U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Alabama) held a bipartisan press conference in Israel, which is entering its third week of war with Hamas. The Sens., led by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin (D-Maryland), discussed what they saw and heard while on the ground in Israel Sunday.
The delegation of Senators visited Israel as part of an official trip to the Middle East to meet with key leaders, advocate for regional stability and long-term sustainable peace, and emphasize the United States’ unequivocal support for Israel in the wake of the brutal terrorist attacks by Hamas on October 7.
Britt said, “I want to start by thanking Senator Graham. Thank you for getting this group together. You and Senator Cardin put together a group of bipartisan senators – each of us set foot in this country not as a Democrat or a Republican. We set foot here united as Americans, standing shoulder to shoulder with Israel.”
The Senators met with the families of Israelis who were taken hostage by Hamas and are being held in Gaza. Israeli authorities say that Hamas has taken 222 hostages.
“When we walked in the room today and talked to the families of these hostages, I listened as a mom, I listened as a wife, as a daughter, as a sister,” Sen. Britt said. “Thinking what these families are going through, thinking what each individual hostage is going through is absolutely unbearable.”
Over 1,100 people were killed and 2,800 wounded when Hamas fighters came across the Gaza border on a murderous rampage October 7.
“When we watched the videos and heard the stories today, the things that happened were unthinkable,” Britt said. “The loss of life – kids having to watch their parents be murdered. Parents having to watch their children be burned to death, women having to be raped, kids decapitated. It’s disgusting, it’s despicable, and it is pure evil.”
Britt said that Israel has a right to defend herself.
“Make no mistake, I believe that people of all faiths can coexist in peace and prosperity,” said Britt. “But I do not believe that good can coexist with evil. And when evil rears its head, we must look it in the eyes, and we must take it down – and Hamas is pure evil. Israel has every right to defend herself – and not only the right – they have the obligation, the obligation to their children and their children’s children. They have an obligation to the innocent. They have an obligation to the peace-loving people of this world. And that is ultimately what we want. We want Hamas to be destroyed, and we want peace to be restored.”
“President Reagan said that ‘evil cannot exist if the good are unafraid,” said Britt. “Iran, Hamas – we stand here today to tell you that we are unafraid. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel. We will take you down.”
In addition to Senators Britt, Graham, and Cardin, the delegation included Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-South Dakota), Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island), and Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Chris Coons (D-Delaware), Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut).
“Thank you all. Ten percent of the United States Senate is in Israel,” said Sen. Graham. “Ten percent of the United States Senate is in Israel because we care. Five Republicans and five Democrats. If I had a bigger plane, we probably would have brought the entire Senate.”
“The goal going forward is to take from this horror and try to make this a better world,” Graham said. “I saw things today that I didn’t think were possible in 2023. I’ve seen grown men who’ve been fighting wars all of their lives be stunned by what they saw. The level of barbaric behavior here is beyond my ability to explain it.”
Hamas released two American women, a mother and daughter. Hamas had taken hostages just before the Senators arrived in the war-torn country.
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