Ted Deutch: “I thank my friend, Mr. Engel. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel and their staffs for…”

“I thank my friend, Mr. Engel. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel and their staffs for working to bring this bipartisan resolution to the floor. I want to thank my friend and colleague and neighbor, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, for partnering with me on this effort. In the month of October, there have been more than 50 stabbings in Israel, there have been attempted stabbings, there have been shootings, there have been cars rammed into civilians. Terrorists have killed 11 and have wounded more than 10 times that number. In a span of just 12 hours today, there were 4 separate terror attacks. This resolution is important because these attacks aren't a protest or a political statement about holy sites or politics. It is terrorism, and it flows from incitement at the highest levels of the Palestinian Government. Now, I have said many times that all attacks on innocent civilians should be condemned and that they should be condemned regardless of who commits them. Yet I have to point out that, when a revenge attack occurs, committed by Israelis, the Prime Minister of Israel himself condemns that action on national television; but when there are attempted stabbings every single day for nearly 8 weeks, Palestinian leadership does not condemn even one single attack. Instead, we continue to see officials trying to justify acts of terror as an expected part of a religious conflict.…”