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Floor Speech

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Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, this week, we observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We honor the 6 million Jews whose lives were lost during the Holocaust, their families, and the scar that has left on the world. The term ``We will never forget'' still rings eight decades later.

The end of that atrocity did not bring the end of anti-Semitism, unfortunately. On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists brutally attacked Israel with the intent to wipe Israel off the map. Hamas killed 1,200 people simply because they were Jewish.

People marched in the streets even in sections of America and on university campuses, screaming ``from the river to the sea,'' meaning the obliteration of the Jewish people and the Jewish nation.

A few months ago, I stood at the Nova Music Festival site, literally within sight of Gaza. I walked through that area with a family. I talked to one of the survivors who was there that day. She is still reliving the emotion of being there, just doing an all-night music festival. As the Sun came up, terrorists came in to kill as many people as possible at that music festival.

In the immediate aftermath of that attack, it was clarifying for the United States that we needed to continue to stand with Israel. Terrorism is not done. Anti-Semitism has not ended in the world. We should continue to speak out.

In my State of Oklahoma, it is extremely personal. We have a lot of Oklahomans who are very pro-Israel because they love freedom and they love a functioning democracy. With Israel being the only democracy in all of the Middle East and having a thriving economy, we have a lot of economic connections to Israel. We have a lot of family connections. We have a lot of individuals who travel to Israel for both vacation and for moments to be able to reflect on their own faith. It is a common connection.

In fact, after October 7, my office and I were personally connected with trying to be able to help some families and individuals who were touring in Israel at that time find a way to be able to escape from the fighting and to be able to get out.

This is a very, very difficult moment, and it continues to be a very difficult moment for the people of Israel because all they want to do is to be able to live in peace with the people around them.

Within days, Israel is not just facing a war with Gaza, Hezbollah began to attack them from the north from Lebanon. The Houthis began to fire missiles at them from the south. And then within a few months, Iran itself began to fire missiles and rockets and one-way attack drones toward Israel, literally facing a war with individuals attacking them from the north, south, east, and west. Israel just wants to live in peace.

In the middle of a war, when a group of terrorists crossed the border and began to slaughter Israelis, the International Criminal Court determined it was going to jump in and make a clear statement. Great. Make a clear statement about terrorism. Call out those who are attacking civilians and slaughtering people as they sleep on that morning.

But instead, the International Criminal Court released arrest warrants for Binyamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and for Yoav Gallant, the now former Defense Minister, for trying to defend their country from terrorism.

Myself and my other colleagues remembered immediately that during the war in Afghanistan, this same International Criminal Court was filing charges against American soldiers trying to defend the United States while they were fighting in Afghanistan. This is the very definition of a rogue court.

By the way, they are in the process of trying to be able to figure out how to be able to fix their image. So just within the past few days, the International Criminal Court has filed an arrest warrant for some of the Taliban leaders. Welcome to the 2000s. The International Criminal Court has now figured out that the Taliban are back, something the rest of the world has known and recognized for more than two decades.

This body had the opportunity to do something pretty common sense: Speak out and say we are not a party to the International Criminal Court. The United States has never participated in that. In fact, no President has ever even requested--Republican or Democrat--to join that agreement for the International Criminal Court. No one wants to be a part of that in the United States. I know of no Oklahoman who would say we want our troops to be under the authority of an international court. We are not going to do that.

Israel, by the way, has also not joined the International Criminal Court. They have no desire to also be under the authority of a foreign court. They have seen full well the U.N. anti-Semitism, and they have no interest to the international bodies trying to be able to tell them right from wrong, so they are not a party to it either. But the International Criminal Court has seen fit to be able to challenge and try to call out American soldiers and to be able to call out the leaders of Israel, even after they have been attacked.

So this body in the U.S. Senate had an opportunity yesterday to be able to speak out on that and to actually sanction and to allow further sanctions of individuals from the International Criminal Court and entities that cooperate with them to say you cannot come after the United States or after our allies.

It is a very simple, straightforward bill. It is a bill that passed with a very large bipartisan majority through the House of Representatives. In fact, it has passed twice now with a large bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives. But when it came here to the U.S. Senate, my Democratic colleagues shrugged and said no.

The Trump administration, I am confident, will speak out with sanctions against the International Criminal Court. They did during the first Trump Presidency. I am confident they will again. What I am not confident of is every future President after President Trump, if they will hold the same high standard to be able to protect American citizens, our soldiers, and to be able to stand alongside with Israel.

I have come to this body over and over and over again, and I have said we should speak out in these areas. We should speak out against anti-Semitism. For instance, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, that definition of what anti-Semitism is, that is a definition the United States was a party to more than three decades ago. Our State Department so recognizes what it means to be anti- Semitic and makes it very clear on that. But this body has failed to actually impose that same definition of anti-Semitism in our Department of Justice--for instance, the FBI--or the Department of Education.

Some may say, well, why is that even an issue? Well, ask the Jewish students at Columbia University, and they will tell you why that is important. This week, at Columbia University, masked students burst into a modern history of Israel class chanting anti-Semitic tropes and calling out to crush Zionism, in their class at Columbia University this week, during Holocaust Remembrance Week.

I think having a clear definition of what anti-Semitism is and calling out universities that would allow that kind of oppression on their own students, I think, is important. I think for this body to be able to speak out with one voice to say we are not going to allow American soldiers nor our allies to be called in by a kangaroo international court, I think, is important to us.

And this week, of all weeks, on Holocaust Remembrance Week, we should speak with one voice. To say ``never again'' means never again. And we will continue to stand with our friends and allies in Israel, and we will continue to stand against anti-Semitism here, there, anywhere.

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