McConnell On Democrat Attempts To Strong-arm Israel
‘It’s absurd enough for American Senators to masquerade as duly-elected members of the Knesset - as if their views should have any bearing on how Israel conducts its domestic politics. But unfortunately, it now seems important to remind our President that he’s America’s Commander-in-Chief, not some supreme allied commander with authority over Israel’s war operations.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding Israel:
“More than five months after the butchery of October 7th, Israelis are overwhelmingly united behind their government’s unity war cabinet in support of ongoing military operations against Hamas.
“By contrast, some prominent American Democrats are increasingly vocal in their belief that Israel’s unity government and voters are wrong.
“That is, after all, what we’re talking about here. As much as some of our colleagues might like them to be, Democrats’ egregious and hypocritical attempts to influence Israeli domestic politics aren’t some simple or narrow critique of a particular prime minister.
“They’re an affront to the very independence of the state of Israel – a sovereign nation, a robust democracy, and one of America’s closest allies and friends. Not a colony. Not a vassal state. Not some appendage of our own domestic politics.
“As I said last week, our Democratic colleagues don’t have an anti-Bibi problem. They have an anti-Israel problem.
“What else are we supposed to make of the way Democrats have fallen in line behind the position the Democratic Leader expressed here on the floor last week? It’s absurd enough for American Senators to masquerade as duly-elected members of the Knesset – as if their views should have any bearing on how Israel conducts its domestic politics.
“But unfortunately, it now seems important to remind our President that he’s America’s Commander-in-Chief, not some supreme allied commander with authority over Israel’s war operations.
“I was worried to see the U.S. intelligence community opine publicly last week on the stability of the Israeli government. It seems to me we should ask our intelligence professionals to keep their assessments of our closest partners a bit closer to the chest.
“Think about just how embarrassing our colleagues would find this behavior if it was directed toward any other democratic U.S. ally. Think about how we might be received if the DNI or CIA Director publicly commented on political tensions within Germany’s coalition government… Or on the decision-making processes of President Macron… Or on declining public support for the Trudeau government in Canada.
“America is best served when our intelligence professionals refrain from public comments on politics – both our own and our allies’.
“So the war thrust upon Israel by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad has already brought a host of profoundly embarrassing revelations to light.
“It’s exposed the United Nations Relief and Works Agency as irredeemably corrupt and appallingly complicit in both the violent kidnapping of Israelis and the indoctrination of Palestinians in a culture of hate, violence, and terror.
“It’s exposed the rank anti-Semitism that America’s most elite universities have allowed to fester on their campuses, and some of these institutions’ weakening grasp on moral resolve.
“And now, it’s exposing Democrats as unwilling or incapable of resisting the political pressures of their radical base. Just look how our colleagues have staked out bizarrely vocal support for policies for which even the Israeli left has said it has no time.
“So membership in the U.S. Senate does not come with voting rights in the Knesset or the Bundestag.
“And it certainly doesn’t entitle colleagues who spent years decrying foreign interference in American politics to decide one day to flip the script on our allies.
“Let’s get one thing straight: This violence, and this humanitarian crisis, rest entirely on the shoulders of Hamas.
“This entire conflict would end if the cowardly terrorists who rule Gaza from beneath schools and hospitals released their innocent hostages.
“And the people they oppress every day – the people of Gaza – have a say in the matter. They can turn on Hamas, turn in terrorist leaders like Yahya Sinwar, and turn over the hostages whose seizure by Palestinian terrorists started this conflict in the first place.
“Until then, Israel’s unity government ought to continue to do what the overwhelming majority of Israelis expect of it: Bring the innocents home. Bring the terrorists to justice. And bring peace and security to its citizens.
“And, I might add, pay the peanut gallery no mind.”
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