilians.

These terrorists have no conscience. They have no moral standards. They not only murdered babies and children, they raped, tortured, and beheaded other innocent civilians. They dismembered the bodies of their victims and captured hostages to use as human shields or human bargaining chips.

It gives me no pleasure to recount the horrific evil that we are seeing played out in real time on our TV screens and in social media. But it is important that we acknowledge the reality of this evil because, if we don't--if we brush it under the rug and we act like, well, there is really some moral equivalency between the Palestinian cause and the Israeli nation and that somehow Hamas is justified in committing these acts--we will have bought the propaganda of Hamas hook, line, and sinker.

Of course, we all know that Hamas is a proxy for the Supreme Leader in Iran and that the IRGC, the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Quds Force has helped equip and train Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon in the northern part of Israel, and that this is part of a long-term effort to extinguish the Jewish State and to eliminate it from the map.

This is not a spontaneous act. I know that written in many of the newspapers the news media has said: Well, Iran didn't know about this.

Well, they may not have known the timing and they may not have known the scale of these attacks, but there is no question they enabled them. And it was their joint cause between Hamas and Iran to commit these atrocities against the people of Israel as part of their desire to extinguish them from the face of the planet.

These terrorists were carrying documents that explicitly outlined the mission's objective: Kill as many individuals as possible and capture hostages. Those were the orders given to the Hamas terrorists. Other documents included detailed plans to target elementary schools--target elementary schools and a youth center in Israel, and specific plans to target the most vulnerable population--women and children.

In an interview on CNN, Israeli President Isaac Herzog provided even more details about the instructions given to these killers. He showed a booklet that was found on the body of a terrorist. It is a pocket-sized pamphlet that provides step-by-step instructions on how to torture and kidnap innocent people.

So the evidence is crystal clear. This is an evil terrorist group whose only goal is to eliminate Israel and the Jewish people and if they can't do that, to kill as many Jews as they possibly can.

In the wake of these attacks, we have seen an overwhelming show of support--certainly here in Congress and across America--for the Israeli people and a powerful condemnation of Hamas.

Here in the Senate, where disagreement seems to be the rule these days, I am glad this is an issue that has garnered overwhelming bipartisan support. In the coming days, I expect the Senate to pass a resolution affirming Israel's right to self-defense--literally its right to exist--and committing American support.

I want to thank Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Chairman Cardin, and Ranking Member Risch for introducing this resolution in the Foreign Relations Committee. I am proud to be one of the 99 Senators who has cosponsored the resolution, and I hope we can advance it formally soon. It is important that the United States is the leader of the free world. It is important that we voice our clear and unwavering support for Israel in the face of this evil. It is important not only what we say, but it is important what we do.

The administration, we know, is preparing a supplemental funding request to give Israel the weapons and the humanitarian relief they need to sustain themselves. I expect this will include weapons, intelligence support, humanitarian aid, and other various and sundry items. Given the constant threats they face from Hamas terrorists and the threat from a potential enlargement of the war if Hezbollah were to join in, it is absolutely critical that we treat this request with urgency. Israel is our closest ally in the Middle East, and it deserves our full support both in words and in action.

While support for Israel has been overwhelming, a small but loud minority has tried to establish some false equivalency between Hamas's attack and Israel's defense. These individuals have offered bogus assessments that somehow Israel is to blame. Sadly, many of these individuals cannot even offer ignorance as an excuse because they are students and leaders at some of the most prestigious universities in America.

A coalition of students at Harvard issued a statement, claiming that Israel is ``entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.''

The president of New York University's Student Bar Association falsely claimed that ``Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.'' It is no surprise that this young woman's peers denounced this statement and her future employer rescinded its job offer.

Leaders at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Stanford, and other elite schools have faced fierce and much-deserved backlash over their responses to this war.

Fortunately, these views do not constitute a majority, and it is important that those who have the evidence to back it up speak out and call it what it is, which is Iranian propaganda.

One prominent voice of reason among college administrators is our own former colleague Ben Sasse, who now serves as the president of the University of Florida. In a letter to Jewish students and alumni, he pointed out the truth, which is what his colleagues in ``elite academia'' could not bear to say. He called Hamas's actions evil, and he said there is no defense for terrorism.

It is embarrassing that many students, faculty, and administrators at some of America's most prestigious universities cannot even acknowledge that simple fact. It is no wonder people begin to wonder what is being taught in our colleges and universities. Are our children who are attending these colleges and universities being brainwashed? being only told one side of the story? intimidating people who have different points of view and silencing them from speaking out and telling the truth? Unfortunately, I think that is happening on a regular basis at some of these most elite colleges and universities. Our kids are being brainwashed.

While the rhetoric alone is deeply concerning, it is horrifying to see that some of this has turned into actual violence. An Israeli student at Columbia University was assaulted with a stick outside the university's library. Synagogues in Utah were forced to evacuate after receiving bomb threats, which, thankfully, were not credible but were disturbing nonetheless. Swastikas and Nazi flags have been spotted in cities across the country from California to New York.

Let's just state the truth: There is no space, no room, no argument for hate or anti-Semitism in the United States, period.

Now, we do believe in free speech. We do believe that those who have different points of view deserve the right, at some point, to speak their mind. But those of us who know better, who know what the facts are, who have the courage and backbone to stand up and tell the truth, need to speak out as well and just as forcefully so the American people can know the truth and our actions can follow the evidence.

This is a time for moral clarity. We are watching a battle of good versus evil, and there can be no ambiguity about where America stands. President Biden traveled to Tel Aviv yesterday to affirm America's unyielding support for Israel as it defends itself. Good for him. I am glad he made the trip, and I hope the Israeli people can find some comfort and some confidence in the message of solidarity.

If Israel needs weapons, which it does, particularly for the Iron Dome, which is the anti-rocket defense weapon that is designed to knock out these hundreds of rockets being launched from Gaza into Israel-- they need the Iron Dome in order to stop those rockets from hitting innocent civilians. But, of course, they need increased access to our intelligence capabilities to supplement their own, humanitarian aid, diplomatic support. Whatever it is, the United States will provide it. Israel has our complete and unwavering support.

As each of us knows, support for Israel is only part of the equation. America cannot relinquish its leadership role in the world, which means we cannot simply replenish Israel's arsenal or bolster its efforts to defend itself. We must also adopt a new approach to deal with those who are spreading terrorism in the Middle East--namely Iran. Iran is the leading state sponsor of international terrorism, and it has bankrolled and trained Hamas.

Again, I am troubled by this idea that somehow Iran was not involved in this attack. Of course, they were, by sending $100 million a year to Hezbollah and Hamas with which to train them and then by providing weapons, with the objective of wiping Israel off the map. The blood is on Iran's, including the Supreme Leader's, hands, and he is proud of it because his goal is to wipe Israel off the map by any means necessary. Iran has provided Hamas and other terrorist proxies in the region, as I said, with funding, weapons, and training to enable the types of attacks we have witnessed.

We should be absolutely clear. President Bush, some 20 years ago, made a fairly controversial statement at the time by identifying the axis of evil--he called it--which included Iran, Iraq at the time, which was under the rule of Saddam Hussein, and North Korea; but, today, that axis should include not only Iran but also Russia, which is more than happy to have its ally Iran distract the world from what they are doing in Ukraine, and, of course, the Chinese, who are more than happy, in exchange for the oil that they import from places like Iran and Russia, to provide support for their evil aims.

The Supreme Leader of Iran once labeled the United States as Iran's ``No. 1 enemy.'' There is no doubt that Iran has serious skin in this game, and it has a lot to gain from Hamas.

President Biden needs to reassess his approach in dealing with Iran. Rather than appeasement, which has allowed them to circumvent the sanctions that we put on, for example, oil exports, they are now back in business, and their economy is booming as a result of the oil they are selling to countries like China and others. And the idea that President Biden would accept anything, any kind of deal--even a bad deal--on the Iranian nuclear weapon development is giving them the confidence that they can continue not only to negotiate a weak agreement but also continue to sell drones to Russia with which to kill Ukrainians. Eventually, they will be able to succeed in their No. 1 goal, which is to develop a nuclear weapon.

Can you imagine, given the death and destruction in the Middle East now that has been caused by Iranian-sponsored proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas, if that same country--the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism-- got a nuclear weapon? That cannot happen. That must not happen. So I hope these events have caused the administration to reconsider its approach.

The series of missteps has projected an image of weakness to our adversaries, who are eager to exploit any cracks in our defense. Appeasement, as we learned from World War II, is not a viable strategy because countries like Iran, led by the Supreme Leader and this theocracy which is bent on the destruction of Israel, can't be reasoned with. There is not really a cost-benefit analysis. They are not rational actors; they are ideologues determined to accomplish their goal, which is to wipe out countries like Israel.

So we need to get to work and work together to confront the threats that Iran and its proxies present and reestablish a credible deterrence in the Middle East. Until that happens, we can expect assaults on Israel and other pro-democracy movements in the Middle East. They will be under constant and increased assault.

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