Albert Russell Wynn: “I rise in strong support of Israel's fight against terrorism. The blood of combatants is unfortunate but understandable.…”

“I rise in strong support of Israel's fight against terrorism. The blood of combatants is unfortunate but understandable. The blood of innocents is intolerable and unacceptable. Today, we deal with that blood; and we first have to say that we must not have and shed the blood of innocents on either side. Now, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) correctly made the distinction that sometimes in the course of collateral damage innocent Palestinian blood has been shed, and we must say in all sincerity that that is truly a tragedy. But today we address a different situation, the targeted and deliberate shedding of innocent blood of Israelis, Israeli youth in many instances; and that is unacceptable. But it is not enough to come down here today and condemn from afar. I think we also have to today say, in addition to the fact that we condemn terrorism, we have to examine our role as a country, our foreign policy. We cannot stand on the sidelines. We have to have more engagement. We have to press for a workable and serious cease-fire. We have to continue the peace process, because it is only through the peace process that we can end the shedding of innocent blood. And we have to have accountability for individuals and countries, some of whom are our allies, who tolerate, incite, and ignore the proposals of hatred within their own borders.”