Anthony Weiner: “I rise today as editorial pages are abuse with discussion about the tragic and sad events in the Middle East, and some…”

“I rise today as editorial pages are abuse with discussion about the tragic and sad events in the Middle East, and some people at coffee shops and at street corners around our country are asking some very basic questions about the conflict in that region and why it has reached the place that it has. I have heard some on this floor raise what are really foundational questions to make it possible to understand the conflict and the challenge facing Israel in their battle against Hamas on one front, Hezbollah on the other front, and their two nation sponsors, Iran and Syria. One question that frequently gets asked is how come we can't just let diplomacy take hold? And it is true. Whenever there are missiles flying, whenever there are guns ablaze, it is, by very definition, a failure of diplomacy. And it has never been the first choice of either the United States or Israel in that part of the world to choose violence. If you look through the entire scope of the Israeli lifespan, their entire existence has been marked with them extending their hand and saying yes to proposed diplomatic solutions to the conflict there, and their Arab nations saying no. In 1947, even before the nation was born, there was the famous partition plan that would have made Israel a fraction of what it is today, surrounded by enemy Arab countries. It was the Arabs that said no, not the Israelis.…”