Cory Booker: “I rise today filled with anguish and heartbreak that is shared by so many Americans who have been watching over the past…”

“I rise today filled with anguish and heartbreak that is shared by so many Americans who have been watching over the past week as countless innocent children and innocent civilians have been killed and live in states of great fear or even terror. Millions are running for bomb shelters time and time again. We are seeing people in Gaza killed or maimed and seeing people in Israel live under the terror in the sky and terror coming from below. I want to stand resolute and clear about the true cause of this crisis. That lies squarely with Hamas, a terrorist organization whose ends do not start and finish with the well-being of the Palestinian people. Their primary focus and their clear agenda is not peace for their people. Written into their very charter is the firm determination to eliminate the State of Israel. They have proven this evil determination to do everything necessary to achieve their goal. They are willing to kill Israelis. They are willing to kill Americans. They have killed them both. Even worse, they are willing to put innocent Palestinians in harm's way, causing death and destruction within their own communities, to their own children, to their hospitals and to their schools. They are in the interests of wracking up casualties to add what they consider, in a warped way, moral force for their terrorist aim.…”