Ed Royce: “Let me begin by thanking both the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Schneider)…”

“Let me begin by thanking both the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Schneider) for their leadership and for their foresight in authoring this very important measure. In shepherding this legislation through the committee, I was again reminded of the shared commitment of Members of both parties to come together to promote Israel's security. It is an example of bipartisanship at its best. The United States' commitment to Israel rests on the assurance that the U.S., through a combination of Foreign Military Financing, the joint cooperative development of weapons systems and other measures, will ensure that Israel upholds its qualitative military edge. The standard definition of that is ensuring Israel's ability to counter and defeat credible military threats from any individual state or coalition of states or nonstate actors, and with the growing threat to Israel throughout the region--from the prospect of a nuclear Iran to an ascendant Hezbollah and widespread regional instability--Israel's retention of its QME is critical to its existence. I had a chance to see this firsthand in 2006 during the second Lebanon war, which I, frankly, think should be called the ``Hezbollah war.'' Hezbollah was raining down rockets manufactured originally in Iran and Syria on a daily basis on Haifa.…”