Political Quotes

“I come to the floor today in support of Jacob Lew to be our Ambassador to Israel. We will have a chance to vote on that in a few moments, first on cloture and then, hopefully, on the confirmation, with the cloture being imposed. The attack by Hamas on Israel earlier this month was heinous. It was evil. It was indescribably brutal. I was just in Israel with 10 Senators--5 Democrats, 5 Republicans-- and saw firsthand the scars and devastation. I saw the grief and the shock. We were there to make it clear that Israel has the right to defend itself; it has the obligation to defend itself. We recognize that the ground campaign has started to eliminate Hamas. Hamas is evil. They are equivalent to ISIS and maybe, in some cases, worse. Israel's security depends upon the demise of Hamas, as does the Palestinians' future in Gaza depend upon Hamas being eliminated. We have ongoing challenges. Two hundred-plus hostages are being held by Hamas. Their safe return is one of our highest priorities. We are all working very hard. President Biden has made it clear with the positioning of U.S. assets, as well as his engagement in the Middle East to prevent the escalation of this conflict. For those enemies of the United States and Israel trying to take advantage of the combat in Gaza to escalate the conflict, we have to make sure that does not happen.…”