Israel

Floor Speech

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Mr. WELCH. Madam President, in recent weeks, the attention of the American people has been on the rapidly evolving campaign for the Presidency issues. But while our national media and the focus have shifted, it is important that we do not lose sight of the crisis in Gaza, where innocent people have suffered one calamity after another.

Also in recent weeks, thousands of defenseless, homeless people sheltering in schools, including one located in an area reportedly designated by the Israeli military as a humanitarian safe zone, have been targeted by the Israeli military with missiles supplied by the United States. Regrettably, scores have been killed, and hundreds have been wounded.

What little is left of Gaza's demolished hospitals have no capacity to properly treat injuries. Children are particularly vulnerable in this conflict. Thousands of children have been killed. Thousands have sustained severe injuries that require surgery or advanced medical care, and many suffer from other life-threatening illnesses, like cancer, that are going completely untreated. In the past 9 months, only 19 of these children have been allowed to leave Gaza, and that is shocking.

Today, my colleagues and I sent a letter to the Ambassadors of Israel and Egypt calling on them to work together, with the full cooperation of the United States, so that these children can leave Gaza and get the medical care they desperately need, and I urge their governments to do that. Gaza's children have paid far too high a price in this war.

Negotiations for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas have been on again and off again. Each time we hear of a possible breakthrough, one side or the other makes a new demand, and then weeks pass without further word of progress, and the suffering continues. I hope soon they will reach agreement on a cease-fire.

In the meantime, it is hard to imagine the depth of misery suffered by the Palestinian people. It is also hard to imagine the depth of misery suffered by the hostages trapped underground for 9 months, subject to constant psychological and physical abuse by their captors.

I have spoken many times about the war in Gaza. It was a war, in my view, poorly conceived, with vague goals that were nothing more than slogans--not unlike our own failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Netanyahu was warned not to repeat our mistakes, but instead of heeding that advice, he has pursued a scorched-earth strategy that has destroyed Gaza and killed tens of thousands of people who had absolutely nothing to do with the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. Two million destitute people are homeless, suffering from acute hunger, and facing the real possibility of death at any moment.

Mr. Netanyahu and--I use this word intentionally--his extremist Ministers have divided the Israeli people, divided the American people, and damaged Israel's standing on the global stage.

Mr. Netanyahu's war has been carried out with our war planes, our tanks, our guns, our bombs, missiles, and bullets. It has been carried out in a manner shockingly inconsistent with the principle of proportionality, a central element of international humanitarian law that is designed to protect the innocent--international law that Israel and the United States are both bound to respect.

The counterresponse that we hear is that because Hamas fighters hide in tunnels and use civilian houses and buildings to carry out their attacks, anything is a legitimate target--even, apparently, if it means killing 50 Palestinians and wounding 100 in order to kill 1 Hamas combatant.

Of course, Israel has the right to go after those involved in the October 7 attacks. I support that. Hamas mercilessly slaughtered 1,200 innocent Israelis, and the perpetrators of those atrocities must not escape punishment. But that does not give Israel the right to use weapons supplied by the United States to kill 30 times the number of innocent Palestinians as though their lives are worth nothing. That is wrong.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, attacks against Palestinians by Israeli settlers--illegal Israeli settlers--have skyrocketed, and hundreds have been killed.

Last week, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel's decades-long occupation of the West Bank violates international law and amounts to annexation. The court called on Israel to cease new settlement activities, which is also the policy of the United States, and called on it to end the occupation.

As often happens, people's attention fades or shifts to other priorities close to home. That is understandable, but that is also why it is important to remember--to remember that the bombs keep falling, and an appalling number of civilians keep dying in Gaza in a war that has gone on far, far too long; to remember that this war, in which the United States is complicit by providing these arms, was orchestrated by a Prime Minister who has no strategy--no strategy--for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

A Prime Minister who has no vision for the future, who has acted deliberately to undercut U.S. policy at every turn, and still, he is invited here to this Congress.

I will not be attending Prime Minister Netanyahu's address tomorrow. While I welcome a constructive discussion on how to end this conflict and achieve lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians, I am not interested in participating in a political stunt.

We, the United States, have a moral responsibility to do everything we can to help end this war and prevent further loss of innocent lives, and that includes holding our allies and partners to the same standards that we expect of ourselves and the rest of the world.

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