Volume 167, No. 82, covering the 1st Session of the 117th Congress (2021 – 2022), was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“ISRAEL” mentioning Mitch McConnell was published in the Senate section on page S2465 on May 12.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators’ salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ISRAEL
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now on a different matter, yet again, air raid sirens have been sounding in Israel. Israeli civilians have been huddling in basements, shelters, and hospital stairwells. Hamas rocket attacks are lighting up the skies, hitting buildings, and terrorizing, injuring, and killing innocent people. Of course, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad receive significant support from Iran.
Fortunately, a remarkable percentage of the incoming rockets have been intercepted in midair by Israel’s Iron Dome system. Americans should take some pride of our own in defending our friends with these high-tech defenses, which we have helped Israel bring online and have advanced our own joint missile defense efforts at the same time. Missile defense is expensive but vital. It is yet another reason I am concerned with this administration’s intention to underfund defense.
Whatever complaints Palestinians have with Israel’s Government, wanton violence against civilians is completely and totally inexcusable. This is barbaric terrorism, not a legitimate protest; nor is it legitimate for Israel’s obsessive critics to suggest any equivalency whatsoever between these inexcusable attacks and Israel’s measured and quite targeted response against terrorists.
Yesterday here in Washington, street protesters screamed–listen to this–“Israel is a terrorist state.” On the streets of Washington, they screamed: “Israel is a terrorist state.” Some Democratic Members of Congress echoed that rhetoric almost exactly.
Look, the State of Israel has every right of self-defense. Its national security leaders have continued to display restraint and invest so much in precision and avoiding civilian casualties. That has been the approach of the Israeli Government.
Israel must know that their friends and allies here in the United States stand with them as they seek to restore deterrence, that we support their right to peace and security, and that we will not relax our efforts to hold terrorists and terrorists’ supporters to account.
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