Texas Border Business
AUSTIN, Texas – U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) authored the following op-ed on DallasMorningNews.com to discuss his recent trip to Israel with members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and detail why the U.S. must continue to support Israel to not only defeat Hamas, but also confront the growing threat from Iran and its terrorist proxies.
U.S. must support Israel and deter Iran
Senator John Cornyn
Dallas Morning News
January 12, 2024
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2024/01/12/john-cornyn-support-israel-deter-iran/
Three months have passed since Hamas terrorists launched a violent attack on the state of Israel. They entered the country by land, air, and sea. They murdered babies and children. They took more than 200 hostages to use as bargaining chips. They raped, tortured, and beheaded civilians, and filmed it all for the world to see.
I recently returned from a trip to Israel, where my Senate colleagues and I were shown excerpts of the disturbing footage. We witnessed only a fragment of horrors Israel endured that day, but it emphasized the devastation that has permeated the people of Israel and Jews around the world over the past three months.
For Israel, this attack is similar to what our country experienced on September 11th, 2001, when nearly 3,000 innocent lives were stolen by terrorists. Israel is much smaller than the United States, and the October 7th attack would be equivalent to roughly 36,000 Americans dying on 9/11 – an absolutely unimaginable thought.
In the days following the October 7th attack, I met with members of Texas’ Jewish community at the Temple Emanu-El in Dallas. Despite living thousands of miles away from the war, each person I spoke to had a personal connection to the attack. Many had friends and loved ones who were kidnapped or killed by the terrorists, or children who are in the Israeli army fighting on the front lines of the war.
That same sense of mourning and shock was evident on the face of every person I spoke with in Israel recently, especially the families of those who are still being held hostage by Hamas. Our conversations highlighted the vast divide between the two sides of this conflict. This is not a battle between two nations – this a war between good and evil.
Hamas’ victims are not limited to the people of Israel, but also innocent Palestinians in Gaza. For years the group has used charitable donations to build weapons and tunnels while the people of Gaza live in poverty. In addition, the terrorist group has a long history of using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Terrorists operate from a vast network of tunnels beneath Gaza, often sheltering beneath hospitals, schools, and clinics because they know Israel will not target these locations. Hamas knowingly places innocent people between terrorists and incoming rockets.
Sadly, the evil the world witnessed on October 7th is not limited to Hamas – it is shared by terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East, and Iran is the head of the octopus. Its tentacles of terror extend throughout the region and threaten to destabilize the Middle East and possibly start a much larger war.
Iran provides Hamas and other terrorist proxies with funding, weapons, and training to enable attacks like the one in Israel, and they are working around the clock to export terror. Iranian-led proxies in Iraq and Syria are attacking U.S. forces, Hezbollah is launching constant assaults on northern Israel, and the Houthis are disrupting global commerce and freedom of navigation from their bases in Yemen.
The outcome of this war is about the future of Israel, but it’s also about the future of Iran. If Hamas emerges from this war with nothing more than a black eye, it will send a message to Iran and its terrorist proxies that their war against Israel and the West is worthwhile.
Since the initial attack on October 7th, the United States has stood strongly and proudly in support of Israel – one of our closest allies, and the only democracy in the Middle East. We’ve provided military assistance and repeatedly affirmed that Israel has a right and responsibility to defend itself.
In the Senate, there’s a bipartisan push to provide additional aid to Israel, and I hope we can do that soon. Additional assistance is crucial to not only the future of the Jewish state but also the stability of the region. We need to act soon to ensure Israel has the resources it needs to defeat Hamas and confront the growing threat from Iran.
Israel deserves America’s unequivocal support, and my latest visit to Israel affirmed that we must do more to support our closest friend in the Middle East.
