Rick Lazio: “Mr. Speaker, can one imagine a country where the Jewish community lives in an atmosphere of oppression and repression?…”

“Mr. Speaker, can one imagine a country where the Jewish community lives in an atmosphere of oppression and repression? Can one imagine a nation whose absolute ruler keeps his entire Jewish population in servitude and in slavery? Mr. Speaker, I know we are here to discuss the question of Jews who have sought asylum in the United States from Syrian tyranny and terror, but I would like for a moment to mention a case from an earlier era, a case that applies timeless lessons that can be applied to the matter that we are discussing here today. Yes, Mr. Speaker, the analogies between these two cases are instructive. The parallels are profound. The similarities are significant. Mr. Speaker, some 3,000 years ago, another Jewish community was held in bondage in a place called Egypt. Just as the Israelites were held hostage for years by Pharaoh, for years, the Syrian Jewish community served as a bargaining chip in a game of high stakes yet again.”