Providing for Consideration of H.R. Voting Rights Advancement Act of and Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Expressing the Sense of the House of Representatives Regarding United States Efforts to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Through A Negotiated Two- State Solution

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOTTHEIMER. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Raskin for yielding me time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the rule which adopts bipartisan language which I introduced with my good friends, Congressman Tom Reed and Congressman Ted Deutch, reaffirming the United States' ironclad commitment to providing security assistance to our historic ally, Israel, which, as ever, is key to America's national security in the region, especially in our fight against terror.

This vote officially puts to rest the splinter view of adding new conditions on aid to Israel and reinforces our historic commitment to restoring a two-state solution.

I want to thank my good friend, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, for his leadership on this issue and for including our language in his manager's amendment.

Madam Speaker, as we have seen in recent weeks, Israel, the democracy in the region, faces threats like no other country of missile and rocket attacks from terrorist organizations, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as the ongoing threat of Iranian-backed forces in Syria.

Vital security assistance to Israel, including missile defense funding for Iron Dome, David's Sling, and Arrow 3, helps our ally to defend itself and preserve its qualitative military edge in the region. That is why in 2016 under the Obama administration, the U.S. and Israel signed a 10-year Memorandum of Understanding which constituted the single largest pledge of security assistance to Israel in America history. The MOU also increased the amount of defense dollars that go to U.S. businesses here at home, with as much as $1.2 billion a year invested in the United States.

We know that this aid helps save countless lives, and we know that the United States is better off when Israel is fully equipped to defend itself. That is why I led a bipartisan amendment with my colleagues, Congressman Reed and Congressman Deutch, which reaffirms our commitment to providing this assistance without additional conditions or exceptions.

Our amendment was cosponsored by a total of 36 Members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, who know that this assistance should not be subject to politics. I deeply appreciate all of our colleagues' support for our amendment, for this vital, lifesaving assistance, and for the bipartisan U.S.-Israel relationship.

This language is absolutely necessary because of the extreme and misguided views of some, especially several currently running for our Nation's highest office, who seemingly believe that assistance to Israel should be held hostage until Israel makes concessions according to their beliefs, including how Israel treats Gaza, which is controlled by the foreign terrorist organization Hamas.

We must stand together in rejecting that harmful view--as one Senator called it, the view of having leverage against Israel, our ally.

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Mr. GOTTHEIMER. Madam Speaker, when our ally, Israel, faces more than 450 rockets fired by Palestinian and Jihad terrorists in Gaza, it must have the ability to defend itself, no matter what.

That is why with this vote we commit ourselves to strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship by ensuring that we fulfill our guarantee to provide vital security assistance to the key democracy in the region.

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