Standing Shoulder to Shoulder with Israel

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah for hosting a forum here on the floor for our colleagues to be able to talk about the important issues with respect to Bidenomics, such as you can even use that term as anything other than creating and inflicting pain on the American people through a big spending, highly regulatory inflationary environment that is killing the average hardworking American family. That is the truth.

My colleague from Utah brought a number of our other colleagues down to make that point very clearly, in addition to making the point that I have come to the floor of the House to underscore and reiterate. That is the importance of the United States of America standing side by side, shoulder to shoulder, with our friend, Israel.

We are not. That is the plain and simple truth. We are not standing side by side with Israel at a time when she most needs it.

Three days ago was April 7. That marked the 6-month timeframe since the brutal attacks of October 7. October 7 in Israel has become much like we describe September 11.

As we know, through both what is publicly available and those things that we have seen privately in terms of the information available, the videos that we have seen, the horrific slaughter of human beings in Israel, Hamas slaughtered children, raped women, burned whole families alive, and took hundreds of innocent civilians hostage. An estimated 1,200 Israelis were killed on October 7. Those numbers are still numbers that we are trying to track down.

An estimated 130 hostages of the initial estimate of 250 are still believed to be held in Gaza. To be very clear, that includes Americans. Americans are right now being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. Ninety-one Israelis are dual citizens, and eight Thai nationals, one Nepali, one French-Mexican, but six Americans.

Instead of unequivocally backing Israel and the fight against Hamas, a United States-designated terrorist group, I want to be very clear, the Biden administration has been undermining Israel every step of the way.

Last November, on the floor of this body, the people's House, the Representatives of this body passed, on a bipartisan basis, funding for Israel. We did so immediately. It is something I am proud of. I am not shy to criticize Members of both sides of the aisle for the shortcomings of the people's House, but we came together on a bipartisan basis, and we passed, I think it was, about $17 billion in funding for our friends in Israel just over a month after the vicious attacks against them.

That bill would have funded their needs, shown that we would stand next to Israel, and importantly, it was paid for. It was paid for out of the expansion of the Internal Revenue Service, which most recently was found by the IRS' own inspector general to have 63 percent of the audits that were added are for people who make less than $200,000.

Mr. Speaker, 63 percent of the audits were for people who make less than $200,000. By the way, that is what we said would happen, if you expand the power of the IRS the average American, the average hardworking family, would get targeted by the bureaucrats at the IRS.

However, our Democratic colleagues and the President of the United States--a Democrat, radical progressive Democrats--are choosing the Internal Revenue Service, are choosing to target you, the hardworking American family, are choosing to side with Hamas over Israel. That is what is happening.

So instead of America standing up together united and standing right alongside Israel, our Democratic colleagues and the administration and in this body and in the Senate give lip service to standing with them, and instead, are trying to undermine them.

Again, I want to be very clear. Republicans in the House passed off of this floor with Democrat votes legislation that would fund Israel that was paid for--so we are no longer just spending money into oblivion--by taking away some of the increased expansion of the IRS that the IRS' own inspector general has acknowledged and reports as being used to target hardworking, middle-class families.

That is the truth. That is the distinction.

But it goes a lot further than that.

The Biden administration is trying to tie the hands of Israel. They are taking active steps to undermine Israel. President Biden told reporters that Israel's military operations in Gaza were ``over the top'' and the bombing was ``indiscriminate.''

President Biden told protestors: ``. . . I've been quietly working with the Israeli Government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza. I've been using all that I can to do that.'' That is the President of the United States.

On March 25, just a couple weeks ago, President Biden's representatives at the United Nations green-lighted, by abstaining instead of voting--by abstaining instead of voting--on a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire without any connection to the release of hostages.

Can you imagine the leadership of our country where they could have a veto exercise in the United Nations Security Council, they chose not to exercise that, abstained, walked away, refused to stand up, and in essence, turned their back fully, not just on the nation of Israel but on every Jewish American who knows family and friends, and has their heritage connected to the great State of Israel. This President and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle turned their backs on Israel. That is the truth. There is no debate on that truth. It is literally what happened.

Now, by the way, the administration is all too happy to continue to throw billions of dollars to the United Nations. This is when I give a little wake-up call to my colleagues on this side of the aisle for continuing to fund a government at war with our people and at war with our values by giving more funding for the United Nations.

It is this administration that is throwing money at the United Nations--I think this last bill we moved was $3.5 billion. Let's keep in mind that the United Nations General Assembly, the paragon of virtue, has passed 153 resolutions condemning Israel. They have passed zero on China, zero on Cuba, zero on Turkiye. I can keep going down the list, but they have passed 153 resolutions condemning Israel.

Anybody with eyes can see what is happening. The prime minister of Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu was correct when he said: ``Just as the United States would not agree to a cease-fire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or after the terrorist attack of 9/11, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7.''

Every Member of Congress, the President of the United States, every Member of the Senate, we should be standing up shoulder to shoulder backing Prime Minister Netanyahu, backing Israel with their unequivocal right to defend themselves, their unequivocal right to root out Hamas from the hostile forces that have been attacking them and to not allow the international community to gaslight the world into saying that Israel is slaughtering civilians, because it is simply not true.

The press and the international community will throw out numbers of the casualties in Gaza, but what they don't tell you is that a large number of those casualties are, in fact, enemy combatants. They are literally operating like divisions, like a military, but they hide because they are cowards. Hamas are cowards, and they hide under schools, and they hide under hospitals, and they build tunnels all through the city, all through the streets, making it as hard as it has ever been in the history of warfare for a sovereign nation, Israel, to defend itself against evil, terrorists embedded in the civilian communities right underneath the streets of Gaza.

But what is amazing is that what will be studied for years to come is the extent to which Israel has bent over backwards, has worked to minimize the casualties. I don't have the most recent data, but I would tell you that it is something in the ZIP code of, I think, 19,000-ish casualties of civilians and about 13,000 terrorists or enemy combatants.

If you don't know how ratios work out in the world of combatants, this is actually an historic low. History will judge this as an extraordinary feat by Israel to attack those who levied the most heinous attacks on their people and are holding hostage--I will remind people--six Americans. History will view this as an unprecedented success in modern warfare to root out and target evil and try to avoid civilian harm.

Just to give you an example, I just told you there were roughly 19,000 civilian casualties to about 13,000 enemy combatant casualties. Mr. Speaker, there were 19,000 civilian casualties to about 13,000 enemy combatant casualties that I believe the data reflects that we see going on in terms of Israel and their engagement with Hamas in Gaza.

Here is a point of reference: According to the United Nations, civilians usually make up around 90 percent of casualties in war, which would be a 1-to-9 ratio. I mean, think about that. Think about the extent to which that is what the United Nations--the paragon of virtue, that has had 153 resolutions condemning Israel--the United Nations says the ratio is normally 1-to-9. And Israel has got it at something in the ZIP code of like 1-to-1\1/2\. While you have the enemy not marching in a line of red coats, not getting in the field and just marching at you as enemy combatants but hiding as the cowards that they are in the tunnels under the schools and the hospitals and the businesses and the communities in Gaza.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle in this Chamber and in the Senate should be ashamed of themselves as should the President of the United States for walking away from Israel, going to the United Nations, abstaining from your role in the Security Council to stand aside Israel while buying into the nonsensical lies about what Israel is doing when they are actually doing probably the best job in the history of humankind to root out and target the enemy combatants and the terrorists who are embedded in the communities of Gaza.

It is an extraordinary feat. It is something we should hold up as a model of success and then stand alongside Israel. And what we should do is send over the $17 billion that we already passed off the floor of the House and sent to the Senate which is paid for by shrinking the IRS; an IRS which as I already pointed out is targeting hardworking American families as the Inspector General of the IRS noted.

Seek the truth. Figure out what is really happening.

I notice that the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Harris) has joined me. I have been talking about the extent to which we should be standing alongside our friends from Israel, and I would be happy to yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Harris).

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Maryland. His remarks are particularly meaningful as one who proudly wore the uniform of the Armed Forces of the United States. I appreciate him for his service in the military, as well as a Member of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, he says it exactly right. I think it is really critical to understand that it is disgraceful--I don't know what other way to put it--it is disgraceful for the American President to pressure Israel instead of Hamas. But that is what is happening. If we truly want to end the humanitarian suffering that war necessarily brings, the answer is never, and is not appeasement. It is not. It is the unequivocal support for Israel finishing the job. Everything else is a distraction.

The American people--I know the Americans I represent, the Texans I represent, I assume the gentleman's constituents--they want us to stand with Israel on a bipartisan basis. That means pressuring the Senate to take up the bill that we already sent them that is, in fact, paid for, that we sent in November, pressuring the Senate to bring up that bill.

By the way, for their part, Hamas can end this war immediately by accepting the fact that their side has lost the conflict, that Israel is going to exist, and that America is going to stand next to her. Because as long as we are in this body, we are going to be fighting to ensure that this country stands side by side with Israel, notwithstanding the fool-headed decisions of the current administration.

Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad pledged that the October 7 attacks were just the first time; that there will be a second, third, and fourth.

Will we pay a price, he says? Yes, and we are ready. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.

Are we awake? That is the truth, and it is not just Michigan on our soil, by the way. In Houston, Texas, this last week, there were individuals chanting ``death to America.''

It is coming to our shores, it is on our shores because a weak administration, a weak Congress is allowing it and encouraging it.

Calls for a cease-fire are called for Israel to surrender to Hamas and to surrender to terrorism.

Those are the words of Prime Minister Netanyahu, and he is completely correct.

A cease-fire will only allow Hamas to rebuild a planned another October 7. That is the truth.

Mr. Speaker, I close with one point here. I am never afraid to call out my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. I stand behind a speech I gave before Thanksgiving saying: What have we done? Name one thing.

But I want to say this: The debate for the soul of this country is happening on the Republican side of the aisle, and it is a debate that is being carried out on full display for the American people to see it, and it started with the Speaker's debate 15 months ago, and it has gone through a number of unbelievably important changes that we have been trying to make in this institution and we are not going to stop. We are not.

Last year, we were able to pass the strongest border security bill in history. I am proud of that as a Republican. It went over to the Senate, and it died at the hands of Democrats. We were able to pass a responsible increase in the debt ceiling with reforms that would have made this country stronger, more prosperous, with less inflation.

Unfortunately, side deals got done and that got sidetracked, but it was a giant step forward.

This body impeached for only the second time in history a sitting cabinet member, Alejandro Mayorkas, for his complete and utter failure to secure the border of the United States and his dereliction of duty.

I am proud of that. I am proud that this body has done that. I proud that we stood up and sent over legislation to the Senate that funded Israel, that took that money and paid for it out of the IRS. I am proud of that. When Republicans stand united for victory, stand united for freedom, stand united athwart our colleagues on the other side of the aisle and an administration that would undermine our country and undermine liberty and walk away from Israel and fund open borders, when we are united against that, we win, and we lead, and people follow.

When we, instead, cower down and say, Oh, we have to do something to get something done, just for the sake of it, then that is just unity with no purpose.

I am proud of the Republican Conference when we are united in purpose to defend the liberty of the American people.

I am proud today that we had a debate right here about the difficult decisions of foreign intelligence surveillance so we can go after bad guys, like the bad guys that want to hit Israel and hit us, but to do so while we are respecting the constitutional protections and the liberties that the Founders understood were critical.

We do not have a country that is worth preserving if we are going to burn the Constitution while we try to defend it. We must stand together to defend civil liberties while we stand together to defend our country. The American people expect no less.

We should stand side by side with Israel. We should unite to make sure that we can continue to carry out surveillance against bad actors while protecting civil liberties. We should stop spending money we don't have. We should secure the border of the United States. We should continue to do the great things this Republican Conference has been able to do when we are united and standing against an administration led by radical progressive Democrats that want to undermine the American Dream, destroy our sovereignty, leave our borders open, undermine our children's safety, put criminals on the street, side with Hamas over Israel. We can stand athwart that if will unite to do it. That is my call. That is what I believe we must do.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Harris) for joining me, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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