On the recordOctober 17, 2023
along with Americans all across our country, I am appalled at what has happened in Israel over this last week. It is hard to watch the brutality of Hamas's attack on Israel. It is hard to believe that the terror Hamas perpetrated is something human beings are capable of doing. Last week, Hamas militants stormed the Israel-Gaza border in a despicable, deadly attack against Israeli civilians--men and women, children, and the elderly, Israelis and foreigners, Americans. Hamas killed person after person with no regard for human dignity. The militants seized and kidnapped almost 200 hostages, including many of our own American citizens. When civilians in small Israeli towns came out of hiding after sheltering for their lives and praying they would be spared, they came out to find corpses in their streets, doors riddled with bullet holes, the ground stained with human blood, houses burning and collapsing. They have told journalists of the horror they felt when they stepped out into the wreckage and were met with the smell of decaying flesh. This is obscene. This is hideous. We can and should all agree on that. Secretary of State Blinken, on his visit to Israel, said he saw images of a baby covered in bullet holes, soldiers who had been beheaded, and people burned alive in their cars. He said: If images are worth a thousand words, these images may be worth a million. How do we respond to such a tragedy?…
