{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://gutierrez.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/two-state-solution-still-path-peace-middle-east", "Two State Solution Is Still The Path To Peace In The Middle East", "2016-12-06", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "IL", "Luis Guti\u00e9rrez", "G000535", "gutierrez.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, DC \u2013 Rep. Luis V. Guti\u00e9rrez (D-IL) spoke this morning on the floor of the House of Representatives about Middle East policy, Israel\u2019s turn to hardline policies, and the jeopardy this poses for the \u201ctwo state solution,\u201d a path towards a Palestinian and Israeli state coexisting.\u00a0Rep. Guti\u00e9rrez said:Comparing Netanyahu\u2019s leadership to that of a \u201cstrongman,\u201d Rep. Guti\u00e9rrez cited moves in the Israeli Knesset to legalize settlements in the West Bank, destroy Palestinian homes, and restrict the Muslim call to prayer in Jerusalem as examples of recent actions, saying \u201cstrongman politics in Israel have the impact of making a long-lasting solution that brings peace to the Middle East harder to achieve.\u201d\u00a0The full text of the speech (as prepared for delivery) is below.Rep. Guti\u00e9rrez represents the Fourth District of Illinois, is a Member of the Judiciary Committee and is the Co-Chair of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.\n\tMr. Speaker, I am very concerned about what is going on in Israel and I think it has implications both for U.S. foreign policy and for domestic policy and for our great ally, Israel.\n\tAs the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu consolidates power and becomes in many ways the one-party rulers of Israel, a number of things are changing that should be of concern to all Americans.\n\tSpecifically, the increasing dominance of the Likud Party as the one-party in Israel jeopardizes the two state solution that I and many others in the United States and Israel feel is the only way to achieve long-term peace in the Middle East.\n\tThere is a retrenchment of hard line policies \u2013 aimed at solidifying alliances with smaller religious and hardline parties that keeps Likud in power -- that will make it harder for Israelis and their allies in America \u2013 and anyone who seeks a lasting peace \u2013 to maintain progress towards a two state solution.\n\tRight now, the Knesset is considering legislation to legalize all Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory on the West Bank, even those constructed on private Palestinian land.\u00a0\n\tBoom, 400,000 people in settlements across the West Bank, it\u2019s all legal because they say it is legal.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not.\n\tAnd Israel is destroying Palestinian homes at a pace faster than we have seen before.\u00a0\n\tIt is provocative, sweeping, and designed to make it harder to ever reach an agreement with the Palestinians.\n\tThe plan to restrict the Muslim call to prayer in Jerusalem has been revived, again to placate hardline religious constituents, by Prime Minister Netanyahu.\n\tThere is no clearer statement to people of the Islamic faith that they do not matter, they do not belong, and they will not be tolerated than to restrict the Muslim call to prayer in Jerusalem, a city that has heard the Muslim call to prayer for thousands of years.\n\tI think what is going on in Israel with Prime Minister Netanyahu presents a cautionary tale about the consequences of following a political strongman.\u00a0 The strongman has to keep proving that he is a strongman over and over.\u00a0\n\tLike other strongmen who ride fear into leadership \u2013 when you base your political career on injecting fear and resentment into political affairs \u2013 when you use the backdrop of terrorism and the understandable fear of the Israeli people as a political tool for years and decades \u2013 this is the kind of policy that results.\n\tThere is an appetite for constant escalation of what you are doing to stand up to the enemy you have constructed \u2013 an enemy based on, but not the same as the enemies that fight against the state of Israel and tolerance and peace in real life.\u00a0\n\tStrongmen construct a foil \u2013 in this case based on the Palestinians, but sometimes exaggerated beyond recognition \u2013 and they need to feed the thirst for more and more action to attack the caricature that has been constructed.\n\tBut strongman politics in Israel have the impact of making a long-lasting solution that brings peace to the Middle East harder to achieve.\u00a0\n\tThe fundamental rights of Palestinians to have their own state, a state alongside the Israeli state where they have the basic rights and dignity to govern themselves and raise their families in peace \u2013 that is what many Israelis, many Palestinians, and many around the world have been fighting for.\n\tIf we are ever going to achieve the permanent peace that allows Israel to exist without fear and Palestine to exist without occupation, we must continue to fight for the two state solution.\n\tWhen I was just a freshman, almost 25 years ago, we celebrated the accomplishments of Rabin and Arafat and President Clinton to build towards a peace that recognizes the rights and dignity of Israelis and the rights and dignities of the Palestinian people.\u00a0\n\tFor decades, the United States -- under different leaders in different parties from Carter to Reagan to Bush and Obama \u2013 have recognized that peace will only come with mutual respect and tolerance.\u00a0\n\tThat is what we have based our foreign policy on and should continue to base our foreign policy on.\u00a0\n\tHaving talked with average people and with leaders on both sides of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict \u2013 I am convinced that it is the only path to peace.\u00a0\n\tAmerica has been a catalyst \u2013 a constructive influence from outside \u2013a nation based on religious freedom and democracy that has served as a model for both Palestinians and Israelis \u2013 and we have worked towards helping parties continue to move in the direction of two separate but mutually respectful countries, two nations that are not at war with each other or subservient to one another.\u00a0\n\tI fear, Mr. Speaker, that Israel herself is moving away from the two state solution as a goal and that we as her closest ally must remind her \u2013 and ourselves \u2013 of what is at stake if we lose sight of this important goal.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://gutierrez.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/two-state-solution-still-path-peace-middle-east"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9849399793893099, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}