Israel

Floor Speech

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss H. Res. 268.

America has not had a more pro-Israel President than President Obama. The President has unwaveringly supported Israel's right to self-defense, fought to ensure Israel's military edge, protected her citizens with the Iron Dome anti-rocket system, and worked to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. The President also understands, as we all do, that essential to Israel's security, America's security, and Palestinian security is a negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict creating a lasting peace.

The President's call for a negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a pro-Israel position that's absolutely essential to ensuring our ally's future as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people.

We should also take an opportunity to be honest about what the President did and didn't propose. The President did not say that Israel should be forced to return to her 1967 borders. The President did say that the borders of Israel and a Palestinian state should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, a concept which has been considered a given in all the serious discussions of a two-state solution in the last decade.

While fostering divisions serves the political interests of some, it's not in the long-term interest of Israel, Palestine, or the United States.

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