Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 413
Floor Speech
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Mr. WELCH. Senate who absolutely condemn the brutal attack by Hamas on innocent Israeli citizens; that absolutely condemn the kidnapping of Israeli citizens and some Americans; who absolutely condemn the vicious ``kill Jews'' philosophy of Hamas. And all of us have an opportunity--which I think all of us are going to take--to stand by Israel when it comes to going after Hamas.
I hope all of us are also going to do everything we can to encourage that every precaution that can be taken to protect innocent Palestinians be taken because they, too, have been kidnapped by Hamas, who cynically use them as human shields.
But I read the resolution of my colleague from Florida. This is not about enforcing the existing law. This is about compromising a constitutional right that Americans have enjoyed since the inception of our country. It is the First Amendment.
And it may be something that people in this body may object to, but when a person is in the United States, they enjoy the protections of our magnificent founding document to be free from unlawful searches and seizures and, certainly, to be able to say things that we may find repugnant. There have been many things that have been said that are repugnant.
But at a time of maximum stress--and we are in that right now--is when there is the maximum stress to compromise the right we have enjoyed of free speech protected by the First Amendment since the founding of our country.
And we have had some recent experience with this. After 9/11 and the trauma that our Nation experienced with the loss of over 3,000 wonderful people--in the Twin Towers, at the Pentagon, in Pennsylvania--there was a call to go after groups, to compromise rights. In hindsight, in those times when we did do the wrong thing, because we harmed innocent people in our anger--our justified anger, by the way--we don't want to do that again.
So this resolution--however my colleague wants to characterize it--is about what happens in this country. This may be something my colleague disagrees with, but when a person is in this country, they enjoy the benefits of our Constitution and the right of free speech. I stand for free speech.
My preference is that we focus on doing the things that this U.S. Senate can do to help Israel go after Hamas, to help all of the innocent Palestinians who seek to live in peace have that opportunity to do so.
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