Adam Smith: “While I would not say at this point in particular Gaza is an ally of the U.S., as clearly they are not, I do not believe…”

“While I would not say at this point in particular Gaza is an ally of the U.S., as clearly they are not, I do not believe that Gaza is an enemy of the U.S., which is what is clearly being implied here. Yes, obviously, while I say there are no plans to do this, that is a recognition of the fact. I oppose this amendment because if an opportunity were to present itself, I can see it being in the U.S.' interests to relocate some refugees from Gaza to the U.S. Completely blocking that out puts us in a position of saying we are the enemy of all Palestinian people. Again, I don't believe that we are. I don't believe that all Palestinian people see us as an enemy. To view it that way I think puts us in a very dangerous position and puts Israel in a very dangerous position. There are plenty of people in Gaza, plenty of people in the West Bank, and plenty of Palestinians that we can work with to build a better, more peaceful future. To totally block off any possibility of that, even while recognizing the current conflict--and again, I strongly support Israel. I strongly support them in this fight against Hamas. There is no question about that. What this amendment and the other amendment seems to do is to suggest that we are against all the Palestinian people and there is no hope for them whatsoever, and I think that is wrong. Again, I think we should reject this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.”