Transcripts For CSPAN Senate 20240703

Other events feature markers that guide you to interesting and news worthy highlights. These points of interest markers appear on the right hand side of your screen when you hit play on select videos. This timeline tool makes it easy to quickly get an idea of what was debated and decided in washington. Scroll through and spend a few minutes on cspans points of interest. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer reiterated his partys commitment for israel after attacks by hamas and says theyll be working to get a supplemental package through the senate that includes funding for israel and ukraine. Senator schumer also announced all senators will be getting a classified briefing on israel this week sen. Schumer i want to thank my colleagues for joining me. Today we wanted to talk about our trip to israel. The resolution we hope to pass today. And most importantly, the u. S. unrelenting support for israel. In israel we had a good, productive meeting. Prime minister netanyahu. The national uni party, defense minister galant. Herzog. There are no words, no words for the horror we saw. We were in china. I met with the israeli ambassador in beijing. She told me about a kibbutz, where they rounded up 100 people, herded them into the rec room from ages 880 to ages 80 to months, and machine gunned them all down. It reminded me what happened to my family when the nazis came into ukraine. Same thing. They asked my great grandmother to put her whole family on the porch, 35 people, they machine gunned all of them down. So manufacture o so many of us understand this. Its seared in our memories. Its an awful, awful day. So we went to israel to share a message of resolute solidarity. America will stand with its ally israel and i, along with my colleagues here, will lead the effort in the senate to provide israel with the support required to fully defend itself if this monstrous attack. The purpose of our trip was threefold. A, to show that the u. S. Stands with israel. Ive gotten calls since weve come back, israelis have been so gratified that they were there at a time of great need, at a time when these vicious terrorists were trying to intimidate the world from supporting israel. With their vicious activities. Second, we met with the leads for the israel to discuss in detail what israel needs in terms of resources so that we can put together the bested apackage. And third we wanted to show that the u. S. Is bipartisan. And we had two democrat, two republicans, and myself. The task now is threefold. One to eliminate the threat to ha threat of hamas. If hamas is allowed to continue, the same thing will happen again. If you read the Hamas Convention and their history, they believe that there should be no jews between the mediterranean and the jordan river. They would do to the rest of the jews in israel what they did to the jews along the gaza line. Second is to secure safe rawrn of the hostages. Third is to remind israel that she must be humanitarian. That she must obey the rule of law. And must minimize civilian casualties among the palestinians. And we did that to every leader we met. As majority leader, as the highest ranking jewish leader in american history, i felt i wanted to be there. I had to be there as an obligation. Now were going to do everything in our power to ensure that the Senate Delivers the support for israel and the rescue package. We intend to get the package the end of this week. And it will include the military help israel needs, the diplomatic and intelligence help israel needs, as well as humanitarian aid to minimize the loss of innocent human life of palestinians and of israelis. Now senator bartlett. Sen. Bartlett let me thank senator schumer. He expressed what we all feel about what hamas did, the atrocities they committed, crimes against humanity. Every day we see more and more images that sickens us and recognizes how vulnerable we all are. As the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, let me tell you our priorities. First for israel. We will do everything we need to do to help israel defend itself. Today there was a resolution filed in the United States senate, i want to thank the majority leader and minority leader for the meeting on that resolution. It enjoys the cosponsorship of 99 of our colleagues. Shows the bipartisan unified support for israel. We need to take up the supplemental appropriation as soon as possible. Israel needs replenishments on the interceptors. They need precision missiles. They need munitions. Were making that available. But on an ongoing basis we need to replinnish the resources for that to happen. Then third in regards to having israels back, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will consider legislation to moarndize and strengthen our relationship with israel as it relates to armaments and well be taking up that legislation shortly. Our second priority, all of these are our our top priority, a deal for hostages. Theres not a moment that goes by we dont think of our hostages and how to help. Weve been in conversations with leaders around the world, about what we can do to free hos annals. We know some are americans. Well do everything we can until theyre safely home. Third we are working carefully with our partners to make sure the conflict is not escalated by iran or any other actor. I think the president has taken pretty definitive steps and were doing everything we can in our committee to make it clear that we stand behind the president and behind any effort to escalate this will have severe consequence. Next the humanitarian needs. We recognize that there are innocent people trapped here. We want to do everything we can to provide the humanitarian needs for the innocent palestinians that are caught by hamas actions. We recognize also that israel must comply with the law of war. And we need safe passages for those trying to escape the violence. Third, fourth, fifth, we want to make sure hamas does not win in one of their objectives to eliminate normalization efforts between israel and its neighbors. We are going to do everything we can and weve already been in conversations with israelis and with the saudis in regards to continuing on track the discussions that have taken place on normalization between those two countries. Youll see action by our committee to reinforce those efforts. We dont want hamas to win and stop the normalization efforts. Tomorrow in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee well have a hearing on secretary lieu to be the ambassador to israel. Hes highly qualified. Hes the right person for the right job. But if we want to be most effective as possible. And helping israel to deal with the hostages, to deal with the humanitarian needs, to deal with normalization, we need a confirmed ambassador in americans have seen the carnage of hamas terrorist attacks. Some people gunned down trying to flee. Children burned to death and Holocaust Survivors ripped from their families. May sound like a nightmare, but its real. And im here to tell the world and all of you, its all too real, all too devastating, we cannot and must not look away. As the only jewish mother serving in the United States Senate Meeting with israeli parents whose children have been captive, seeing the fear and pain in their eyes, their lives forever changed by this act of terror. That is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. And i brought these stories back with me along with one message, this is a time to take Decisive Action to help israel. Here in the senate, democrats and republicans both sides of the aisle must Work Together and Work Together quickly to deliver support as soon as possible, and that means providing the funding and defensive capabilities to do the following, protect the israeli people, rescue those who are being held hostage and hold hamas accountable for the atrocities they have committed. I fully believe that we can and will get this done because america support is unwavering and unconditional. I said this in israel and i will repeat it now. History has shown what happens when the world abandons the jewish people and as long as im here, america will stand with israel. Thank you. Thank you, folks, for being here today. As senator schumer mentioned, five of us went over there, three of us, senator rosen and myself and senator schumer and romney and spent 13 hours meeting with the leadership of the Israeli Government. The opposition, the war cabinet, the defense minister, president herzog, the ambassador, our diplomats in israel and i got to say, folks, this was kind of unlike any day i have had in my entire career, 25 years in the navy. It was heart wrenching to hear from the leadership of the Israeli Government just the brutality. And the hawaiian us acts that hamas committed against the jewish people in israel was it was almost indescribable. And later to meet with family members, the american hostages and hear their stories, tragic stories about their loved ones. And just wanted some reassurance from us that we will do everything in our power to get their family members back. And we will. All five of us stressed to the israeli leadership the need to have a humanitarian response to this situation. We have already started providing security assistance. Hamas is a terrorist organization and has to be defeated. There is no doubt about that. And we stand with israel and their goal to eliminate this brutal organization. We have already sent 100,000 metric tons of american diplomacy in the way of uss gerald ford. Another Aircraft Carrier is going to arierve, uss eisenhower and Marine Rapid Response is on stand by. Israel appreciates what we have done. We did talk in detail about what else we need to do and that includes security assistance. They have not an immediate need but soon they will have a need for precision guided munitions and mark on like the jdam and rounds for interceptor rounds for thoron dome system. We experienced the benefit of iron dome as we were there in tel aviv with a couple of rocket attacks. We are going to work with our colleagues across the aisle to stand with israel so they can defend themselves against hamas. It is important to remind everybody hamas does not represent the Palestinian People. The Palestinian People are not hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization that needs to be eliminated and stand with israel who wants peace. Let me say one more thing, there are 12 members of centcom of the United States military that have not been confirmed by the United States senate because of one senator, senator tubberville of alabama. We need to get these positions filled. If it is not at their full strength, it hurts israel and helps hamas. Senator schumer ok. [indiscernible question] senator schumer i dont get involved in private conversations or what happens in this kind of thing. He is not attending. Go ahead. [indiscernible conversation] senator schumer we would like to get the supplemental package moved as quickly as possible because the needs are as great as possible in israel and ukraine. And im working with leader mcconnell to get it done asap. [indiscernible question] senator schumer if you allow hamas to continue to exist as is, the same thing will happen again and we have to do everything to prevent that from happening. [indiscernible question] senator schumer the house is in a