WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) published a letter to the editor in The Wall Street Journal where he reiterated his support for Israel and its right to self-defense. He also condemned actions taken by the administration that undermine our greatest ally in the Middle East and enable further aggression from Iran and its proxies in the wake of their attacks on Israel. The full text of Senator Scott’s letter to the editor can be found here and below:
It befuddles me when I hear the left blaming victims for what is happening in Gaza (“Elizabeth Warren on Israel and Genocide,” Review & Outlook, April 10). Hamas, an Iranian proxy, started this war with an unprovoked terror attack against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, when they raped and murdered women and children and took innocent people hostage.
Hamas violated the last cease-fire, has rejected every cease-fire proposal since, and is still holding Israelis and Americans hostage. Then, over the weekend, Iran stepped from the shadows to attack Israel directly. Yet somehow the lack of a cease-fire falls solely on Israel’s hands? Or worse, Israel’s self-defense constitutes genocide?
Israel must be the only nation in the world that is expected to show such restraint after it is attacked—not once, but twice—by terrorists and their backer, Iran. The Biden administration needs to end its appeasement of the Iranian regime, stop allowing bad actors to question our commitment to our allies, unequivocally support Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism and respond appropriately to acts of war.
A true cease-fire requires both parties to agree. Forcing one side to fully cave in to the demands of the other isn’t a cease-fire—it’s capitulation.
There is no moral equivalence between the only true democracy in the Middle East and terrorists who kill Jewish civilians in cold blood and brag about it. President Biden thinks he can walk a tightrope of appeasing an increasingly radical base of his party while upholding the mainstream American position of support for Israel.
The problem is the president isn’t walking a tightrope. He’s trying to straddle the Grand Canyon.
Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.)
BACKGROUND
In the 118th Congress, Senator Scott has been a leader in pushing for a tougher U.S. posture toward Iran and its proxies, unequivocally supporting our great ally, Israel, and condemning the disturbing rise in antisemitism in the United States and abroad by:
- Introducing a resolution reiterating Israel’s right to self-defense and condemning recent statements from U.S. lawmakers, which interfere in Israel’s sovereign electoral process;
- Leading a group of Republican senators in calling on the Biden administration to censure Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors meeting following a report showing Iran’s nuclear enrichment activity tripled by the end of last year;
- Championing S. Res. 417, a resolution expressing solidarity with Israel in the wake of the October 7th attack, which passed the Senate with near unanimous support;
- Voting in support of the FY24 NDAA, which included numerous provisions to increase U.S. security cooperation with Israel;
- Meeting with victims of Hamas and members of victims’ families, hearing first-hand about the brutality inflicted by Hamas on innocent civilians, including innocent children;
- Supporting the Israel Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2023, which would provide $14.3 billion of aid to Israel;
- Introducing the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which directs the Department of Education to use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism when investigating antisemitic acts on campus;
- Introducing the Stop Antisemitism on College Campuses Act to defund colleges and universities that enable violent antisemitism on their campuses;
- Authoring the Stop Support for Hamas Act with Senator Ricketts to cut U.S. funding for UNRWA and prevent bilateral U.S. assistance from winding up in the hands of Hamas terrorists;
- Introducing the Preventing Terrorism at the U.N. Act to restrict U.S. funding to the United Nations until UNRWA is abolished; and
- Voting against and condemning Senator Bernie Sanders’ anti-Israel resolution.
In his capacity as Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over economic sanctions, Senator Scott has led the charge in pushing back on the Biden administration’s disturbing pattern of sanctions non-enforcement and sanctions relief to Iran, which have made funds more accessible for the Iranian regime and its terror proxies to attack U.S. servicemembers and our allies. His efforts include:
- Pushing for passage of his Solidify Iran Sanctions Act, which passed the House this week by a vote of 407-16. This timely, commonsense bill would extend sanctions on funding for Iran’s energy and weapons sectors and curtail the regime’s ability to develop its nuclear program and finance destabilizing activities;
- Calling on the Treasury Department to block Iran’s access to funds and demanding an accounting of all international high-value Iranian assets around the world that are currently blocked by U.S. sanctions;
- Leading efforts to hold the Biden administration accountable following the authorization of yet another Iran sanctions waiver;
- Immediately following the Biden administration’s August decision to release $6 billion to Iran, leading his colleagues in demanding answers from the administration;
- After the October 7th attack, being the first leader of the Senate Banking Committee to demand accountability from the Biden administration on the release of the $6 billion, and calling for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to testify and for the Senate to investigate the matter; and
- Introducing the Revoke Iranian Funding Act to permanently freeze the $6 billion released by the Biden administration to Iran and direct the Treasury Secretary to provide an accounting of all high-value Iranian assets around the world that are currently blocked by U.S. sanctions.