Remarks on Israel

The atrocities that we've seen are just inhuman and unbelievable. The hearts and minds of the American people have been filled with heartbreak and frankly righteous anger for our friends and our allies, the people of Israel. 

The terrorist attacks on innocent children, women, and men were disgusting. But it wasn't just attacks; it included the beheading of babies. I can't think of something more vile, disgusting, and heartbreaking at the same time. And thinking about the devastation brought, not just to our ally, but also our friend, Israel. A music festival turned into a killing field. Women and children thrown into the back of trucks and kidnapped, the bodies of the innocent paraded around the streets like they were trophies, hundreds upon hundreds of dead. And still, they're counting even more missing--a thousand deaths in Israel is equivalent to 36,000 dead Americans.

Think about that. In a country of just 9 million people or so, losing a thousand people would feel like, in our nation, the loss of 36,000 Americans. Reports suggest that dozens and dozens of babies were mutilated. That is evil personified, and the murder victims and the hostages include Americans. We heard we're up to at least 27 dead Americans and have no idea of how many hostages are Americans. America stands with Israel in sorrow, in solidarity, and in strength of resolve that these heinous acts of war will not go unanswered and they will not go unpunished.

Our nation is founded upon the Judeo-Christian rock, and as a Christian, I believe we first follow Romans 12:15. That reminds us to mourn with those who mourn. And so our prayers are with Israel and our Jewish friends, but we must also stand shoulder to shoulder with our friends when it is time to turn to the next chapter. Romans 13:4 reminds us if you do wrong, be afraid for God's servants or agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoers. These despicable acts deserve nothing less than the full measure of justice. The people behind them need to feel the wrath of God, and they need to meet some Israeli or American military hardware to help them get there soon. It is not enough for the United States of America to simply condemn this kind of aggression; we need leaders who will stop inviting this kind of aggression.

President Obama's own defense secretary famously said that Joe Biden was on the wrong side of every major question in foreign policy and national security for the last 40 years. So tragically, it is no surprise that President Biden's term has been a disaster for our security, our vital interests, and our allies, particularly in the Middle East. Every time they have chosen weakness and appeasement, every time America has been passive, it has sent the most dangerous signal to bad actors all over the world. American hesitation, American weakness, smells like one thing to bad actors. It smells like blood in the water. Look at President Biden's humiliating surrender in Afghanistan. It cost 13 American soldiers their lives and cost us our credibility and deterrence. It signaled to terrorists that with a little bit of effort, this administration will allow the United States to be outfought, outsmarted, and outlasted. Look at Biden telling Putin just before he invaded Ukraine that a minor incursion might not be so bad. Time after time, Joe Biden has revealed a lack of backbone, and it is costing us American lives. 

It is not just hesitation or incompetence, it's a pattern of foolish policy choices that have undermined us and our allies. The last time Joe Biden was part of an administration, he and President Obama sent pallets of cash to Iran, rewarding Tehran while supporting terrorism and pursuing nuclear weapons. Republicans shouted from the rooftops that Iran's terrorist proxies, including Hamas and Hezbollah, were going to reap part of the windfall. 

But the Left wanted so desperately to cozy up to Iran. They didn't care how much American money ended up in the pockets of Israel's enemies. Just a few weeks ago, President Biden sent the same signal again. He rewarded Iran for taking American hostages by unlocking $6 billion for the mullahs. The administration swears the money can only be spent for humanitarian needs. But how naive can you be? Money is fungible. We just gave a terrorist-supporting regime billions of dollars and room in their budget.

The president of Iran came right out and said they'll spend the money however they want, whenever they want, on whatever they want. And it's not just Joe Biden's weakness and appeasement towards Iran. This administration has also found other ways to create daylight between us and Israel. Joe Biden has interfered in Israeli domestic politics and tried to weaken Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He slow-walked inviting him to the White House and practically made him beg for that invitation. All while the world sat back and watched as if Israel is somehow a second-class ally that Joe Biden is stuck with. 

The thugs and the killers, they took notice.

Even after these historic attacks, the Biden administration's newly established Office of Palestinian Affairs published a statement that tried to tie Israel's hands by saying, and I quote, “all sides should refrain from further action.” They had to delete the posts after so much backlash.

Lord have mercy. There are no both sides. There is no moral equivalency. We're talking about terrorists killing innocent people. There is right, and there is wrong. It's black and white, and there should be no doubt where our loyalties as a nation lie. We have seen the face of evil. The President of the United States has a moral duty to lead with strength and clarity. So, while Hamas carried out these attacks, Joe Biden has blood on his hands. His weakness invited the attack. His cash giveaways to Iran helped fund terrorism. And after the attack, his administration suggested that Israel just stand down. It's a disgrace. We need a president who is loyal to our allies, yet lethal to our adversaries because weakness has never purchased peace. Being passive is a provocation. President Reagan once said of the four wars in his lifetime, none came about because America was too strong.

Safety takes readiness and resolve. Security requires strength. So why have two consecutive Democrat administrations behaved this way? Republicans won historic victories of the Abraham Accords and brought Israel and the Arab world closer together. Why did the Biden Democrats waste no time reversing that progress and disrespecting our ally? The answer is simple, but it's disturbing. The far Left in this country has become incredibly hostile to the state of Israel. The most extreme statements have become a daily routine. They even dabble openly in anti-Semitism. But President Biden will not stand up to them because he cares more about political power. This past weekend, Congresswoman Cori Bush put out a statement suggesting the Palestinians are equal victims and calling Israel a military occupation and apartheid. Her colleague, Ilhan Omar, has a history of anti-Israel statements that have been so offensive and so anti-Semitic that even House Democrats and Nancy Pelosi had to rebuke her, their fellow Squad member.

AOC has said supporting Israel means taking the side of occupation. Her friend, Congresswoman Jayapal, has copied and pasted Hamas propaganda to call Israel racist. And this past week, Congresswoman Tlaib went full-on victim blaming. She said Israel is an apartheid and responsible for the cycle of violence. She said Israel is responsible for the cycle of violence. Let that just soak in for a minute. The ones being attacked, the ones being devastated, the ones hearing and feeling the power and the pain of 4,500 rockets are somehow the ones responsible for the violence. 

As we speak, she continues to fly the Palestinian flag and the taxpayer-funded hallway outside of her office. These same people support the anti-Semitic BDS. BDS, for those who may not be familiar with it, is a movement that calls for economic warfare against Israel through boycotts and sanctions simply because the Jewish state dares to exist.

And several of them put those bigoted boycotts into practice themselves. Just a few months ago, they boycotted President Herzog's speech to Congress and voted against a pro-Israel resolution. I said at that time that giving aid and comfort to anti-Semitism was a dangerous, reckless signal for members of Congress to send. But even before Israel buried its dead, even with hostages still in captivity, they began doubling and tripling down on more toxic rhetoric, more victim blaming, more fake moral equivalences between good and evil. 

President Biden and other progressives pretend they're different. And I really wish that they were respectable. I wish they were moderate. I wish they were grownups. But their actions tell a very different story because it seems like the evidence points to the fact that their priority is power. Neither Hakeem Jeffries nor Chuck Schumer nor Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris have said a single word this past week to repudiate the insane, reckless reactions to the attacks from their own side. 

We've seen the DSA socialists and far Left activists pour into the streets of New York and Chicago to praise the terrorists and insult Israel. Mass demonstrations taking the terrorist side. And radical student groups at our elite universities are putting out despicable statements, taking the side of the killers.

We are talking about Americans celebrating terrorism, celebrating the killings and the kidnappings calling for the eradication of Israel from the river to the sea. These are the same groups that put the Squad in Congress. The same people who decide Democrat primary elections. Several of the representatives I just named are members of the DSA themselves. Where is the repudiation? Where are the primary challenges? Why will neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris say a single thing about any of this? Because it's about power. And they'll do anything to hang on to their power. They will weaponize race and class here at home. They will tell hope-stealing lies about the nature of systemic racism in our country. They call America an evil country, and they give aid and comfort to extremists who are not just anti-Israel, but anti-Semitic. Radical liberals are choosing their own political power over peace.

They would rather invite attacks on our allies than stand up to the fringe elements within their party. Its not all Democrats. This is a radical extreme element that refuses to stand up to their own party. It is cowardice that makes them complicit and it has to stop. We need to eliminate racist socialists and the anti-Semitic DSA from American politics. If the DSA  and their friends are going to behave like a hate group, we should treat them like a hate group. We should stop pretending it's normal or okay that the most famous, most prominent House Democrats in the country are joined at the hip with the DSA. Every member of the Squad should either quit the DSA and repudiate the people who are cheering on deadly terrorism, or they should be expelled from Congress.

We need a policy of strength and leadership. 

Number one, we need to rescue the American hostages and get them out and back home. Period. We need to bring those Americans home this very instant. We should use, if necessary, our special operation forces, if that's what it takes. And the President needs to stop hosting White House barbecues, picnics, and calling and putting a lid at lunchtime until our fellow citizens are safe. We need a commander-in-chief who will put the world on notice with a policy that is very, very simple. If you take an American life, it will cost you yours and we will make sure of it. Number two, Hamas needs to be wiped from the face of the earth.

Simple.

Decades of America's investments have helped Israel possess the hardware and the capabilities they need to do just that. But, as we have already seen, this new war is going to be a burden and a struggle even for an ally as well prepared as this one. Israel is going to need our support. They're going to need our help. They're going to need our cooperation, and they are going to need our ammo. And when I'm in the Oval Office, if Israel finds itself needing anything, one phone call to my White House is all it will take. When America's allies need to reload, the arsenal of democracy has to be stocked and ready. When I'm president, we will never send out pathetic and weak statements trying to stop our allies from responding. When they're attacked, my Secretary of State will not publicly call for a premature ceasefire and then have to delete the tweet.

The only words out of the president's mouth and President Biden's mouth should be, “How can we help?” 

More broadly, America needs to bring back a Middle East policy that treats our allies like allies and our enemies like enemies. No more desperate cuddling up to Iran. No more plane-loads of cash to terrorist sponsors. No more condescending lectures and hostile gestures to our strongest ally in the region and the only democracy in the Middle East. 

As a top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, I have legislation to strengthen and extend our Iran sanctions. When I'm president, I'll sign it into law. I called upon Secretary Janet Yellen to testify on the $6 billion slush fund. They need to explain to us, and to the country, what in the world could they possibly be thinking. We also need to shut off the funding that Joe Biden restarted to the UN's irredeemably flawed Palestinian aid programs.

The best investment we can make in peace and stability is 100% support for Israel. We need to strengthen our intelligence-sharing partnership so a surprise like this never happens again. We need to restart the momentum of the Abraham Accords and continue to help Israel gain respect and recognition throughout the Arab region. We need to safeguard our national security and our homeland, and that starts with closing our insecure, unsafe, and wide-open southern border. Scores of people on the terrorist watch list have tried to cross our southern border. People from Syria, Iran, Yemen, and Pakistan have been found breaking into our nation. And those are just the ones that we caught. We need to regain the high ground with a president who is strong, not a president who is asleep at the wheel, not a president who will tolerate extremists and anti-Semites to protect his own power. 

Israel is not too much to ask for the Jewish people. Speaking as a Christian- our elder brothers and sisters in faith have suffered. They have suffered enough with the history of European anti-Semitism, then the Holocaust, now 75 years of hatred, rocket fire, and terrorism. Geographically, Israel is a small fingernail on a massive stretch of majority Muslim countries, almost 5,000 miles from the Atlantic coast of Africa to India's border with Pakistan. The people of Israel are not asking too much. They have been made generous offer after generous offer that the Palestinian leaders have simply and outrightly rejected. They simply want to live in peace. It's a human right and it is non-negotiable. 

I will always condemn anti-Semitism, appeasement, and weakness from the radical Left, but I will also call out weakness or confusion among conservatives as well. It is not an equal problem.

Hear me clearly. It is not an equal problem, but it is indeed a problem. But Vivek Ramaswamy has said that the definition of success is reducing America's support for Israel. And he's proposed that we surrender Taiwan to the Chinese Communist Party as long as we've relocated some factories. Governor DeSantis wants to dismiss Russia's invasion of Ukraine as just a territorial dispute. The last thing we need is a Joe Biden Republican party wing on foreign policy. It's also a mistake and it is very damaging when Republicans keep repeating that our nation is a nation in decline. That paints a picture of some failing empire that needs to cut its losses and pull up the drawbridge. That idea is dead wrong, but it is also very, very dangerous. The American people are not in decline. American courage and American values are not in decline. We are just stuck with a weak president who is in retreat.

Joe Biden has America retreating from safety on our streets and security at our borders. He has us retreating from stable prices and supply chains, retreating from the very core values that have made America exceptional, and retreating from peace through American strength abroad. We aren't in decline. We are in a Biden retreat. The good news is all we need is a new leader to turn it around. I'm running for president to restore peace through strength and to double down on American power. We need a commander-in-chief who is loyal to our allies and lethal to our adversaries. That is beyond any question. And when I am president, there will not be one terrorist, not one anti-Semite on the face of the earth, who doubts for one second that America has Israel's back. 

So allow me to close with a prayer from the prophet Isaiah for Jerusalem. It's in Isaiah 62 and it says, “Because I love Zion, I will not be silent because my heart yearns for Jerusalem. I cannot remain silent. I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn and her salvation, blazes like a burning torch. May the Lord hold you in His hand for all to see a splendid crown in the hand of God.” May God's mercy comfort Israel today. May God's justice protect Israel tomorrow and may God bless the United States of America.