Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise today in sorrow, one that sears me not only as a Member of Congress, not only as a supporter of the State of Israel and its people, not only as an American, but as a parent. Since October 7, I have become close with Ruby and Hagit Chen. They are the parents of Itay Chen, a brave American who was serving in the IDF when he was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7. When last I saw Ruby and the other families of the American hostages held in Gaza less than a week ago, I repeated the refrain: ``Send not to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.'' Sadly, Madam Speaker, we know that bell tolls for Itay. Just this morning, intelligence emerged indicating that shortly after Hamas took Itay hostage on October 7, they executed him; an unarmed, defenseless hostage. It was an act of supreme cowardice, terror, murder. Theirs was a crime that violates every international law, every rule of war, every moral ideal, and every principle of basic human decency. His murder satisfied only one tenet, the one Hamas laid out in its own charter, which states their terrorist organization was put on the Earth to ``fight Jews and kill them,'' and to eliminate Israel. These terrorists robbed Itay of his future. He was only 19 years of age. They robbed Roy and Alon of their brother. They robbed our Nation of a great American, a young American, an idealistic American, an American who loved his country, the United States of America, and loved his family's homeland, Israel.…”