Our Friends in Israel Are Under Attack
Floor Speech
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Mr. ROY. I would just say how much I appreciate the gentleman, I appreciate his service, I appreciate his understanding about how important Israel is to us as an ally and how important it is for our country to stand united right now as we watch our friends under attack. I look forward to engaging with him.
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Mr. ROY. Has the gentleman traveled to Israel?
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Mr. ROY. Is the gentleman aware that even when it is the size of New Jersey, really the population center is really in an area pretty much the size of probably about a quarter of New Jersey or half of New Jersey, right?
In Lebanon, for example, at all times, there is about 150,000 rockets sitting there pointing at this space between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the northern part of Israel, where virtually all of the population lives, of all walks of faith, by the way. They are under constant threat, and without Iron Dome would be in grave danger, as they are taking this rocket fire from the Gaza Strip today.
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Mr. ROY. As we have been watching over the last several weeks with our friends in Israel under attack, particularly this week with the amount of missiles that are going in, there has been wide success, obviously, with Iron Dome, but obviously that puts a continued stress on Iron Dome. Is the gentleman as concerned as I am that we have this country standing alongside Israel to ensure that they have got the resources they need, that they can continue to have a strong Iron Dome, continue to be able to push back on the rockets that are being fired into Israel from Gaza Strip by Hamas?
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Mr. ROY. I am a proud Representative of San Antonio, Texas, where our Alamo stands, so I appreciate that reference. Is the gentleman aware that there has been numerous casualties, numerous deaths as a result of this rocket fire, very specifically including non-Israeli citizens? In fact, I saw some social media yesterday of a young Indian woman from the country of India who was killed while visiting Israel, and that there have been numerous others, children, and others that have lost their lives, and, also, thousands upon thousands of Israeli farmland that has been torched and burned, livelihoods that have been put into disarray as a result of this rocket fire. Does the gentleman agree with that?
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Mr. ROY. Please.
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Mr. ROY. Is the gentleman aware that there have been numerous people who have thrown out the phrase that Israel--many of our friends, by the way--that Israel has a right to defend itself. I mean, we hear this regularly.
Would the gentleman agree that Israel has more than a right to defend itself, but rather a duty and, in fact, a responsibility to defend itself, defend the people of Israel, and to stand strong as what you just described, the greatest democracy in the Middle East with a plurality of individuals in that country who respect freedom and democracy in a multiethnic population even as we are, as a result, I believe, of the previous administration, experiencing a renaissance in the Middle East, potential peace. We are seeing the response to that here, if the gentleman would agree.
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Mr. ROY. Would the gentleman be surprised if I told him that on my first trip to Israel in 2014 May, I believe, that we were able to take a helicopter tour of the north end of Israel, as I described earlier, where the bulk of the population is, and fly up the Jordan River and go up to the northern part of Israel, and that we would have been able to experience visiting a hospital in Israel where Israeli doctors, Jewish doctors, were caring for at the time--the gentleman will remember in 2014 what was going on in Syria and the devastating toll that the Syrian regime was having on its own people--and that there were children and women and those who were being attacked in their own country in Syria who were receiving the best, top-notch medical care in the world in Israeli hospitals? Then, Israelis were secreting them back to Syria and not making it public so that there would be no reprisal taken against the Syrians because they had gone to get care in Israel.
Would the gentleman be surprised by that, based on his experience and his service in Israeli Defense Forces?
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Mr. ROY. I would say to the gentleman that my response is that I could go through a similar list, and the gentleman has done that perfectly well.
What I was struck by in my time in Israel, and that was particularly in the summer of 2019 as I already described and May 2014, the extent to which the people of Israel were so grateful, one, for the United States' support in working with them on Iron Dome in order to have the technology, and not just Iron Dome, David's Sling and all the various different technologies that they are using to be able to live, to be able to live in less fear, and their ability, by the way, to build a fence, to build an infrastructure and border in order to prevent traffic and people coming in that might wish to do them harm, and the extent to which they would tell stories about loved ones that each and every one of them had lost in one of these suicide bombings or some other attack.
How gratified they were that many of these things were things they were talking about in the past and that Israel was moving forward and being able to live in peace and to be able to live without fear of those kinds of attacks as much.
I would just question whether the gentleman would agree that--I don't necessarily always believe in coincidences when we have an administration who refuses to even call Prime Minister Netanyahu for the first 40 or 50 days of the administration. We have an administration that was more interested in sitting down with Iran than sitting down with our friends in Israel, so that we might see that some of our enemies, our mutual enemies, are emboldened to engage in this kind of attack.
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Mr. ROY. Well, the gentleman recounts something that I experienced, as well, and, more than that, a heartfelt description of the reasons that the Israelis were so thankful for our friendship and our support and their belief, I believe rightfully so, that the United States' relationship with Israel is a significant part of their ability to exist as a nation, particularly under the intense scrutiny and attack that they find themselves.
Here we are, I think this Friday will be the 73rd anniversary of Israeli independence. I think I am right about that. I pulled it out of my head. That almost now 75 years is, I think, in direct connection to America's support. Of course, it has ebbed and flowed over the years, but that support and that particularly strong support with President Trump moving the Embassy to Jerusalem, I believe that the people of Israel rightfully recognize that support is key to their security and safety, if the gentleman agrees.
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Mr. ROY. Well, I do agree with the gentleman. I might say to the Speaker, in order to be deferential to my friend's time, if I might ask how much time remains in the gentleman's half-hour?
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Mr. ROY. I would agree with the gentleman. I would add a couple of other thoughts. I noticed today a tweet on May 11, which would be yesterday, by Supreme Leader Khamenei, ``Palestinians are awake and determined. They must continue this path. One can only talk with the language of power with these criminals,'' i.e., Israelis. ``They must increase their strength, stand strong, confront the enemy,'' the enemy being, of course, Israel, ``and force them to stop their crimes.''
Would the gentleman agree that Iran is certainly responsible and tied to Hamas, to the supply of rockets and technology that is being targeted toward our friends in Israel and that we must remember where Iran stands with respect to Israel and the United States?
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Mr. ROY. I would agree, and I think that it is critically important to remember who we are dealing with and who we empower at the expense of both our national security and the national security of our friends in Israel.
I would also offer a tweet that I saw from his home base in Qatar, the Hamas political director and literal United States designated terrorist Ismail Haniyeh. He tweets his support, tweets his support of the attacks on Israel.
This individual notes, and I don't know that we need to get into cancel culture, but this individual notes that he won't be banned from Twitter, and I think this is something we should all be cognizant of as we are looking around the world when we remember that, in the previous administration, with President Trump's policies, that we were seeing extraordinary gains in peace in the Middle East, Arab countries recognizing Israel, opening up flights and engagement between Israel and countries that before would not recognize them. Does the gentleman agree with that?
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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I would agree with the gentleman. I would suggest that the gentleman made the point best earlier when he said, How would we respond in United States of America if this many missiles were being fired from Mexico?
Where, by the way, we have cartels who are operating control of our border.
If we had, literally--and here is some of the data. The gentleman quoted some data. Here is some from my staff:
More than 1,500 missiles--possibly 700 already, I think the gentleman alluded to--in the last 72 hours, on average, every 3 minutes by Hamas; 200 of the rockets fired fell short of crossing the border and caused civilian damage; IDF targeting military PIJ and Hamas infrastructure, the operatives and the rocket launchers, an Iron Dome battery was operationalized from reserves. IDF forwarded an attack by an elite Hamas unit, which is trying to dig a tunnel into Israel. And now you have got the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Quds Brigade saying it will expand the ring of fire and target Tel Aviv, and after Tel Aviv with huge rocket barrage. This is the state of things in Israel.
And to the gentleman's point, and I will yield back: No American would be sitting here today--if I am sitting here in Austin, Texas, or San Antonio, Texas, about 150 miles to the west and over to Mexico, if we had 1,500 rockets firing in on San Antonio or Austin, look, man, I would be grabbing my weapons and I would be heading down to the border, and we would be taking care of business.
This is the reality of what we are talking about. So when I hear people saying Israel has a right to defend itself, Israel has a duty and a responsibility to defend itself, I support them fully.
Mr. Speaker, I would yield back to the gentleman.
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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. This was kind of an impromptu colloquy, but I think this is the best of what we do in the House, and I would like to do it more often with you and other colleagues.
Mr. Speaker, I would just say to the gentleman who has served in IDF and who has served in our Armed Forces: You bear the scars of your service, and we thank you for that. You know well what the Israelis are experiencing every day. And I am glad that you and I stand here united, along with at least the majority of conference.
I wish it was more of a bipartisan agreement of our duty in this country, our responsibility to stand with our friends in Israel, with whom we have an extraordinary relationship. That our joint efforts to stand athwart terrorists to build things like Iron Dome. To work together on missile defense technology has made this world infinitely safer.
And that the most recent administration, the President Trump administration, deserves extraordinary credit, which it never gets in the press, for what was an unbelievable achievement with respect to Middle East peace and the direction we were headed.
And that we are going to stand with Israel. That we are going to make that an unequivocal statement, that we stand with Israel, we are going to defend Israel, and we are going to make sure that we can work together in peace going forward for the betterment of this world and for our mutual relationship.
Mr. Speaker, I would yield to the gentleman for any closing thoughts.
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