Darrell Issa: “I will close by noting that this is a very special evening tonight in this resolution. There are only four Arab American…”

“I will close by noting that this is a very special evening tonight in this resolution. There are only four Arab American Members of Congress, Charles Boustany, Ray LaHood, Nick Rahall, and myself. It is uncommon for the kind of bipartisan support between all of us to come together on something. But the importance of Lebanese sovereignty and of a stable Lebanese democracy bring us together, and they are all cosponsors of the bill along with the gentleman, Mr. Lantos. In listening to Mr. Lantos, I have to say that never before have the two of us agreed so much on what must be done. The only thing that I noted when he was talking about the borders between Lebanon and Syria was that even today there are borders between Lebanon and Syria that have never been identified under an international law, and that is something, too, that a sovereign, stable, and able to enforce its own borders Lebanon would quickly be able to go to the United Nations and assert its fair international border; and I look forward to that. Last, in closing, I share with the gentleman from California and all the Members of Congress the call that he made for the return of the hostages taken from Israeli sovereign territory that in fact began the conflict that we are today trying to end forever by establishing a sovereign Lebanon, and part of that sovereignty will be to ensure that those Israeli soldiers are returned from Lebanon back to Israel, to their parents, to their families.”