As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I have had the privilege of taking multiple trips to Israel and the region, including earlier this year. Each time I have been struck by the hope that has survived the decades of conflict. The United States has a critical role to play in the region’s future, including reaching a lasting peace. But that role is severely threatened by partisan infighting and Republican dysfunction.
The people of this sacred stretch of land have always inspired me. In the shadow of the Holocaust and centuries of discrimination, Israel miraculously beat the odds to form a flourishing democracy, in fighting off a host of larger nations to preserve their existence, in making the desert bloom. In my visits, I have marveled at the people I meet: from the social worker and father of four in Gaza who worries about his children while working with U.N. and Israeli nonprofits for a better future, to the young Israeli working in the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation who has internalized former Israeli Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres’ optimism for a shared prosperity and lasting peace.
I want to be very clear: I condemn these terrorist attacks in the strongest terms possible.
In February, I visited an idyllic kibbutz where we shared a locally grown meal with the residents and teleconferenced with Palestinians just across the nearby border fence. As a father of two young boys, I particularly noticed the kibbutz’s many children and the love the community had for their shared responsibility in raising them. That kibbutz was Kfar Azaa, a village now described by an Israeli general as a site of “a massacre.”
Despite my years of work in this area, I was shocked to wake up on Saturday to the news of Hamas’ unprovoked attack. My shock turned to horror as I saw the scale of the attack and that the very communities I had visited, the families, the children, had been killed, terrorized, and taken hostage in acts of unspeakable barbarity. I also thought of the Gazan father who had appeared on a screen in that very kibbutz. None of these people deserved what had just happened.
I want to be very clear: I condemn these terrorist attacks in the strongest terms possible. There can be no justification for this kind of violence. I believe that Israel has every right to defend itself and, as a member of Congress, I will work to ensure that the United States stands shoulder to shoulder with the Israeli people during this time of crisis. Hamas, and their backers in Iran, bears the sole responsibility for this war which they began and will not win.
I also agree with President Biden that, “democracies like Israel and the United States are stronger and more secure when we act according to the rule of law.” The immediate goal must be the complete degradation of Hamas’ military capabilities within these constraints.
It is not too soon, however, to look at ways we can secure lasting peace and use this tragedy as a catalyst for change. At least 27 American citizens have been murdered and an unknown number taken hostage. Yet Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have not agreed to expedite the confirmation of Jack Lew, the eminently qualified nominee for ambassador to Israel.
I quickly called on the administration to immediately re-freeze the $6 billion in Iranian assets and am glad they have done so.
Further, were it up to Cruz and other extremists in Congress, the United States government would have to face this crisis while mired in a shutdown. That prospect remains very possible as we are without a speaker of the House for the first time in our history and are unable to pass legislation to keep the government open past mid-November or to provide critical material support Israel will soon need.
We need to get our house in order immediately.
Once we do, our priorities are clear. We cannot allow this attack to interrupt negotiations between Israel and the Arab world, particularly with Saudi Arabia. Establishing these diplomatic ties will be crucial to finding a way out of the calcified Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hamas’ utter failure in Gaza has shown that the Palestinian people deserve a pathway forward free of tyranny and the current sclerotic leadership at the Palestinian Authority. I believe it is possible for a new generation of leadership to offer hope to the Palestinian people.
Finally, while Hamas deserves the lion’s share of the blame, Iran cannot go unpunished for its support for the group. I quickly called on the administration to immediately re-freeze the $6 billion in Iranian assets and am glad they have done so.
This will not be a short conflict and there will be tough days and decisions that will test Israel, the United States and the international community. Republicans must reject chaos and remove the shackles of dysfunction from our government. With the way clear, the United States can be at its best to do as the Psalm of David commands, to “turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”
CORRECTION (Oct. 13, 2023, 6:10 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated Sen. Ted Cruz’s procedural stance on Jack Lew’s appointment. While he has not agreed to expedite Lew’s nomination, Cruz has not placed a formal hold on it.