WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, November 18, 2023, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) released the following statement on reports of Congress conditioning aid to Israel:

“On October 7, Hamas terrorists brutally murdered, raped, burned alive, decapitated, and kidnapped more than a thousand innocent babies, children, women, men, and elderly, including dozens of Americans. Hamas is still holding nearly a dozen Americans hostage. 

Hamas leaders have openly admitted in reference to the October 7 attacks that ‘there will be a second, a third, a fourth’ wave of violence in Israel. Hamas’ charter calls for Jihad against Jews and says that ‘Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.’ Hamas wants a second Holocaust.

Conditioning aid to Israel will only have one outcome: it would help Hamas in their goal of completely annihilating Israel and the Jewish people. It would weaken America’s national security and our fight against terror. 

Any legislation that conditions security aid to our key democratic ally, Israel, is a nonstarter and will lose scores of votes. 

We cannot play politics with assistance to Israel, especially during this war. Conditioning aid to Israel sets a terrible precedent and will empower America’s enemies, including Iran, Russia, and China. 

We should be focused on serious legislation that achieves our mission — to get Americans and all hostages home, crush the terrorists, and provide much-needed humanitarian aid to innocent Palestinian civilians being used by Hamas as human shields.”

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