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Floor Speech
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, it has been more than 7 months since Israel was attacked by an Iranian proxy, known as Hamas, from Gaza. Hamas terrorists attacked innocent Israelis on October 7 of last year, marking the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Innocent people were raped, murdered, and taken hostage, and nearly 130 remain hostage in Gaza, including at least 4 American citizens.
In this conflict, the line between good and evil could not be clearer. On one side is America's alley and the lone democracy in the Middle East. On the other is a terrorist organization whose greatest goal is to simply destroy the Jewish State. Hamas terrorists will do whatever it takes to achieve that goal, including using their own citizens as human shields. I can only recall back to some of the horrific videos that we have seen of what they have done to babies and innocent civilians--men, women, and children.
Despite this, President Biden--and notwithstanding some of his rather unequivocal rhetoric--seems confused by whom we should be supporting in this conflict. As the war goes on, the President has slowly backed away from Israel--first with words and now through action. Last week, he threatened to withhold military aid--military aid that had been voted for on a broad, bipartisan basis in the Congress and which he had actually asked for. He effectively issued an ultimatum to our ally as it fights these terrorists: Do what I say or else.
From the beginning of this war, I have said that Israel's operation should not be dictated by anyone but themselves and their national security interests. For some reason, President Biden has focused on Prime Minister Netanyahu as if he were the sole decisionmaker in Israel when, in fact, there is a unity war cabinet that is making those decisions, not Prime Minister Netanyahu alone.
I can only think back to the horrible days after 9/11/2001, a day that 3,000 Americans died as a result of a terrorist attack in New York and Washington, DC. America's allies knew better than to attempt to micromanage our response. Instead, they stood in solidarity with the American people and pledged their support as U.S. troops defended our country. Israel deserves the same support now that we got 23 years ago, but the Biden administration seems confused and of two minds and is sending a terrible message to our closest Middle Eastern ally.
But this is not the first time we have seen the Biden administration's growing rift with Israel. Last week, when Hamas announced it had accepted the terms of a cease-fire agreement offered by Qatar and Egypt, the announcement set off a media frenzy, but it quickly became clear there was one glaring problem: Israel had yet to see, much less accept, the terms of the proposal. The Israeli Government didn't even receive the text of the proposal until an hour after Hamas released its statement. Prime Minister Netanyahu described the terms as ``far from Israel's necessary requirements.''
It is no surprise to me that Hamas's leaders went rogue and announced a deal before anything had been agreed to, much less seen, but it is very deeply concerning that Israel was caught completely off guard, especially when reports indicate that the United States had been involved in those negotiations, presumably to the exclusion of Israel. According to reports from Axios, the Biden administration knew about the deal but failed to brief Israel before Monday's surprise announcement from Hamas.
The report says:
Two Israeli officials said the feeling is that ``Israel got played'' by the U.S. and the mediators who drafted ``a new deal'' and weren't transparent about it.
Negotiations of this magnitude are understandably extremely delicate, but there is no reason the Biden administration should have kept the Israeli Government in the dark. Israel is a valued ally, but the Biden administration continues to treat it as an untrustworthy antagonist.
Administration officials have developed a habit of manipulating, denigrating, and withholding vital information, and I am extremely worried about the impact of this growing rift and what it will mean between the strong relationship between our two countries. It is Iran which is the principal state sponsor of international terrorism. Particularly in the Middle East, that is the evil head of the snake. Hamas, of course--like Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Shia militias in Iraq and Syria--is the means by which they attack the United States and its allies, including Israel, and they are bent on the destruction of the State of Israel.
Of course, it is not just President Biden's interactions with Israel; it is the way he treats the situation here at home as well. Since Hamas's unprovoked attack on Israel, countless Americans have spoken out about this conflict. We have seen pro-Israel protests, anti-Israel protests, and repeated calls for the violence to end. Of course, we all know the First Amendment protects the right of any American to speak freely and protest peacefully, and countless Americans have exercised that right without incident. But we also know that the Supreme Court has said that neutral factors like time, place, and manner in which those protests occur are important, and school administrators and other officials are completely within their rights to determine the time, manner, and place of the exercise of those First Amendment rights.
In the past few weeks, we have seen an alarming escalation in protest tactics, and some of the most concerning examples have taken place on college campuses. I have to wonder whether our higher education system has simply lost its way. The purpose of our institutions of higher learning are just that--to learn. Yes, protesting, diversity of opinion, and debate are important parts of learning but not breaking the law or breaking the rules of the institution or jeopardizing the ability of other students to actually pursue their education.
At Columbia University, a group of protesters broke into an academic building and barricaded its doors. At UCLA, anti-Israel protesters physically blocked Jewish students from getting to class. At Yale, a Jewish student journalist was attacked by a pro-Hamas mob while attempting to film a protest.
As I said, the First Amendment protects speech. It protects the right to protest peacefully. It does not give anyone the freedom to riot, to destroy, to threaten, or to carry out acts of violence against others. It certainly doesn't protect the right to attack someone based on their religion.
This situation has become so volatile and so dangerous that two major universities canceled their graduation ceremonies. Can you imagine, after living through the pandemic, where classes were canceled and put online and where students were prohibited the privilege of attending their own graduation exercises to now having, because of these violent, destructive protests, their graduations canceled? Columbia and the University of Southern California called off their main commencement ceremonies due to security concerns. It is important to note that the college class of 2024 was also the high school class of 2020. Many of these students didn't have high school graduation ceremonies because of the pandemic, and now they have been denied an opportunity to graduate in a public ceremony from their colleges or universities.
Despite the escalation of violence and anti-Semitic rhetoric in recent weeks, President Biden has failed to demonstrate much needed leadership. Every statement he has made on this topic has been paired with some sort of equivocation, with some sort of expression of moral equivalency to what Israel is doing and what Hamas is doing.
As an example, a few weeks ago, the President said, ``I condemn the anti-Semitic protests,'' but then quickly noted, ``I also condemn those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians.''
He equated anti-Semitism with ignorance, seemingly suggesting that attacking Jewish people was just as bad as ignoring the news. But there can be no equivocation. Anti-Semitism is wrong. Violent riots are wrong. Attempts to occupy college campuses, destroy property, break university rules, and interfere with the educations of your fellow students is wrong.
It is no surprise that the President was met with serious criticism and that his communications team seemed to shift to a new approach-- this time, silence, radio silence. As rioters occupied a building on Columbia's campus and Jewish students endured threats, the President of the United States was eerily silent. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that he unequivocally condemned the threats against Jewish students. I am glad he finally came around to his senses, but he hardly deserves credit for reaching the obvious conclusion after so much damage has already been done.
The war initiated by Hamas against Israel last October 7 has exposed a startling lack of leadership from the Commander in Chief. The President is withholding military aid to our closest ally in the Middle East. He and his lieutenants have created fractures in the historically strong relationship between the United States and Israel. They have failed to show resolve when it comes to quashing anti-Semitism on college campuses, and intentionally or not, they have allowed violent protests to terrorize college campuses.
Over and over again, the Biden administration's response to the war between Israel and Hamas has fallen short. Again, there is no equivalency. There is no on one hand it is Israel and on the other hand it is Hamas. This is a conflict not only between Hamas and Israel--the proxy of Iran--but also between good and evil. We know President Biden is in campaign mode 6 months now before the election, but he cannot turn on one of his closest allies in an attempt to appeal to the most radical elements in his political party.
The fate of Israel--its existence--is at stake here. The safety of the Jewish people in America is at stake. The President needs to treat this issue with the seriousness and the clarity that it demands.
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