don't want her pregnant with a product of rape and so they'll go to the local pharmacy where it doesn't require a prescription in those countries, buy birth control pills and start their daughter on this. their 12-year-old daughter, heir 13-year-old daughter. put her on birth control pills and per hut other -- put her on the train, all the while having an understanding that it was a high risk that she would be raped. and the data that we got, the judgment that we got from the people that are taking care of these unaccompanied alien children gave us these numbers. the lowest number they gave us on those that were raped on the way up was 1/3. the highest number they gave was 70%. in one place they told us it makes no difference, boys or girls, they're all -- they're victimized in the same proportion. as boys are victimized in the same proportion as the girls. i'm not convinced that that's a reliable response, but it was repeated several times back to us. but i am convinced that it's a reliable response on the girls. what kind of compassion is it, mr. speaker, that supports a policy that's attracted by daca, that would cause a family member, whether it's a mother and a father in say guatemala, el salvador or honduras, or an aunt, an uncle, a grandparent, to go down to the pharmacy and buy birth control pill it's and bring them -- pills and bring them back and start the prescription of the birth control pills to your 12-year-old daughter, your 12-year-old granddaughter, your 12-year-old niece, 13, 14, 15, and then hand her own to a coyotey who is by definition a human trafficer, and put her out there in the custody of the coyote and she ends up on a bus, she ends up on a truck, she ends up on a train, she ends up raped and if she gets to the united states alive, traumatized, she's still got to get across the river, still got to get into the united states and maybe she goes across on a boat, maybe she goes across on a jet ski, maybe the water's low, excuse me, maybe the she's able to get across. right now it's too deep in that area for that to happen. swimming is a chance, sometimes they drown. sometimes they pick up sexually transmission the -- transmitted diseases. sometimes they're killed along the way. many, many, many times they are raped. this is the product of daca. this is the product of a effectless policy that's also lawless policy -- feckless policy that's also a lawless policy. the president has ordered i.c.e. to violate the law. and the result of that is, an advertisement, a magnet that goes down into central america that reminds them, if you can get to the united states, you get to stay. especially if you send your children up and they're unaccompanied with a family member or an adult. but there are also a good number of children that come with adults and they told us that often it is a mother with a one, two or three children, that has come all the way across mexico, through drug cartel land, on the train of death, on the beast, or riding in some other form of transportation to arrive at the united states. here's what happens. if they live, if they get here, even though they're traumatized and they may have disease, although i didn't find the evidence of the magnitude of the incidents of the disease that i had been advised that there was, if they get here and they are turning themselves over to the board par petroleum or surrendering to the first person they find -- border patrol or sunday rendering to the first person they find -- you might be walking along watching birds along the rio grande river and have one or multiple illegals conduct out of the brush and surrender to you. they want to turn themselves over to the united states. especially the women and especially the children. not so much the men. and then what happens is they're picked up by the border patrol, they'ren -- they're taken down to the station, they're identified, as many of them as can, a lot of them have birth certificates or phone on them, some family member or friend, some destination they want to go to america, they're processed, they're put into a holding cell, along with sometimes a whole mix of different ages and men and women, nursing mothers, little kids, might all be put in there together while they identified them, before they sort them, and then they'll be sorted out in these holding cells that are young girls here, older girls here, mothers with babies here and mothers with babies and kids here, adult males here, young males here. that mix is there. here's what this also comes to. if you look at the unaccompanied alien children that come into the united states, this number that is roughly 20% of the population of those that are interdicted now, here's the data from the health and human services website on the refugee resettlement. it is 80% male. these are the unaccompanied alien children, so they are under the age of 18, up to and including 17. they are 80% male and they are 83% older than 14, younger than 18. 15, 16 and hey're 17 years old, mr. speaker. that's a high percentage in that range. so here's how you calculate this. that is that if you take .8, the 80%, for male, and you multiply it times the percentage that are older teenagers, that's 83% that are 15, 16 and 17, multiply those two together and you get 64%, which is right in that 2/3 category. we've already crossed the line of more than 57,000 unaccompanied alien children that are interdicted down on the southern border. and that happened on june 15. so now we've got another month and a couple weeks that have been racked up. we're easily over 60,000. but here's a number to think about, mr. speaker. 60,000 unaccompanied alien children and out of that 60,000, 2/3 of them are male of prime gang recruitment age. males of prime gang recruitment age. so that means that of the 60,000, 40,000 are right there for ms-13 to recruit, they're right there for the gulf cartel to recruit, right there to be part of those who go into the crime syndicates as opposed to those who might have had an opportunity and might have had a different approach, if they were not exposed to this kind of life. you can go to any country in the world and identify the most dangerous demographic in any population and it's going to be young males. young males cause the most trouble, they're the most violent, they commit the most crimes, whether they are sexual assault crimes, whether it's homicide, whether it's assault, whether it's theft. that comes out of the university of young males. you can go to a place where i think there's a low crime rate, and i haven't looked this up, i just don't hear of anything coming out of iceland. so you can go to iceland and pick the icelandic boys who are 15, 16, 17 years old, they're go to be the prime age where they're committing crimes. that and older, the 18 to 25 to 30 to 32, then is it starts to taper off again. this is the universe that's coming out of guatemala, el salvador and honduras. the high gang recruitment age from some of the most violent countries in the world. as a matter of fact, the six most violent countries in the world, with the highest homicide rates, are south of mexico. eight of the top 10 highest homicide rates in the world, countries, are south of mexico. we're bringing in young males to the tune of 2/3 of those that are coming across as unaccompanied alien children, 2/3 of them, 40,000 of 60,000 at least since the beginning of this fiscal year, 15, 16 and 17 years old. now, there's one side of this that says, have compassion, they're only kids. there's another side that says, we should have some compassion for the american people. the american people are paying a price. they will pay a price in blood for this, these acts of this president. and the policy that they have is, they're just scattering them across the country. they will put them in a holding place until they can process them, health and human services takes them into their custody, if they have a phone number in their pocket, they will call that phone number and say, can you send us a bus ticket? if you send us a bus ticket, we'll put this person on the bus and send them to where you want them to go. there's not a very reliable any d of identifying background checks on the people that are -- let's say they're recipients of the unaccompanied alien children that are here. those 17-year-old potential gang recruits. they could be crack houses they could be megget houses, they could be cat houses they could be stash houses. could be an ms-13 headquarters. they get delivered there. they get put on a bus to get sent there. sometimes they're escorted there. sometimes custom border protection puts indemnify a car and drives them across the state of -- puts them in a car and drives them across the state of texas to another location. and when they do that, they have two officers there. sometimes those two officers are flying as few as one of these individuals to a place like los angeles from laredo. laredo to los angeles, two federal officers escorting a 14, 15, 16, 17-year-old to los angeles. we're ending up with two round trip plane tickets, often three round trip plane tickets, and a couple of hotel rooms to deliver and complete the crime. and what's happened is, i read a case that was decided in december of 2013. so december of last year, mr. speaker. and it was a judge, a federal judge, that had to rule on a case about human trafficking, human smuggling, prosecution. and what had happened was there was a mother in virginia, an illegal alien mother, who had unlawfully entered the united states and was living illegally in virginia who had collected some money and sent that off to a coyote in el salvador. might have been guatemala. but i believe it was el salvador. and paid the human smuggler to smuggle her 10-year-old daughter from el salvador to virginia. and so, as the human smuggler, the coyote, smuggled the 10-year-old girl across the border into the united states, they were interdicted by the border patrol. and they brought charges against the coyote, the human smuggler, and that was a federal charge that the judge wrote his opinion on. and as he wrote this opinion, and i'll summarize, the opinion was, he said, this is the fourth case i've had in as many weeks of i.c.e., as this child was turned over to immigration customs enforcement, i.c.e. had taken this child and delivered her to the illegal household of her biological mother in virginia. that was the objective of the crime in the first place. was to get her daughter illegally delivered into the illegal mother's household, in the illegal household in virginia, and as the coyote was interdicted with the 10-year-old at the border, and the border patrol caught them and processed them over into i.c.e. and they filed charges for human trafficking, and when the smuggler came across in front of the judge and he said, this is the fourth case i've it is as many weeks, and appalling that the federal government, in this case i.c.e., would complete the crime. but take the 10-year-old daughter and deliver her another 1,000 miles across america into the arms of her illegal mother into an illegal household. now, that sounds like there are four cases that are an anomly, mr. speaker. but those four cases, i wish they were an anomly. they are not. that's the standard today and it's happening not four times, not 40 times, not 400 times, thousands and thousands of times this federal government is completing the crime of unlawful entry into the united states. so if you're under 18 or you say you're under 18 and you come into america with your birth certificate, and your phone number of where you'd like to be delivered, the process becomes, you get processed, if you're under 14 they don't even take your fingerprints. neither do they take a photograph that's attached to your identification to identify you by. so we don't know who these kids are. but if they have a phone number , border patrol will process them and they try to get them turned over to health and human services within 72 hours and when there's a backlog it took longer, they were doing the best they could to comply with the law, health and human services hired nongovernment contractors to house and process and distribute and to deliver and distribute and so this unaccompanied alien child then, no fingerprints, no pictures, but a shower and food d a fresh set of clothes and they'll send that unaccompanied alien child anywhere in america that they request to go. and sometimes they'll get a bus ticket that's sent, that's paid for by their recipient household and sometimes they don't, they tell us they try not to have to buy those tickets out of your tax dollars, mr. speaker, but we know that's going on. it is a welcome mat and welcoming party for people coming into america. and if they have on birth certificatetive indicate and give them a piece of paper that e printed on a border patrol printer. it's apermission slip that allows the illegal alien to stay in the united states and promise they are go to go appear. not many do appear. but if they do, they have been coached that they have a credible fear. and they make the argument that they have this credible fear and allowed to stay in america and this happens in a very, very high percentage of them. the children gets to stay. mother with children gets to stay. and when people are leaving their countries in guatemala, ellsalvador and no one shows up, them what happens is, they understand that the promises are true, your odds of being deported are less than 2% and nowless than 1 mrs and the promise of america will take care of you and america will give you your heat subsidy, food amps, your obama phone and obamacare and all of that is part of the promise and until we send people back, they are going to keep coming. that is the message, that unless you send them back, that is the only way you can send a message for people to lose their money in investing into a ky oath of , that is a big chumping money. so we have a government policy that is a complete mess and i believe that each of the law enforcement there are doing a job the best they can and with the rules of engagement, prevent them from having a cohesive strategy that can secure the border. we need to build a fence on the southern border to keep them on the other side so they can't get in. and we need to call upon the border state governors, the vernor of the texas, call up the texas national guard. this congress has a resolution to all upon the governors circumvent the president of the united states. only way we are going to secure the board. the president will not secure the border. i believe they will do this and congress has an obligation to fund them. i put the message out, mr. speaker, we need to pass a resolution in this congress and the resolution needs to say the da crmp a language with the 2008 anguage and his refusal to enforce law and enforce the law in central america. the president has to start enforcing the law. second one is, it's going not going to happen. and so we call upon the border state governors to call up their national guards and commit the house to fund the governors so they can go to the other states. that, pass the little fix of the 2008 law as a stand-loan bill and send it over to the sent and they are using that as an a excuse. do not let these illegal aliens go north of the border. keep them contained and if it's good enough for a united states military, good enough for the united states to come in illegal. even if it is tent city and can't be rewarding them with op u lent digs across the countryside. there are solutions to this and are in the hands of the president. i yield back the ball absence of balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. pursuant to clause 12-a later, the russian ambassador to the united nations talks about the ongoing conflict in ukraine. "inunday on book tv's depth," ron paul. he has written more than one dozen books on politics and history, with his latest on the american education system. he takes your calls, e-mails, and tweets, sunday, august 3, and tune in next month until -- when we hear mary frances berry, and the best-selling author orda is our guest in september, and arthur books. television for serious readers. a bipartisan deal was reached on the v.a. deal, which would authorize about $70 billion to hire more doctors and nurses. by agreement was announced the chairman of the house and senate veterans affairs committee. senator bernie sanders and senator jeff miller miller. this is about 20 minutes. jeff miller with the house of v.a. committee. thatcommittee legislation we are bringing forward today is far from what i would have written if i had to do it alone, and i suspect it is far from what chairman miller would have done if he had done it by himself. it is a compromise legislation, with a give and take on both sides, and let me be very clear that i strongly support what i -- what we have come up with. it makes sense that we address the immediate crisis of veterans being forced on long waiting lines for health care. v.a. so itens the will be able to hire the doctors, nurses, and medical personnel that they need so that we can put an end to long waiting lists. problems with accountability and making sure that there is honest and competent senior officials in addition, it provides significant benefits for veterans and their families. mustng for veterans' needs be considered a cost of war and appropriated as emergency spending. blaine's and tanks and guns are a cost of war. so is taking care of the men and women who used those weapons to fight our battles. in theding mechanism bill which passed the senate with 93 votes, with a funding mechanism in this bill. of money must be provided so that the v.a. has the resources to immediately and unacceptably long waiting periods at many facilities throughout the country. this bill does that by contracting out with medical providers, community health the department of defense facilities, etc., and this is something that was contained in the house bill, and we basically trust that language. this is consistent with the sanders-mccain bill that lives in -- has veterans who live 40 miles or more from a facility to get their care, and if you give 100 miles away, you should not make that trip. it should be provided in your community. this provides some 10 billion dollars for contracting out and for those who live 40 miles or more out, $40 billion. secretary gipson and many of the veterans organizations have make clear that we need to make sure the v.a. has adopted the doctors and nurses. the v.a. toor strengthen their capabilities. this legislation is consistent with bills passed in the house, i think unanimously, and in the senate, as part of sanders-mccain, authorizing the v.a. to enter into leases with 27 major facilities in 18 states and puerto rico. that will cost about one point $5 billion. we have all been outraged by the distortion of data and so forth. this bill contains language which will allow the secretary to find people immediately who finenderperforming -- to people immediate legal are underperforming, and it gives them time for appeal. this is included in sanders-mccain, and it includes the delivery of care to veterans in dealt with sexual trauma the military, with a scholarship program to include surviving spouses of members who died in the line of duty, and it also has all veterans qualified for in-state tuition under the post-9/11 g.i. bill, and it also extends the program regarding cbi. money, this bill will provide $17 billion into the v.a. health care, with a $5 billion offset within the v.a., possibly $12 billion of new money, so this has been a very difficult process, and it takes place. chairman miller and i were working in the context philosophically with the house and senate being very different institutions, looking at the world very differently, a lot of partnership going on. it has been a very, very difficult process, and i want to thank chairman miller very much. i think from day one, he understood it is absolutely imperative that we get this bill done and get it done now before the break, and it certainly would not have happened without his determination, and i thank him very much. chairman? much for my very friend, the chairman of the senate committee. it goes without saying we have a v.a. that is in crisis today. longagreement will go a way to helping resolve the crisis that exists out there today. helping to get veterans off of waiting lists is extremely important, and this will does that. people withinlds the department accountable, and that is something that both aunties wanted to do. if i had written this, the secretary would have had the ability to fire the top senior-level individuals without an appeal. senator sanders wanted an appeal in there. this is a compromise that we have been able to reach. we have been working on this diligently from the days that this past both bodies. the fact that there has been little action or movement for a long period of time i think was exaggerated. and i, amongrs other members of the committees, have worked very digitally to bring this to closure before we left, and that has always been the deadline, the august recess, that we set to be able to get this bill passed by both houses before we went home. the other thing it does is it starts a conversation. v.a. for the future. senator sanders and i differ about some things, but one thing that we do agree about is that the veterans in this country deserve the best quality health care that they can get in a timely fashion, and that has not been the case as of late. as i said in my opening statement with acting secretary gibson in our committee the other day, the v.a. is not sacred. the veteran is. and that is the most important thing for all of us to remember as we have gone through this process. we still have to have it approved. . the veteran is. the house leaves on thursday and the senate, i believe, on friday. you to senator centers for working in good faith through the process and i look forward to moving this through the house. >> how do you keep costs from spiraling out of control when thousands of veterans are getting health care outside of the system? have different answers, i am sure. >> i would like to hear both. >> it is a philosophical debate. this legislation is billion forg $10 veterans who are currently enrolled in the v.a.. -- the v.a. they will go to a private center. healthtion, there is care that you need in your community. there's $10 billion appropriated. somey well be that, at point in the future, we will need more money and we will have to have that debate when we cross that bridge. that the biggest issue we confronted was the cbo score that was given on the house and senate will. negotiations, we went to the senate bill and i do not believe or any of us believe that it will cost that much. leftlieve that it will be under the first-year costs and we are willing to lock the number and. it will continue as long as the money is there. i do not believe that there will be a flight of all of the veterans out of the system. we do not know until we start to see how veterans will act. the first year will give us a benchmark with which to be able to set the future of the program. the other thing that i think that we all agree on is that the one important thing in our world is to have a commission that goes through in dependently and looks at the department of veterans affairs from top to bottom. us that they need more money and people. i want them to help us understand what efficiencies can be found within the system will stop are the doctors seeing the patients as they should? do they only see people during normal business hours? there are a lot of things that we will find out in the next year that will, hopefully, change the way the v.a. delivers health care. addition, we hope that, with more doctors and nurses coming in, the v.a. system will be able to accommodate more veterans in a timely manner. >> i have questions for mr. miller. you said that you do not believe that there'll be a flight of people out of the system. how are you sure that people will come back into the system? still, the price tag is hefty. will it fly in the house of where there are so many tea party conservatives concerned about the bottom line. -- bottom line? >> i believe that it will. taking care of veterans is not inexpensive and our members understand that. this is not a process in which we found ourselves because of lack of oversight. oversight brought this to the table. you have a serious problem that needs to be resolved. the v.a. caused this problem and , a way that you can solve it is by giving veterans a choice to stay in the system or go out of the system. there may be people who do not want to go into the system. gore are people who do not into the v.a. because of the ability to get health care somewhere else. i think we will see what that number is. people in the system are satisfied and here is a great way to test. if they are, 90% will stay in the system. >> i want to ask you if the $10 billion is offset. >> no. it is mandatory emergency money. the additional money it is , if it is needed, it will be done through the normal appropriations process. the veterans need quick response be able to make sure that veterans are not standing in line as they have been. let me tell you something, it does not matter what senator sanders or i pass. we cannot legislate good morals or character. as long as people are inside the system and are willing to game the numbers, as they have in the past, the v.a. will not be able to fix itself. he will be able to make the change that is necessary for the top. mentioned about $5 billion of this will be offset. where is that coming from? >> the other part of it -- is $5 billion offset from other programs in the v.a. and i feel comfortable with that. >> it is all a emergency funding? >> yes. >> can compromise change the culture in the v.a.? >> i hope that bob mcdonnell will be voted on as the new secretary of the v.a. i have a lot of confidence in bob mcdonald. we have a new team in there and i hope that the v.a. fully understands that some of what we have seen and heard about in the politicalonths is not . it is unacceptable for any and every member of congress. there is not going to be manipulation of data or lying. it is a relationship between congress and the v.a. i want to say what i believe. i have said this many times. i think it is true in vermont and in many parts of this country. when veterans get into the v.a. system, they feel pretty good about the quality of care they get. i hear this all the time. the probably have with access is going to be dealt with right now. in the short-term, emergency care. in the longer term, i hope that the v.a. has the doctors and nurses to make sure that every eligible veteran in the country its quality health care when they need it. you were suggesting that we should not read too much into the delay here. give us a sense of what the biggest sticking point was? >> let's be clear. i do not know if chairman miller would use the word. the congress is a dysfunctional institution. issue afterajor major issue where virtually nothing is happening and important legislation needs to be happening. we should have done this a month ago. we areortant point is, here together, having done something that happens rarely in the united states congress. i am proud of what we have accomplished. do you have anything to add to that? >> you did not have a 21 day review. compromise allow for too much bureaucracy or red tape? no. one the secretary makes a decision to fire someone, they are fired immediately and lose their salary at that point. the have a one-week time to appeal and they have a 21 day time to review it. if they do not do their job within 21 days, the firing is upheld. >> it is a sentiment i share. process going a on a process going on month after month and year after year. >> taking away salaries before a chance of due process? >> i'm sure that others have that concern and this is a compromise that we reach. reached. what is there a sunset on the provision? does ago for two years and that is it? >> there are wait times in the bill that trigger to allow veterans seeking care. have you looked at the current wait times defined by the v.a.? thehe v.a. changes what ait time is -- >> the senate has 30 days and we are going with the senate. hours will be continued for two years. about housequestion republicans. i know that veterans are in for it and house republicans know they are in for it. how are you planning on selling this when you know that it is not offset? a salese from background and i think i can do a good job. no. no. we will be able to sell it to the conference. we will probably not get a unanimous vote. about 93-3ders talks .nd ours was for 25-0 >> always trying to one up me. >> obviously, some of our members need more educating than others. >> it is the end of the day. whether you are a republican or a progressive, people understand that this issue should and must go beyond politics. we have people who have put their lives on the line and have come back with a whole lot of problems. it would be a disgrace to this country if we did not address the needs. i think there is widespread support for this. the process, when you expect the conference committee to vote and, to what chamber do you expect to go first? >> who want to get this done as quickly as possible and we are working on the mechanism. >> we hope to have everything done by the end of the day. the mechanism of who goes first is not as critical. , and pieces of this putting it together, i would step out and say that the house would go first. is that the important thing is that we have to get this done as quickly as possible before recess. isyou said that your view that the congress is dysfunctional and nothing is getting done when -- >> did i say that? >> you did. week and thist week, there was a tense moment last week. could you give us a sense of what happened to get here? it could be instructive. nowongress is divided right and the house has views and the senate has views. at the end of the day, what is important is that he understood is notnderstood that it democrats, republicans, or independence. we have a moral obligation to do this. and, we do. >> there has not been one time that senator sanders or our staffs have not communicated. hay out ofdia made what took place last week and we continue to negotiate. even as that they was unfolding, we communicated. >> ok. one or two more questions. for the members of the pennsylvania don't ration -- abouttion, can you talk if infectious disease reporting was part of the conversation? >> it was not. we both agree that some of the , specifically, in pittsburgh and other places around the country will not stand and we must try to resolve the veil of secrecy that caused the issue to crop up in pittsburgh. >> let me just add to what the chairman said. this is not the end. this is the beginning. we are dealing with a crisis and we have done good work in addressing the crisis. god knows that there is more work to be done. all right? all right. thank you all. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] on the next washington journal, roger wicker on the deal on the veteran health care bill. andg over immigration border security. and one will way you that. universitygeorgetown -- will weigh in on that. anthony of georgetown university. washington journal is live on c-span. house and the senate are going to begin recess. we asked viewers if congress should pass southern border security legislation before august recess. on can go and vote on that facebook. >> for over 35 years, c-span brings public affair events directly to you and puts you in the room. gavel-to-gavel coverage of the house as a public service of private industry. we are c-span. created by the cable industry and brought to you as a service by your local inviter. watch us in hd and follow us on twitter. calls for ani-moon immediate cease-fire in gaza. >> ladies and gentlemen, the secretary-general. >> good morning. i'm about to brief the security council on the vital role of the regional delegation on the peacekeeping operations. before i do, i just wanted to update the current situation in the middle east. let me begin by reinforcing last night's call of the security council. calling for an immediate unconditional humanitarian cease-fire. as you know, i issued a statement yesterday calling for a 24 hour extension of the humanitarian cease-fire. i did this morning, early this morning. it is time for an immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire in the name of humanity. the violence must stop. i just returned from the region. over the course of six days, i have extensive consultations with the leaders in the region in eight countries in the middle east. as well as u.s. secretary of state, john kerry. he has been working tirelessly and valiantly to end the fighting. since my return during the weekend, i have continued with a number of calls to world leaders, including prime minister netanyahu of israel. i had a long talk with him, urging him to stop this violence and agree in honor of the international community's common effort, and call for an unconditional humanitarian cease-fire. gaza is in critical condition. missiles have pummeled gaza. hamas rockets have randomly struck israel. no country would accept the threat of rockets from above and tunnels from below. at the same time, all occupying powers have an international legal obligation to protect civilians. i was equally disappointed that dangerous hostilities resumed on sunday, but since monday evening, a relative and very fragile calm underground has been established. a temporary pause in fighting brought a brief rest by two civilians. it also shows how much this is devastated the lives of people in gaza. we saw seemed indiscriminate destruction. some described it as a man-made hurricane. and whole neighborhood reduced to debris and rubble, blocks of flattened apartment buildings, scores of bodies. buried under mounds of twisted wreckage. the fighting has claimed well over 1000 palestinian lives. most of them civilians. hundreds of them children. hamas rocket fire has claimed the lives of three israeli civilians. at least 16 palestinian civilian deaths, and more than 200 injuries came as a result of an appalling assault on a u.n. school. we were sheltering families, women and children who had sought refuge from the fighting. ongoing hostilities have prevented establishing a response building. it is imperative to do so, and have accountability for these outliers of crime. indeed, there must be accountability and justice for crimes committed by all sides. on friday, i spoke with some of our staff to thank them for their heroic work. one of our colleagues told me there is no safer place in gaza. the people in gaza have nowhere to run, they are trapped and besieged on every area. every area is a civilian area. every home, every school, every refuge has become a target. the casualty and damage also raises serious concerns about proportionality. today more than 173,000 gazans are seeking protection in u.n. facilities. that means 10% of the entire population is sheltering under the u.n. flag. my call for israel and all parties to do vastly more to ensure the safety of these u.n. sites, and the security of the people who have sought sanctuary there. israelis and palestinians have a responsibility to stop the fighting now. to start the dialogue now, and progress the root causes that will finally break this endless cycle of senseless suffering. that means securing peace through mutual respect, and then to the economic segregation of gaza, and nearly half-century of occupation. the suffering and siege conditions in gaza will only hurt innocent civilians, further isolate israel, and power extremist on all sides, and leave our world far less safe. that is why i continue to work with the palestinian president and other regional and global leaders to deliver a piece that the israeli and palestinian people so desperately need and deserve. thank you. >> why is that that with all these efforts, there hasn't been a longer-term cease-fire? what is the obstacle? >> it's a matter of political will. they have to show humanity as leaders. both israeli and palestinians. i particularly when they continue to fight, it's only the people, only the civilians who are being suffered and killed. that is why i have been first and foremost saying stop the fighting. then, sit down together. address all the root causes, put all the root causes and underlying issues on the table. that is been my continuing message. very simple and continuing message. i'm repeating again. we cannot continue to see many people continue to be killed like this. why these leaders are making their people to be killed by others, it's not responsible. >> you have reached out to prime minister netanyahu several times, asking him to seize the violence immediately. thomas is the other party to the conflict. when you were in qatar, was there any effort made it to get you to meet with hamas political leader and to try and persuade him to engage in an immediate cease-fire? and if not, why not? >> i have been talking mainly to israeli prime minister and palestinian president. our communication with hamas has been indirect. the help of qatar and turkish governments. i have been continuously speaking with the emirate of qatar and the foreign minister, as well as the prime minister of turkey. even yesterday i was speaking with the turkish leaders. whatever the means of communication may be, it is important that both sides must stop. they should listen to the polls and opinions from all the people around the world. by this time, all the world's people are deeply concerned about what is going on. about what they are seeing every day, the people being killed. it's an issue of humanity. an issue of compassionate leadership. as a leader, they should first take care of the lives of their own people. >> some of express criticism of this morning's presidential statement as the security council fiddling while rome burns. give me the urgency you are pressing for an end to hostilities, and the expression of disappointment for the palestinian represented last night calling for resolution. why do not call for resolution? >> i should not have any comment on what the security council members have decided. of course, everybody hopes and expected that the security council would take a resolution, which is it legally and politically binding. they've agreed to have a presidential statement. that is the decision. but i believe still, if the parties have a political will, whether it is residential statement or resolution, i think they can stop this violence. it's not a matter of what the format of this resolution. even before the security council has taken such action, many world leaders, including myself, has been appealing and urging the parties to stop the violence. that should have a moral voice. with john kerry, the foreign minister of egypt, and the secretary-general and myself, we may to join, and appeal. on friday evening. and then, the should have been immediately respected. i was in qatar when i issue the extendable cease-fire. it was immediately respected. then the fighting began continuing. i issued already to statements, yesterday and today. i hope that together with the security council's president shall statement, i hope the parties will really honor and respect the joint efforts. >> the admission of israel that in fact, the shells by israel hit a school trade does that square the response ability, despite the insistence of israel that there were rockets. why's it taking it so long to have this investigation concluded? although your people in gaza are telling you what has happened? it is your responsibility as the united nations to provide palestinians international protection. because of a continuing situation. we were able to see the situation, but this to stigation is continued whata conclusive result on i have ly happened and them who have committed this attack should be justice.to -- you remember that without the office was again shelled at israeli tanks. i went there myself. t-- i was ecause of only able to speak with our concern. ressed >> >> efforts tory secured seize cease far with hamas and military. ecretary terry spoke about the palestinian conflict. >> as you all know i just eturned from the middle east and from paris where i had a series of discussions aimed at deescalating the conflict ending tunnel attacks against israeli civilians and innocente suffering of in le ever where in gaza, israel and in the west bank. work we are continuing to toward establishing an humanitarian cease whichone that could honor begins now and that will stop the fighting. food desperately needed other supplies into tkgaza and enable israel t ddress the threat which we fully understand and which is the threat by tunnel attacks and to be able to do so ithout being able to resort to combat. that is what could come from a cease fire. believe the momentum enerated by a humanitarian cease fire is the best way to be negotiate and o find out if you could put in a sustainable cease fire, one that addresses all the concerns, the long term concerns as well. begin to talk about the underlying causes of the in gaza. those obviously will not all be of a ed in the context cease fire, sustainable cease fire discussion. try to s important to uild to begin and a sustainabla process and that's what we're trying to achieve. that is the only way ultimately this conflict is going to be resolved. hopefully if we can make some people in this peace can deserve take one step towards that stopping the by catches innocence on all sides in the cross fire nd begin to try to process and build a sustainable way forward. we also believe that any process resolve the crisis in gaza in a lasting and meaningful way must lead to the disarmament and and all terrorist groups and we'll work closely with israel and regional partners and community in support of this goal. so, we continue to have these discussions. our discussions over there a 12 hour n putting humanitarian cease fire and all place. then as the rollover time for that occurred regretably there were misunderstandings about 12 4 hourses s 24 and we're trying to clarify them in a way that the s the israel and palestinian authority and the factions and the other countries working through the gyptian initiative to be able to find a way to silence the long enough to be able to begin to negotiate. ambassador to the united nations denied reports hat russia is helping separatists in ukraine. e spoke to reporters at the u.n. in new york. >> place. actually i did not turn it formal settle of and i wanted to say a few words. i was told you were too lazy to to the m this place stakeout. there are just comments. he first we are pleased that terrorist to adopt organizations particularly financing through the means of oil.ng when all that -- it's a long standing concern of the russian that such trade can be used to finance the and i hope that those who are engaged in this heed that ctice reminder of the security counsel to very amounts of courseansgressions way not to ore organizations st through donations and subsidizing the activities of terrorist organizations. we believe this is an important tatement from the security counsel. and the second issue which i want to address is that of of a malaysian which r on the disaster happened on july 17th and you security l that the counsel passed the resolution 21-66 on the investigation of disaster calling for and we l investigation strongly stand behind that resolution. t was on the assistance of the --egation with the reference and also one of the causes of the resolution provided for fighting in the area of the conflict -- of the crash. what unately this is not we have seen happening. unfortunately the fighting and also you would recall that they promised there no activity of ukrainian within the radius of 30 kilometers. so all this is extremely disturbing. heard statements by some ukrainian security their ls that it was intention to take over the site military. would amount to a direct violation of resolution 21-66. encouraged just to ear minutes ago that the dutch and both the foreign minister of the netherlands and australian had a meeting e with the president and finally able to sign their agreement with the kiev the presence of their investigators at the crash site. so the combination of the of that agreement and the promise which we understand again was given to them of fighting ine end of the area would allow the investigators to come to the quickly as possible and would allow them to take care of he bodies which remain to be there and would allow them to pieces and to launch he next stage of this very investigation. >> thank you very much. cbs the question is, there were u.s. intelligence that about some information rockets from russia going into days andn the last few they also -- this was a report that president obama would share the ukraine government information about the surface to air missilels. come complained in the past hat there hasn't been any intelligence sharing on the malaysian flight. aware of and i would encourage you to look at the press conference in moscow the whole iterated frustration of the lack of exchange of information. we are very open as he indicated. reiterated in his press conference various forms of information. after some procrastination, we finally they're coming there. that we'll be open various technical means in order to observe the rest of the ukraine and on the investigation there is a ofmatic contrast of the mode operation. ur two senior officers went public in the foreign ministry giving all the technical have and n we describing the observations our 17th of julyon the when the malaysian airliner tragically went on. lifting specific things which need to be looked into during the course of the investigation. defense listed en questions which need to be addressed. our organization which is in charge of investigations and has experience in that kind f investigation including the experience while they were investigating the 2001 incident russian airliner passenger airliner was shot down ukrainian air force, they 28 places that need to be looked into. what we see from our american is just the accusations and the conclusions without sharing the evidence. that before. we are seeing that again. people from med u.s. intelligence community show up and basically say that they nothing. and the people who are there at the briefing, they do not give their names and do not show faces. they do not give any information except conclusions. people including your colleagues briefing from that are completely bewildered about the kind of information united states is relying on while making the accusations. 'm not here to make any accusations. i'm here to reiterate we want to full and impartial investigation and our experts are ready to participate and i encourage to hear that some of hem will be included in that investigation. we would like to our expert into such an investigation as soon as possible and we don't want anybody to interfere in investigation. of course continued military activity by the ukrainian forces area -- in the vicinity as i say sh site is clearly not compatible with the security which the counsel adopted on the 21st of august. generally speaking i hope you're following the news. the ukrainian military activity exceeded all s humanly imaginable limits. they are shelling with long to populated areas. civilians are dying by the dozens. f course you recall when their operations started we were assured by some members of the security counsel they're going to act with restraint. i wonder what kind of definition of restraint they were guided by because what we see is that civilianoing after the opulation which justifies our action.tion of their so this all amounts to a very ugly mode of operation contrary to the plan and to the assurances that the ukrainian engaging ill not be the civilian population and will methods. other they are directly targeting the civilian population. apartment reas, parks, so hospitals, this is the territory of country not the just about the territory but the people. mode of operation in which he wants to reunite the eople of ukraine this is a tragic blunder which may have long term s consequences. of the the talk netherlands did he playing, do you think this would take action y the security counsel to authorize and i wanted to ask you this, this was a readout of kerry and een john sergey and they did an addition secretarythey said kerry underlined our support for cease fire. understand something did the u.s. support a cease fire? >> i suppose what the message is n private to the ukrainians it's a different story. because what we have observed during the course of the crisis, a visit e they have from some american official of igh level contact, the ukrainians are intensifying -- escalating the situation. was a phone re conversation reported in the between vice president president. but i do hope. t.v. ope that watching coverage and today i understand they announced their calculation 1100 civilians have been killed conflict they'll understand finally that this is dangerous crisis and extremely dangerous course a proper and will give signal to the kiev authorities. 'm sure if they were to give that signal they'll have to listen because when we know how much they depend on the advice united states and their political support. on this other question, we what the us an australians and malaysians are trying to do and we were the moment they told us the intention was to send policemen along with experts on the ground on the crash site. support that. to the extent we told them we're prepared to pass the security resolution right away. establishing such steps by the dutch and australians. they told us the first one -- they first wanted to negotiate the kiev nt with authorities which has this logic behind it. view at least, the ukrainians started procrastinating. was tobecause their idea try to take over the site military or for some other i don't know. the fact is it was only minutes ago that the dutch were able to with the agreement ukrainians. bizarrely the authorities told them they'd also need to ratify those agreements. what is happening in the ukraine and the parliament dissolved. now i understand they're hoping on thursday, whatever required majority required for vote.ind of to me it looks quite suspicious. long for the kiev authorities to negotiate this agreement with the dutch and the were trying extremely hard along with australians. minister was always on the ground negotiating with authorities. what does it have to take. it have to take under such extraordinary circumstances days to negotiate this agreement and sign it only after your arliament already had been dissolved. and then to tell the people with negotiating the agreement now it will require justification. i don't want to use any strong words but it looks quite suspicious. you'll find the proper words to describe this mode of behavior. rather keep my judgment to myself. >> two questions. fly over ukrainian week? ry before this certainly ans are messing up the investigation on site.ash why didn't the separatists area and crash site call russian experts to help hem rather than allow grave robbers to run all over the place? the mess that occurred until the security counsel -- of all, let me say this. extremely emotional and tragic kind of situation. even worse by it resorting to expressions like this. you to give me why one example of grave robbers on the site. of that has ome been happening. i think this is not professional evening for journalists or politicians to resort to this language especially in a situation where it's grave and tragic enough. now why didn't they do that? why didn't they do this? may be very good questions. the thing fell on their heads. sually when such things happen under normal circumstances, people know how to deal with it. and crews rocedures of people, teams of people who are trained to do that. not the situation then. they did not have those experienced people. which were ple complete will he taken aback by if there stances and as some irregularities or transgressions they could have made a better judgment of what to do or not to do about the situation. they were told first not to next anything and the thing they heard complaints why the odys were there on ground. again, quite well be many things were done wrong by some people agreed to accept it to language.strong on the other hand, let me remind box is intactlack proof of t it see any any tampering with any evidence on the site. again, i hope there is going to be objective reporting of what is happening and of what may on the ground and why they invited or not invited the russians. did, immediately there would be complaints that russia evidence.ng with please go ahead. > thank you very much, mr. ambassador. i wanted to ask you something proof of any tampering with any presiden statement. whether in the almost months since you first you lated this, whether of the n any evidence group selling oils o finance their terrorist activities either in syria or iraq. second sort of minor question, i was just wondering in the press statement the reference to i believe it's -- what is it -- 20-44 the resolution regarding march ion in libya in ondemning the export of crude oil from libya and authorizing suspect vessels. it was in your original statement and it was dropped. of all, we had evidence before we suggested they were engaged in trade was one of the sources of their financing. nd to your last question, i'll give you a very frank answer. tot's why it it took so long produce it. discussions ral with the united states. broader, red a much stronger statement, but for their own reasons they were it down. water it so this is what we came up with. even as it is we think it's for the security counsel to make that statement. please. ambassador, you have nformation about the involvement of isis and and oil partners. do you know of any these partners? -- we talking about >> i'm not prepared to talk about it now here, please. to follow up on pam's -- >> you're not the one but once go ahead. the mic >> anyway, i wanted to follow up regarding the on reports and videos of shelling russian side of whether r into ukraine russia categorically denies reports and also reports possibly sends to more advanced missiles across the border. >> you know what, you heard coming from nts moscow, but i personally am sort hear some der when i of those accusations from some f our western colleagues, you had aer that last year we treaty on the transfer sales of here in nal weapons new york. delegation in the course of the investigation ban the sphaoeu of weapons of conventional weapons to non proposal rs and that of the russian federation was rejected by our western colleges. why? because they do it all the time. whoever,ide weapons to whoever they believe is a good recipient of those weapons for consideration of including syria and now they're so emotionally blaming ussia for doing things they themselves did not allow us to prohibit and the specifics of it heard again the statements and have been moscow and again, i urge you to look up again the press conference of sergey where he urgeibed the proposals you to look up again the press onference we are making and the possibilities we are open to in terms of control by o.e.c. of whether there are russia and ukraine. >> the french president over a phone will take --u.k., >> making and the we think it's wr. we reacted a number of times, please. wondering given russia's role on the middle eastern if tet if you have any -- your country has any response or you're satisfied with the envoy e of the special ony blair and how he's responded and what you think of the palestinians ambassador's in gaza. ome force > i'm not aware what kind of response tony blair came up with but he's not one of the key circumstances. we are disappointed at the kind of response that the was ableonal community to provide. yesterday to adopt document, but to my liking it was too little too late. we could come up with a stronger and more -- better document, bu security rom the counsel even sooner and russia the work of make the quartet more active under the circumstances. failed again for obvious reasons. for a long time the decided to go it alone and to keep the quartet somewhere in the back of the i think in are to some extent we are reaping the of that policy. question) e impression.wrong i have to go to lunch with the secretary-general. thank you very much. national ouse deputy security as advisor told reporters that russia is incret increasing the supplies to separatists here is part of the briefing. >> again, those are the main elements, but there are certainly other things going into it. in terms of heavy weaponry, those are the critical elements. >> i went to go back to something that josh said about utin with the downing of flight 17. is there a chance that putin could be charged in the international court with war crimes? it comes to russian culpability, i think the record is clear. the russians have been directly supporting the separatists with provision of weapons. thatlieve that the ssa 11 was used to shoot down the malaysian airliner came from russia. we do not know who was operating it. the russian -- the weapon itself came from russian -- russia. that russia has a significant influence over the separatists and could, if they so desired, to cease and desist, so in that sense, there is a clear and ongoing culpability for events in eastern ukraine for failing to de-escalate the situation and, indeed, for the context in which all of this has happened, including the shootdown of the airliner. in terms of who exactly pulled the trigger, that we do not know, but we will see if we can develop that information, but the bottom-line is this. through its ongoing support and increasing support for the separatists, russia bears responsibility for everything going on in eastern ukraine. ahead ofwant to get anything again, but the main point is to emphasize that russia bears responsibility and had the ability to actually be escalate this crisis by moving onto a diplomatic track. that is what we would most like to see. numberng up on c-span, of jewish organizations to talk about the israeli-palestinian conflict. then, from the center of middle hamid, and, shadi then the agreement on the v.a. bill. head of the u.s. citizenship and immigration services will testify about u.s. immigration and deportation policies. this comes as congress debates the influx of minors crossing the border. there is a committee hearing that starts at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3. and ukraine's foreign minister said monday that pro-russian separatists are continuing to try to manipulate the wreckage of the down the malaysian airliner. about afternoon, a talk the russian complex at the atlantic council. that is also on c-span three. now, leaders from a number of jewish organizations hold a conference on the israeli-palestinian conflict. national security adviser susan rice, house speaker john boehner, and the israeli ambassador to the u.s.. this is two hours, 20 minutes. >> ssh. they think they are in -- ok, steve? sirens]d continuing] everyone.noon, i will allude to what we just heard a little bit later, but right now, i want to welcome all of you to this really important event on behalf of the conference of presidents, it's 50-member organizations -- 50 member organizations, and most particularly, those organizations which worked tirelessly over the past few days to put this together. phonesturn off your cell or put them on quiet. the conference did a mission to israel two weeks ago, and we visited several cities and had many meetings with ministers, analysts, and others, but undoubtedly, the emotional highlight of that trip was a and when ih a woman, greeted her on behalf of our group, i talked about the conference call that she had with the leaders of the council when her son's fate was not yet known. on that call, in the midst of her travail, she urged the rabbis, and through them us, to maintain the unity which emerged in the wake of the kidnapping of the three boys. and the rally that is taking place as we speak in which goes from the plaza 2 2nd avenue, is -- [applause] is testament to the fact that that unity continues. in this room are jewish leaders from all over the country, from l.a., to dallas, to miami, to boston, leaders of all of the religious groups and thenizations representing whole spectrum of political and ideological points of view. we are here to show our unwavering support for israel and the people of israel as they fight to protect themselves from hamas attacks from above, on, and below the ground. [applause] we may each have our own views on the best course of action for the israeli government, but we are not there. we are not bearing the physical and psychological impact of incessant rocket fire. we are not on the front reince i front lines in gaza, though am sure everyone in this room has a friend or relative who is. and we continue to support the decisions of the government, whatever our personal views might be, and continue to urge our government to support those decisions, as well. [no audio] when we were in israel and on a bus, we heard what you just heard at the beginning of this program. , and it was an amazing experience. we started to get down on the ground, which is what you are supposed to do when you're on the bus, and then we heard a boom, and that was an iron dome rocket taking out a hamas missile right over our heads. is nothing short of a miracle. it has saved countless lives, and we have heard time and time again from israelis, whether members of the knesset, taxi drivers, the men and women on the street, how grateful they are to the government of this country for its significant role in funding iron dome. [applause] we have a group of distinguished ,peakers who will address us and while they, as we, may disagree, they, as we, share the safe,oal, creating a secure, and peaceful state of israel and strengthening the israel-u.s. relationship, and i am sure we will receive their import messages with that in mind. let me close where i started. thanking you all for being here at this very critical time. your presence demonstrates the strong and broad support in our and they for the state people of israel. thank you. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here today. hen, and i havecoe the pleasure of serving as the aipac president. havethe past weeks, we seen more than 2500 rockets raining down on is really cities. we have seen -- on israel he -- issraeli cities. and we have seen many with capabilities to kidnap israelis. we have even seen scores of children used as human shields, risking their lives to protect rockets. sensitive and dangerous moment, it is essential that the withd states works closely our democratic and indispensable ally, israel, to assure jerusalem is able to keep its citizens safe from terror. [applause] as a first step in any agreement, hamas must stop its relentless terror attacks. the iranian-backed group must be prevented from carrying out rocket attacks both via and tunnel. as the deputy national security adviser said last week, we must seek the demilitarization of gaza. terror groups like hamas, dismantling them is vertical for peace and prosperity. let us be very clear. there can be no true peace until hamas is disarmed. [applause] however, until those terror attacks stop, israel will be forced to confront the iranian-backed group in order to keep its cities safe, and thanks to the leadership of congress, israel knows it is not alone in this fight. now, i have the great honor today to welcome a few congressional champions for the u.s.-israel relationship, who have demonstrated in word and in deed the strength of this everlasting bond. backingsing resolutions israel's rights to self-defense to funding iron dome, which has intercepted more than 500 rockets in the past few weeks, leadership is making a tangible difference in keeping israelis safe and secure, so i will begin along with my colleagues in introducing our first member. .enator ben cardin i am certain -- [applause] i am certain that if senator senator,re not a u.s. he would surely be in this room as a concerned and connected jewish leader. that he sits on the foreign relations committee, and it is now my distinct honor to welcome the old -- welcome him to share the floor with us. thank you. [applause] >> bob, thank you very much, and thank you all for being here. last week, i was with linda, one of our great national leaders, one of our leaders in baltimore, and we had stand up for israel in baltimore, and we asked every up, and weo stand are united in support of israel. [applause] on my ride in from baltimore today, i was listening to the cable news, and every once in a while, they said something positive about israel. every once in a while, they would say, you know, israel has the right to defend its citizens, but. they just cannot seem to get this. equivalent more between israel and hamas. [applause] there is no moral equivalent. israel mourns the death of every and has gone to the extreme in order to protect innocent life. who else gives warnings to the communities and gives relief before they send in an attack? netanyahu has said they are using their civilians to protect their missiles. israel uses the missiles to protect the civilians. there is no moral equivalency here. for the responsible tragedy and the loss of life. that message must be loud and clear. [laughter] bob, thank you for mentioning the work of the united states senate and my colleagues from the house of representatives here, and 10 days ago, the united states senate unanimously passed a resolution, and we do not do too many things unanimously these days -- [laughter] said israel had the right to defend itself, and i said they had the obligation to defend its population. [applause] it called on hamas to end the missile attacks, and it said to you cannot have a unity government and seek peace with hamas as part of it. give up your relationship with hamas. [applause] week, i teamed up with senator graham, senator schumer, senator blumenthal, senator rubio, and others to make it clear about what the united nations is doing these days. the language that they have used, how extreme it is, and how unfair it is. we know we are isolated, but the facts -- we know what israel is doing, and we know how we would were comingiles into our country, and, yes, israel wants a cease-fire, but you cannot have a cease-fire until you eliminate the missile threats against israel and get -- of those titles tunnels, get rid of those tunnels, close them down. [applause] so, clearly, what hamas is trying to do -- there were missiles coming at israel. israel does not want missiles coming down on the people. israel will not tolerate that, and, yes, i am proud that the united states, in partnership with israel, iron dome has saved and morey lives, and than 400 missiles have been brought down thanks to the partnership between israel and the united states. you helped bring them down. you help to bring that about. [applause] let me tell you about one thing that has me gravely concerned. i was just talking to some of the leaders about that, and that is the rise of anti-semitism. now, we saw that before this carnage. between israel and hamas. we saw the rise of anti-semitism, but, you know what is really troubling? not since world war ii have we seen governments encouraging anti-semitism in europe, and now with these events, they will use that as justification to increase anti-semitic activity. last week at a hearing at the helsinki commission to speak out against the rise of anti-semitism, we need your help. we need your individual organizations, your collectives to speak out against the rise of ventas semitism, to speak out for justice, to speak out for , andafety of the israelis to stand united on the side of what is right, on our democratic ally. today, we stand in solidarity with the people of israel. i am proud to be here today. thank you. [applause] >> my name is les, and i am a chairman of the board in greater los angeles, and i am here proud represent los angeles and to say loud and clear that los angeles stands with solidarity with israel's right to defend itself. introduceleasure to the chairman of the house of representatives committee on foreign affairs, this fellow southern californian has helped to ensure that congress has israel's back 20 four/7, 365. please join me in welcoming congressman ed rice. [applause] >> les, thank you very much. what i thought i would share with you or some of my i hadations about trip taken during the second lebanon war, and i had an opportunity to into rockets slammed civilian parts of that city, rockets that were deliberately aimed, deliberately aimed at and what wasets, was goingg, as well, down to the trauma hospital. there were 600 victims there of those rocket attacks, and, of course, if it was not for the iron dome, if it had not been today, youisraelis, would have losses in excess of what i witnessed, because the beings that were then supplied by iran and syria, the rockets i saw coming across, each one had 90,000 ball butings, and it only had one purpose, and that was not to hit a military target, no. whens to find the time people were out on the streets or in their homes and slam in and kill civilians. now, let me tell you what i saw on the israeli side. isight painstaking effort to do work in order to stop those rocket launches. part that really surprised me. i was following the coverage on the bbc and other international news organizations, and there was all kinds of reporting in terms of the counter battery fire by israel to try to suppress the rockets, but none on the fact that at that point, hezbollah was targeting israel's civilians, so i went up to a bbc reporter, and i asked her, i was pushing for her to come with me and interview some of the victims, and she said, well, i can't do that. my editor says that would not be balanced, and i said, how could that not be balanced, because all i have seen is a slant, you know, from what i have observed, at least the programming i have observed on the bbc, that about the time those sirens went off, i went into a bunker, and there were the air raid sirens, and then i heard a couple of rockets hit, and i came back out to give it one more shot, and my wife was in jerusalem at the time, and she said, pick up a lot of the shrapnel. start going on cnn and other shows and show that this is being fired on civilians. let me tell you the difference between then and now. now, iran has developed longer-range rockets, and it has put those rockets in the hands of hamas, and now, instead of just sitting -- hitting some, what the terror networks are able to do, what hamas is able israel,s it 80%, 85% of including firing at the airport, including firing on the capital. you know, jerusalem and tel aviv are now targets, and but for the iron dome, those thousands of rockets that you have seen launched would be hitting those targets. one of the realities is that 10 years ago, israel pulled out of gaza. it was not supposed to be this way, but what did hamas do in gaza? toas set up the capability bring in these long-range missiles, and then on top of it started the time owing -- tunnelling, and now we find over 30 tunnels directed at some communities where they intended to come up, and one of these is near an area, and take hostages. now, the reality is that this is a war of aggression by hamas. we are holding a hearing this week. we are holding a hearing in asks,to show that hamas asks their citizens to be human and the leader that makes that request that they go up on the rooftops, that they be human shields, he and other hamas leaders hide in these tu h nnels. the great irony of this is that those winning their citizens at risk asking them to be human shields while they hide in the theels while they continue orders to launch the rockets and missiles. that is why it is important for us to look at the situation as it really is, a case where israel is trying to defend itself against an organization that calls for the destruction of all jews in israel. thank you very much. [applause] >> good afternoon. my name is ronald. i represent over 100 jewish frankly, thoset, communities do not have a government like the u.s. they don't have protection, and yet so many communities stand with israel. they are proud. in spite of all the anti-semitism, children are proud. they stand up, and they are standing up for israel. i have never seen the world more united from left to right. [applause] it is my honor today to introduce be groep the house john boehner, and i will say there is no better friend of israel than john boehner. just last week, the speaker said .luntly, israel is our friend andel's enemies are our aeneas. thank you. [applause] >> thank you all. much, and you very let me say thank you for bringing us all together. susane just heard from rice, and soon you will hear from kevin mccarthy, the new representative who i think will be a great success. owe a great of data to -- gratitude to the man that he will succeed, and that is eric cantor. [applause] term as, eric's majority leader might be coming to an end, but he will always be a leader in terms of israel. people try to isolate israel, but we are here today to stand with israel, not as an observer but as a strong partner and a trusted ally. and what does that mean? mean doing on one hand something and on the other hand having words and statements. the house will always support israel's right to defend itself. we will not equally professional military with terrorist organizations that use human shields to seek maximum civilian casualties. and we insisted that demilitarization of gaza is not just a house cool but a shared, uncompromising u.s. and international objective. [applause] we take this stand because we know without demilitarization, the pattern of escalation, conflict, the targeting of innocent civilians, and humanitarian suffering will continue. now, to achieve these objectives, the house will continue to back funding for iron dome to ensure that israel's ability is to protect its own people. [applause] we will continue to push the administration to address the root cause of the conflict in the middle east, because make no mistake that what we are seeing ofgaza is a direct result iranian sponsorship of terrorism in the region. [applause] do is look at the ferocity of the fight and the sophistication of the weapons. iran's long of history of providing these two terrorist organizations, another thing that must come to an end. send thiserica must clear, public, and united message create israel is our friend. israel's enemies are our enemies, and as long -- [applause] and as long as i am speaker of the house, this will be our cause. thank you very much. [applause]