Lankford Stands with Israel, Calls out Democrat Colleagues for Blocking Bill Undermining Israel’s Leadership

Washington, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK), Republican Conference Vice Chair, co-chair of the Senate Abraham Accords Caucus, and co-chair of the Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, hosted a floor event and delivered remarks calling to stand with Israel.

Excerpts

“Israel just wants to live in peace. In the middle of a war, when a group of terrorists crossed the border and began to slaughter Israelis, the International Criminal Court determined it was going to jump in and make a clear statement….about terrorism, call out those that are attacking civilians and slaughtering people as they sleep on that morning. But instead, the International Criminal Court released arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and for Yoav Gallant, the now former defense minister, for trying to defend their country from terrorism…So this body in the United States Senate had an opportunity yesterday to be able to speak out on that, and to actually sanction and to allow further sanctions for individuals from the International Criminal Court and entities that cooperate with them to say, ‘You cannot come after the United States or after our allies.’ It was a very simple, straightforward bill. It was a bill that passed with a very large bipartisan majority through the House of Representatives. In fact, it’s passed twice now with a large bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives. But when it came here to the United States Senate, my Democratic colleagues shrugged and said ‘no.’”

….

“The Trump Administration, I’m confident, will speak out with sanctions against the International Criminal Court. They did during the first Trump presidency. I’m confident they will again. What I’m not confident of is every future president after President Trump, if they will hold the same high standard to be able to protect American citizens, our soldiers, and to be able to stand alongside with Israel.”

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