Steve Scalise: “I thank the appropriations chair, my good friend from Texas, for yielding and for bringing this important legislation…”

“I thank the appropriations chair, my good friend from Texas, for yielding and for bringing this important legislation, which I strongly support. We have seen the atrocities in Israel. We have also stood by Israel. In fact, the United States is proud to be the first country that recognized Israel as a Jewish state on the heels of World War II as the nations were coming together and recognizing the importance that we all get behind a Jewish state. Unfortunately, from that day there were always people around the neighborhood who wished Israel harm. Over time, you have seen peace agreements, Abraham Accords, but you have always seen seeds of discord. Of course, the biggest discord started with Iran funding terrorist organizations like Hamas. Hamas took action weeks ago, atrocities that are hard to repeat that we have seen and the world needs to continue to see because, unfortunately, as the world is seeing the atrocities, while we recognize the lives that have been lost--not only Israelis, Jews, Americans, Palestinians--but you also see the ugly head of anti-Semitism popping up. Here on college campuses in the United States, other places around the Nation and the world, where anti-Semitism seems to rise its ugly head at times when Israel seems to be in a dangerous position, these are times when we all need to be standing with Israel, giving them the tools they need to make sure they can defend themselves against these atrocities. That is what this legislation does.…”