Peter Deutsch: “this is really an exciting day, I think a great day, for our Congress; and I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr.…”

“this is really an exciting day, I think a great day, for our Congress; and I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cantor) for bringing this resolution in front of us. It is clearly a bipartisan effort from both sides of the aisle, but it is also an opportunity for the world's greatest and oldest democracy, the United States of America, through our Chamber, to express our thanks that another democracy exists in a region of the world with too few democracies. One thing that I think about often in this Chamber is literally right above us is, there is a series of law-givers that look down upon us in this Chamber. And there is only one that has a full frontal relief, and it is Moses literally right in front of us in this Chamber, and it is a part of the world that we are linked to as Americans in many direct ways. To put in perspective, though, for just a couple of seconds what Israel has gone through in the last several months, over 500 Israelis have died through acts of terrorism since the Oslo Agreements. Over 500 people have died in the most horrendous and horrific circumstance that we have seen and we read about over that period of months. What would that mean if it happened, God forbid, in the United States of America? What would the equivalent number be? It would be 25,000, 25,000 Americans in our society being killed through acts of terrorism. I do not even think we can contemplate what that would mean as individuals and as a society.”