A bipartisan Senate delegation led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) reiterated the United States’s commitment to Israel in its fight against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, arguing U.S. involvement is “in the world’s interest.”
“We say to Israel, America will stand with its ally Israel, and I, along with my colleagues here, will lead the effort in the United States Senate to provide Israel with the support required to fully defend itself from this monstrous attack,” Schumer said Sunday during a press conference in Tel Aviv. “Again, to the Israeli people, America has your back.”
Schumer, along with Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah), is visiting Israel to meet with government and military leaders as well as families and civilians impacted by the ongoing violence between Israel and Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007.
“There are nations — Iran, Russia, China — that want to overthrow democracies generally and … subvert the cause of freedom,” Romney said Sunday. “And backing away and saying, ‘Hey, we’re not going to worry about it,’ is not going to end their effort. That would only continue and spread further and ultimately involve more and more of humanity.”
“So we’re involved in the world because it’s in American’s interest, it’s in Israel’s interest, it’s in all of our allies’ interests. It’s in the world’s interest,” he continued.
Israeli leaders made it clear to the delegation that additional aid is needed to support its military, intelligence and civilians as soon as possible, prompting a promise from Schumer to assemble the “most generous package possible.” The Senate majority leader said he hopes this can be taken up by Congress within the next few weeks.
Addressing how this might work with the House, which is currently paralyzed without an elected Speaker in the wake of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) historic ousting earlier this month, Schumer said the Senate will not “wait for the House.”
“We’re not waiting for the House. We believe if the Senate acts in a strong, bipartisan way, it may indeed improve the chances that the House, even with its current dysfunction, will act,” Schumer said.
Rosen, the third female Jewish senator in U.S. history, recalled meeting with the families of hostages.
“I’m here to tell the world this is real, this is real. Do not look away,” Rosen said Sunday. “I said I’m the only Jewish mother in the Senate, and I can tell you that meeting with Israeli mothers whose children were killed, hearing their stories, hearing the mothers today, the daughters, the cousins, the sisters, brothers, their pain, their heartbreak. I too will remember this for the rest of my life.”
Calling for “decisive action,” Rosen vowed assistance to Israel against Hamas, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah or “any other Iranian proxy.”
The ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza has claimed more than 3,600 lives — mostly civilians — from both sides, with thousands more injured since Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7. At least 27 Americans are among the dead, the State Department said Saturday.
Israeli forces launched a major counteroffensive against Hamas over the past week, bombarding the Gaza Strip with hundreds of air strikes. Israel warned an estimated 1.1 million people in Gaza to evacuate ahead of an expected ground attack by Israeli forces.
“We also told them, it was really important to, and it’s difficult — we know it’s difficult — but still, we have to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza,” Schumer told reporters in Tel Aviv.
Hamas is reportedly telling residents not to leave and to instead stay in their homes.
“You’re going to see pictures as you can imagine, and probably already have, of Palestinian civilians that are going to be injured or killed by virtue of the conflict which is ongoing. I hope we recognize that these individuals are being killed because of Hamas, not because of Israel,” Romney said.
Cassidy echoed Romney’s remarks, arguing there is “no moral equivalency” between Israel and Hamas.
“And as Israel drops leaflets, telling people to evacuate to avoid harm, trying to save civilians, Hamas uses civilians to protect themselves and obstructs the ability of the civilian to flee from harm’s way, forcing them to stay where they may be injured,” Cassidy said.
The U.S. has deployed two carrier strike groups closer to Israel in the Mediterranean to deter foreign aggressors from intervening and escalating the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Pressed over what the line is that the war must cross before the American military engages, Schumer said he doesn’t think anyone is asking for American troop, but American aid is needed “in a variety of different ways.”
“Israel has never asked for the American military to engage,” Schumer said. “The loss of life throughout the wars that Israel has fought have been Israeli lives, but having the United States supply the needs of Israel is very important.”
The delegation was forced to shelter from Hamas’s rockets in Tel Aviv earlier Sunday, Schumer confirmed.
“We also experienced what Israelis experience almost every day,” Schumer said. “We were having a lunch up in the hotel and the sirens went off. We heard them and we were all rushed into a shelter and had to stay there until the coast was clear. And then a few minutes ago, this press conference was delayed for the same reason.”