In a bipartisan show of solidarity, US senators and congressmen expressed complete support for Israel against Hamas at an event last week to honor Golda Meir, prime minister during the Yom Kippur War.
At the event, exactly 30 days after the surprise Hamas attack on October 7, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said: “We are going to give Israel the time it needs, and we need to maintain support to protect the people of Israel. It is essential that Hamas be destroyed. It is pure evil.”
The event in the US Capitol included 12 senators and congressmen, and several ambassadors based in Washington DC from countries across the globe.
Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) also spoke about taking a strong stand with Israel. “There’s no way backing down is an option for Israel,” Mullin said. “If they want me to join the fight with them, I will.”
Mullin also said that those who support terrorist organizations in the US should be considered domestic terrorists.There was strong support against a ceasefire, with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) saying: “A ceasefire would allow Hamas to regroup, rearm and attack again.”
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) said in his remarks that: “This is an existential moment for the Jewish people and State of Israel. Bipartisan support is being tested right now, so we have to do everything we can to fortify that support.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that “we are meeting in the aftermath of the worst one-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. It was carried out by Hamas terrorists every bit as committed to genocide as were the Nazis. The United States will not abandon Israel and I am confident that Israel’s victory will be decisive.”
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) added that “when you think about the attacks on October 7, we all need to think about them as if they happened to our own family, because they did, and because it would be any of us if Hamas is allowed to advance and continue their reign of terror. Hamas is intent that this was only the first time, and there’ll be a second and a third and a thousandth.”
Event coincides with honoring of Golda Meir
The event was not just held to express solidarity with Israel and discuss effective ways of supporting the US–Israel relationship, but also to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel and the establishment of US-Israel relations.
In addition, the event was called to achieve wide congressional support for the initiative to honor this historic milestone by passing the bipartisan, bicameral legislation directing the Treasury Department to mint a commemorative coin in honor of Meir, who was raised in Milwaukee and became Israel’s fourth and only woman prime minister.
Leading these efforts is chairman of the Golda Meir Commemorative Coin Committee, philanthropist and businessman Bobby Rechnitz, who spoke about Meir’s legacy, but also the threats facing Israel and the US today.
“Prime Minister Golda Meir was many things. She desperately sought peace, and abhorred war, she was prepared to be forgiving, but she also knew that Israel cannot shirk a war forced on it,” Rechnitz said. “Today, we commemorate thirty days since the greatest massacre of Jews since the end of the Holocaust. It was perpetrated by Hamas terrorists, but they were joined by ordinary Gazans.”
“Israel is a nation still in shock and facing massive and national trauma. The terrorism that Israel has experienced is being imported to these shores. It is on American streets and online. This house must find ways to give people the maximum space for freedom of speech, but not the freedom to advocate and plot mass murder.”