Tom Lantos

Mr. LANTOS

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I just want to thank you for your patience. I want to thank my dear friend from Florida for her extraordinary graciousness. And I want to thank all of my Republican and Democratic colleagues for a serious and substantive debate. I urge all of my colleagues to vote for this resolution. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to yield 2 minutes to my good friend from Kentucky, our distinguished colleague on the International Relations Committee, Mr. Chandler.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to a distinguished member of our committee, Mr. Schiff.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, before yielding, I would like to offer an opportunity to Mrs. Lowey to ask for a unanimous consent. (Mrs. LOWEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to my good friend, a distinguished member of the International Relations Committee, Mr. Blumenauer.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee), my good friend.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley).

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 2 minutes to my friend from Florida, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, before yielding, I want to express my appreciation to the chief of staff on the Democratic side, Dr. Bob King; Mr. Alan Makovsky; and to all other members of our staff who worked so hard on this measure. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to yield 2 minutes to my friend from Pennsylvania, Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz. (Ms. SCHWARTZ of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished Democratic leader (Ms. Pelosi).

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, how much time do we have?

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Berman), ranking member of the International Relations Committee.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to my good friend from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich).

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, in view of the fact that this is one of the most substantive debates of the year, that colleagues have been waiting for a long time, I respectfully ask unanimous consent that we extend the debate by 40 minutes, equally divided between Ms. Ros- Lehtinen and myself.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield for the purpose of making a unanimous consent request to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gene Green). (Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, before yielding to my friend from Massachusetts, I yield myself such time as I may consume to make a comment about Mr. Paul's observation as he calls for neutrality. Calling for neutrality between a democratic ally of the United States and a gang of terrorists is not worthy of this body. There is no neutrality between a gang of terrorists who indiscriminately kill and the democratic state. May I also say that it was Hezbollah terrorists who killed the largest number of U.S. Marines in Beirut a quarter century ago. Some of us were there visiting with them just a couple of weeks before they were all killed. Lee Hamilton, a distinguished former Member of this body, and I visited with our marines just days before they were all killed by Hezbollah terrorist activity. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank), the distinguished ranking member of the Financial Services Committee.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to my good friend from North Carolina, Congressman Price.

Mr. LANTOS. I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to my good friend, the distinguished member of the International Relations Committee, Mr. Engel.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I want to thank my good friend for yielding. I am delighted to recognize a distinguished member of the committee, my good friend from Nevada, Ms. Shelley Berkley. (Ms. BERKLEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to yield 7 minutes to the distinguished member of the International Relations Committee, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Ackerman). (Mr. ACKERMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my friend from California for his very thoughtful observations, and I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel), the distinguished ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, my very good friend.

Mr. LANTOS. I thank my friend for yielding. First, let me react to your comment that the resolution does not deal with the loss of innocent life. The resolution expresses its condolences to all families of innocent victims of recent violence. Secondly, it is critical to prevent the resupply of deadly rockets from Iran and Syria. Unless the airport is closed down, unless the border with Syria is closed down, these deadly weapons will be resupplied in no time. That is why the airport was attacked. That is why the border crossings with Syria were attacked.

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Before yielding to our distinguished whip, I would like to make a couple of observations. I first visited Lebanon in 1956, in the summer of 1956. It was the jewel of the Middle East. And what has destroyed Lebanon during the course of the last half century were various terrorist groups, first Arafat's PLO and now Hezbollah. No one is in favor of hurting a single innocent human being. The fact is that with Hezbollah placing its weaponry in the midst of population centers, collateral damage is unavoidable. Israel has gone to every length to minimize collateral damage. As a matter of fact, the difference between the tragedies befalling the Lebanese people and the tragedies befalling the Israeli people is very simple: Hezbollah deliberately, deliberately, attacks civilians. Israel does its utmost not to attack innocent civilians.

Mr. LANTOS. I am glad to yield to my friend, the gentleman from Illinois.