On the recordNovember 7, 2023
reserving my right to object, I, too, believe, with my colleague from Washington State, that we must move forward with emergency funding for our allies--all of our allies, not just the State of Israel but also Ukraine. I also think we have to move quickly to head off a closure or shutdown of our government next week, and we have to address the pressing needs of the American people in this process. But it is very clear that this proposal before us--this unanimous consent to pass the bill including only funds for Israel--is just an attempt to deny assistance to Ukraine. It is not really about helping Israel. It is about making sure we don't continue to keep our commitments to Ukraine. And we have had a debate about Ukraine. We have talked over 2 years about Ukraine, how dangerous Russian aggression can be, not just with respect to the people of Ukraine but to the rest of the world. As my colleague said, China is watching. In fact, I think they are paying more attention to Ukraine than the current issue in Israel because Putin's imperialistic dreams of restoring the Russian Empire resonate more closely to the Xi Jinping's imperialist dreams to reunite Taiwan to China. So if we fail in Ukraine, I think that will send a very strong and unfortunate message to China that you can attack, wait the West out, and, eventually, they will concede. That is not good strategy or policy. My colleagues argue that this will deny Israel getting the means to defend itself.…
Source
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