{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=EEB25A95-32C8-48A6-AD70-EE569814D9B5", "McConnell Urges Administration, Colleagues Not To Make Israel\u2019s Job Harder", "2024-09-23", "2024", "2024-09", "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\u201cIn May, 2000, Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon. But while the occupation ended, Hizballah\u2019s appetite for waging war on Israel only grew. And its further deadly attacks on Israel invited the 2006 conflict.\n\n\u201cThe history of Israel\u2019s fight to defend its northern border and innocent civilians against Hizballah terrorists bears eerie parallels to the story of brutal violence Hamas has perpetrated from Gaza.\n\n\u201cIsrael withdrew there in August, 2005. And by 2007, Iran-backed terrorists had bent the enclave to its all-consuming mission: war on Israel.\n\n\u201cBut the most glaring through-lines in Israel\u2019s north and south are not the relentless bloodlust of terrorists. They\u2019re the predictable delusion of Israel\u2019s \u2018friends\u2019\u2026 And the shameful cowardice of international authorities that claim to stand for peace.\n\n\u201cTake, for starters, how the Biden-Harris Administration chose to welcome the U.N. General Assembly by signaling its openness to resuming funding for UNRWA. And how it apparently still clings to the fiction that an organization so thoroughly corrupted by Hamas that nearly a dozen of its staff directly participated in the October 7th attacks is somehow reform-able.\n\n\u201cBut while the civilized world gathers in one place, the General Assembly might productively spend its time contemplating other pressing questions. For example:\n\n\u201cWhy hasn\u2019t the U.N. Security Council managed to enforce resolutions 1559 and 1701 in Lebanon? These resolutions were passed to end and prevent further conflict between Israel and Lebanon by removing the threat Hizballah posed on Israel\u2019s border, and to end the threat Hizballah posed to the state of Lebanon itself.\n\n\u201cAnd why has the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon allowed Hizballah to build up massive stockpiles on Israel\u2019s border in clear preparation for war? Why has the UN looked the other way as Hizballah has expanded its corrosive influence over the institutions of Lebanon\u2019s government?\n\n\u201cBut setting aside the failures of the so-called international community, this past weekend once again cast a spotlight on America\u2019s own naivete toward the glaring facts of Iran-backed war on our friend, Israel.\n\n\u201cIn an interview that might rightly attract scrutiny for its host\u2019s obfuscation of the facts on Israel\u2019s latest responses to Hizballah terrorism, the White House national security communications advisor said out loud what the Biden-Harris Administration has been saying by its actions for nearly a year.\n\n\u201cQuote: \u2018We\u2019ve been working since the beginning of this conflict, October 8th\u2026 to try to prevent an escalation\u2026\u2019\n\n\u201cThink about it, Madam President. The only way to claim credit for working to \u2018prevent an escalation\u2019 is by pretending like Hizballah\u2019s October 8th attacks \u2013 or Hamas\u2019 October 7th massacre \u2013 weren\u2019t actually escalations, themselves!\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, the Administration official also seemed to suggest a moral equivalence between Israel and Hizballah. He suggested that \u2018military action, by either side\u2019 would not be \u2018in either side\u2019s best interest,\u2019 and implied that an Israeli response would itself be escalation.\n\n\u201cSecond-guessing Israel\u2019s interests. Micromanaging their defensive efforts. Blaming Israel for escalation when it\u2019s clear Hamas and Hizballah have been the instigators of this conflict. It\u2019s a tired playbook.\n\n\u201cThe Administration is telling the world that what America wants is a return to October 6th, as if the status quo ante was sustainable or peaceful. This, of course, is pure fantasy. Hamas broke a cease-fire on October 7th.\n\n\u201cOr consider Hizballah\u2019s history as the centerpiece of Iran\u2019s \u2018ring of fire\u2019 around Israel:\n\n\u201cJust since the 2006 conflict, Hizballah terrorists have imported tens of thousands of rockets to target Israel, deployed forces directly to Israel\u2019s border, and constructed tunnels that would allow them to emulate Hamas\u2019 October 7th invasion.\n\n\u201cRecent estimates suggest the terrorists posses up to 200,000 rockets, missiles, drones, and precision-guided munitions, along with 25,000 active-duty militants. All of it is pointed south at Israel. And all of it, as Hizballah\u2019s leader has boasted, is from Iran.\n\n\u201cOr consider Lebanon itself. Hizballah is a cancer on the Lebanese state. It wields its power as a sectarian terror squad, and leaves a long trail of blood through the highest ranks of civilian government and civil society. Sunnis, Christians, Druze, and fellow Shiites \u2013 none are immune from Hizballah\u2019s wrath.\n\n\u201cThen again, National Public Radio refers to Hizballah as a \u2018political\u2019 group. Perhaps the Administration officials\u2019 confusion is a symptom of their media diet. Or, more likely, the foundations of their foreign policy are fundamentally flawed:\n\n\u201cRemember the declaration by the President\u2019s national security advisor early last fall that the Middle East was \u2018quieter than it has been for decades\u2019.\n\n\u201cThe absurdity of this boast in light of October 7th is striking enough. But even when it was written, it betrayed the Administration\u2019s naivete toward glaring and abiding threats to Israel and America\u2019s national security interests in the region.\n\n\u201cIran\u2019s agents in Syria and Iraq had already fired hundreds of rockets at American forces on this Administration\u2019s watch. Since last October, these attacks have only metastasized, including into the Red Sea. Was this an acceptable status quo?\n\n\u201cWas Hizballah\u2019s steady preparation for war? Was Hamas\u2019 expropriation of humanitarian assistance in order to build terror tunnels?\n\n\u201cThe United States ought to stand with our friend, Israel, as it faces these terrorists down. The goal should not be simply to avoid escalation or to return to the status quo ante, but to help Israel defend itself against terrorists bent on Israel\u2019s destruction.\n\n\u201cWe have a stake in ensuring Israel emerges from this conflict stronger and these terrorist organizations and their Iranian patron weaker. These same terrorists want to expel the United States from the region. We are the Great Satan, in their own parlance.\n\n\u201cInstead, by their misplaced obsession with escalation, the Administration and Washington Democrats are making Israel\u2019s job harder.\n\n\u201cIf the President and Vice President want to see an end to war in Gaza and prevent greater hostilities in Lebanon, then it\u2019s time to switch the focus of their diplomatic pressure.\n\n\u201cEvery time Administration officials try to tie Israel\u2019s hands in public comments\u2026 And every time a U.S. Senator threatens to hold critical security assistance hostage\u2026 Hamas, Hizballah, and their patrons in Tehran are emboldened.\n\n\u201cIf our colleagues want peace, it\u2019s time to show support for a nation founded on peace\u2026 And resolve toward terrorists whose reason for existence is chaos and violence.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:46:43Z"]], "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=EEB25A95-32C8-48A6-AD70-EE569814D9B5"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4327920507639647, "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"}