{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=0F65010A-2DB6-4CB3-87C7-0BA29B6C80F5", "McConnell On Responsibility To Stand With Israel", "2023-12-19", "2023", "2023-12", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding national security priorities:\n\n\u201cAs the Senate convened this week, our colleagues negotiating on border security were still at the table, making slow and steady progress.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re chipping away at years of failure to enact basic, commonsense border security policy. Reaching an agreement that can pass Congress and become law is easier said than done.\n\n\u201cBut I\u2019m very grateful to Senator Lankford for sticking with it.\n\n\u201cOur colleagues\u2019 effort to address the glaring national security challenge here at home is the foundation of our broader responsibility to meet the linked threats we\u2019re facing around the world \u2013 from the Indo-Pacific to Europe to the Middle East.\n\n\u201cNeedless to say, it\u2019s a particularly dangerous time for nations that care about protecting their sovereignty from totalitarian thugs and savage terrorists. The headlines are filled with evidence that America\u2019s most dangerous adversaries are demonstrably not deterred.\n\n\u201cAnd it might have something to do with the Biden Administration\u2019s penchant for deterring itself instead.\n\n\u201cAmerica is a global superpower. But far too often, our commander-in-chief has conducted our foreign affairs with hesitation and weakness.\n\n\u201cRemember his Administration\u2019s overwrought fears of \u2018escalation\u2019 that kept essential capabilities out of Ukrainian hands. Or the feeble half-measures in response to an ongoing surge in attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria.\n\n\u201cReports that the Biden Administration now wants to constrain Israel\u2019s efforts to destroy Hamas are disappointing. But not surprising.\n\n\u201cTwo months ago, the Administration was encouraging Israel to slow down its response before entering Gaza. Now, it\u2019s telling Israel to hasten its operations and wind them down to a close.\n\n\u201cAmerica cannot afford to lose sight of reality. We must not blur the bold-face line between a sovereign democracy that takes great pains to avoid civilian casualties and a terrorist organization that steals humanitarian aid from vulnerable Gazans to fuel its war of hate.\n\n\u201cIsrael did not choose this conflict. It ended the occupation of Gaza nearly two decades ago. But its policy of seeking to lower tensions was rewarded on October 7th, when Hamas unilaterally shattered the cease-fire with rape, torture, terror, and murder.\n\n\u201cHamas \u2013 the terrorists who diverted mountains of foreign assistance intended for civilian infrastructure to build miles of elaborate terror tunnels, instead.\n\n\u201cHamas \u2013 the cowards who intentionally hide their fighters and weapons in schools and hospitals.\n\n\u201cHamas has repeatedly faced a choice between improving the lives of Palestinians and killing Israelis.\n\n\u201cEvery time to date, it has chosen violence. And if Hamas survives with its military capabilities and leadership intact, it will make that choice again and again.\n\n\u201cThis is the reality Israel faces. Its war cabinet knows they must see this fight through.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s the same reality that recent American Presidents have confronted in the fight against al-Qaeda and ISIS.\n\n\u201cBut for Israel, the determined terrorist threat is on its very borders, and its own citizen-soldiers are on the line.\n\n\u201cSo I\u2019ll repeat what I\u2019ve said so many times before:\n\n\u201cOur responsibility as an ally is to provide the time, space, and support Israel needs to finish the job\u2026\n\n\u201cTo condemn shameful attempts at moral equivalence to excuse the genocidal violence of Hamas terrorists and apply double standards to Israel\u2026\n\n\u201cAnd to offer counsel to our ally in private, not in front-page genuflections to the President\u2019s left-wing base.\n\n\u201cAdministration officials and world leaders who care about the Palestinians would do well to focus less on constraining Israel in the short-term and more on the challenge of ensuring Palestinian leaders and organizations in Gaza and the West Bank actually care about improving the lives of their fellow citizens in the long-term.\n\n\u201cPalestinians deserve better than Hamas\u2019 cult of death in Gaza. They deserve better than the corrupt and sclerotic Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:56:20Z"]], "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://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=0F65010A-2DB6-4CB3-87C7-0BA29B6C80F5"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.979302916675806, "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"}