On the recordNovember 29, 2023
Mr. President, I rise to say a few words about the awful situation in the Middle East. As you know and the American people know, there have been five wars--five wars--in the last 15 years between Israel and Hamas. How do we end the current one and prevent a sixth war from happening sooner or later? How do we balance our desire to stop the fighting with the need to address the root causes of this conflict? And here is the sad truth--and it really is a very sad truth. For 75 years, diplomats, well-intentioned Israelis and Palestinians, and government leaders all over the world, including Presidents of the United States, have struggled to bring peace to this region. And during that time, among many other things, an Egyptian President and an Israeli Prime Minister were assassinated by extremists. Do you know why? Because they tried to bring peace to the region. This is an incredibly difficult and complicated issue, and nobody has any simple solution to it. As one of the first Members of Congress to call for a humanitarian pause to the bombing, I have been very encouraged to see that pause finally happen over the last 5 days and to see its extension earlier this week. That is a very positive development. This temporary cease-fire has brought some relief to Gaza and to the families of the more than 100 hostages released so far.…
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