Chris Van Hollen: “But Prime Minister Netanyahu's role in keeping Hamas in control in Gaza did not end there. Mr. President, I ask…”

“But Prime Minister Netanyahu's role in keeping Hamas in control in Gaza did not end there. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a New York Times piece, again, from December of last year headlined: ``Israel found the Hamas money machine years ago. Nobody turned it off.'' There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: [From the New York Times, Dec. 16, 2023] Israel Found the Hamas Money Machine Years Ago. Nobody Turned It Off (By Jo Becker and Justin Scheck) Israeli security officials scored a major intelligence coup in 2018: secret documents that laid out, in intricate detail, what amounted to a private equity fund that Hamas used to finance its operations. The ledgers, pilfered from the computer of a senior Hamas official, listed assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Hamas controlled mining, chicken farming and road building companies in Sudan, twin skyscrapers in the United Arab Emirates, a property developer in Algeria, and a real estate firm listed on the Turkish stock exchange. The documents, which The New York Times reviewed, were a potential road map for choking off Hamas's money and thwarting its plans. The agents who obtained the records shared them inside their own government and in Washington. Nothing happened. For years, none of the companies named in the ledgers faced sanctions from the United States or Israel.…”