Steve Cohen: “I thank the gentlewoman for scheduling this Special Order. Mr. Speaker, I am almost without the ability to speak because…”

“I thank the gentlewoman for scheduling this Special Order. Mr. Speaker, I am almost without the ability to speak because of the horrors that have occurred on October 7 with the killing of people and the taking of 240 hostages, 110 believed to be alive and still in captivity by Hamas, is unthinkable. Unthinkable to normal human beings, but thinkable to Hamas whose purpose in their charter and statements that they have made as recently as a week ago from leaders is to erase Israel from the map and to kill all Jews. The war is horrific, and I have many people who I represent who have been supporters of mine for years who are upset that I have not called for a cease-fire. I share with them grief at looking at the rubble in Gaza and the people killed. The children that have been killed. The children that have lost their limbs. The children who will never recover from this trauma, but as Bret Stephens said so well in The New York Times this past week: Every single death is the result of Hamas because they broke the cease-fire on October 7. This is the fifth time they have gone to war on Israel and they continue to have the same purpose--to eradicate Israel and to kill all Jews. That is Israel's neighbor. Bob Dylan one time wrote a song called ``Neighborhood Bully,'' Israel, but Bob said you would be a bully too if those were your neighbors. That is what they have got right now. Mr. Speaker, Noa Argamani was put on a motorcycle and taken out of Israel.…”