Motion to Discharge--S.J. Res. 111

Floor Speech

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Ms. ROSEN. Madam President, since Hamas launched the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel's history more than a year ago, Israel has consistently faced a barrage of threats from Iran and its terrorist proxies. Earlier this year, we all saw how Iran launched two separate missile and drone attacks directly at Israel, and, just this week, Israelis were wounded and killed after Hezbollah launched more rockets at northern Israel.

The resolutions we are debating today would not only hurt Israel's ability to defend itself against these attacks; they would embolden Iran--I will repeat--they will embolden Iran and its terrorist proxies to continue and even to increase their vicious and deadly attacks. In doing so, they could prolong this war even further at a time when we are close to securing a deal in Lebanon.

I know some on my side of the aisle are going to support these resolutions because they disagree with the current Israeli Government, but your decision whether or not to help Israel defend itself is not and cannot be a political one. Government leaders and politicians, well, come and go, but our commitment to Israel's security must be ironclad, and restricting much needed arms to Israel because you don't agree with everything the current government is doing will leave our ally vulnerable to future terror.

I will repeat. Governments and leaders come and go. Will our support for our ally remain?

Israel has an absolute right to defend itself, and the aid provided by America is critical. I know some of you who are planning to vote for these resolutions agree, but you may be worried about the need for these offensive weapons that the resolutions would block. So let me explain.

Israel cannot rely on missile defense alone to protect its citizens. It also needs to have the ability to destroy enemy threats before they can be deployed and to respond to attacks that have already been launched. It is this strategy that Israel successfully executed in the last few months in Lebanon, where it preemptively destroyed Hezbollah rocket launchers minutes--just minutes, moments--before they were set to fire on Israel. And by providing Israel with these weapons, which are more precise and more accurate, we can actually help it defend itself while also minimizing civilian casualties.

I know many of you here are torn. You want to do the right thing, and I am here to tell you that voting against these resolutions is the right thing. Banning the sale of arms will hurt Israel. It will send the wrong message to Iran and its terrorist proxies that America is abandoning its ally and that the terrorists can now act with impunity.

Let me repeat. The message to terrorists will be, again, that they can continue to act with impunity. Terrorists like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and others will continue to receive that message loud and clear, and I can promise you that they will plan accordingly.

So, if we are serious about preventing another atrocity like October 7, if we are serious about limiting civilian casualties, if we are serious about sending a message to terrorists around the globe, I urge all of you to vote no on all three resolutions.

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