The Quickest Path To Peace: Destroy Hamas, Curb Iran’s Influence

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding national security priorities:

"I spoke yesterday about the failures of America's so-called elite universities to maintain academic rigor, student safety, and basic order as their faculty and students become more radicalized.

"The most alarming aspect of this chaos on campuses is the brazen expressions of anti-Semitism.

"But the world's oldest form of hate isn't just driving self-appointed student commissars to intimidate Jewish students and grind campus life to a halt.

"Half a world away, deep and virulent hatred of the Jewish people, and a refusal to even acknowledge the Jewish state of Israel's right to exist, is what animates the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism and motivates its network of proxies to carry out barbaric violence like the attacks of October 7th.

"We're not talking about imagined sins of some post-modern, anti-colonial theory. We're talking about the intentional torture, hostage-taking, rape, and murder of civilians.

"And these same forces also loathe Israel's closest ally, the United States - the Great Satan. They attack American personnel. They threaten American interests and global commerce.

"But just as college administrators fail to restore order amid anti-Semitic chaos on campus, the Biden Administration is failing to compel a murderous adversary to stop spilling Israeli and American blood, alike.

"Rather than helping Israel destroy the terrorists or impose consequences on Tehran sufficient to abandon its strategy of terror, the Commander-in-Chief seems to be most concerned with restraining our closest ally in the Middle East from doing everything necessary to restore its security.

"At nearly every step, the Biden Administration has tried to prevent, slow, or micromanage Israel's efforts to pursue Hamas terrorists. It's as if the President wants the appearance of calm and a respite from inconvenient headlines rather than a decisive victory over terrorists that can lead to a just and lasting peace.

"The micromanagement is accompanied by flights of pure fantasy.

"It's all well and good for Administration officials to express hope for the prospects of a future two-state solution. But it's about time they started dealing in the present day, where the dominant power on the Palestinian side doesn't want one!

"Hamas makes no secret of its aspirations to destroy Israel 'from the river to the sea'. And remember, geographically that means the entirety of the Jewish state.

"Neither, sadly, do the thousands of American college students who have taken up this genocidal refrain. Whether these campus agitators even grasp its implication is really beside the point. Hamas and its backers in Tehran know the score.

"Let's deal in the real world, where successive, corrupt Palestinian leaders have rejected reasonable proposals for peaceful coexistence… And where 'ceasefire' was the nominal state of affairs before savage terrorists exploited it on October 7th.

"To the extent that a Palestinian state is achievable or even merited, it will not be as a reward for terror.

"If Palestinian leaders want a state for their people, they should first demonstrate that they care more about their own people than lining their own pockets.

"They must rid themselves of terrorists who care more about killing Jews than building a tolerant society.

"Bottom line: If the Biden Administration wants to put Israelis and Palestinians back on a path toward peaceful coexistence, they ought to help Israel destroy Hamas and curb Iran's influence in the region.

"But that would require - for one thing - the United States getting serious about the operational challenges our ally faces.

"Instead, the Administration seems focused on virtue-signaling and political theatre to appease the leftist agitators of their base.

"How else should we interpret the President's decision to build a massively expensive floating pier off the coast of Gaza? Or his willingness to staff it with American military personnel within cruise missile and UAV range of terrorists who have specifically threatened to target any forces affiliated with the pier?

"This isn't just an idle threat. terrorists have already conducted mortar attacks against the marshaling area for the humanitarian pier.

"This isn't a cost-free State of the Union talking point. It is an avoidable catastrophe.

"The President's decision places American servicemembers at unnecessary risk. It's exorbitantly more expensive and inefficient than existing land crossings into Gaza.

"And besides, the problem isn't getting humanitarian assistance to Gaza. It's getting the assistance distributed to Palestinian civilians before Hamas fighters commandeer it.

"What more evidence do we need that Hamas can play no part in the future of the Palestinian people?

"What other signs do we need that Israel's fight to eliminate the terrorists deserves America's support?

"Let's be clear: We cannot aim for the status quo ante. October 7th was only the most recent bloody manifestation of the reach of Iran's proxy network.

"America's focus - our primary objective - in support of our ally, Israel, and our interests in the region has to be imposing real costs on the chaos agents in Tehran, forcing them to change their violent calculus, ending their support for terror, and making it harder for them to support other violent aggression further afield - like Russia's war in Ukraine.

"Of course, all of that starts with making serious investments in our own defense. U.S. operations in defense of Israel and the freedom of navigation have made the steep costs of preserving peace and prosperity abundantly clear.

"The past several months have illustrated the undeniable urgency of expanding production of missile defense capabilities, long-range strike capabilities, and the full range of hard power necessary to challenge our adversaries' behavior.

"It's time for the Administration and Congress to step up and put our money where our mouth is."

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