Wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses a Congressional debate on Palestinian violence against Israel. Photo: Screenshot.

Pro-Israel Democratic Party lawmakers vocally defended the Jewish state in a Congressional debate this week, as Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilian targets intensified and the IDF prepared for a possible ground offensive in Gaza.

Speaking from the floor of the House on Thursday, Rep. Brad Schneider (IL) accused Hamas of “relentlessly attacking Israel, launching more than 1,500 rockets just since Monday targeting Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Be’er Sheva and every community in between.”

Schneider said that his “heart breaks for all the innocents killed and injured.”

“It’s true more have died in Gaza,” he said. “But Israel goes out of its way to minimize civilian casualties. Hamas, conversely, goes out of its way to target civilians in Israel … while launching its rockets from civilian areas in Gaza.”

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (NJ) reminded legislators that Hamas “is a terrorist organization designated by the United States, dedicated to the destruction of Israel, and which Congress has — and must — condemn for killing innocent civilians, and using women and children as human shields.”

“No one here should make excuses for a terrorist organization,” Gottheimer declared. “Who is the next object of their sympathy? ISIS? Al-Qaeda? Hezbollah?”

In an emotional speech, Rep. Elaine Luria (VA) recalled the historic reasons for the existence of a Jewish state.

“From the ashes of the Holocaust, the massacre of six million of our brethren, Jews returned to their ancestral homeland to build an oasis in the desert— a democracy of their own,” she asserted. “And today — in their rightful homeland, they are attacked from within.  Some call them villains for defending their homes and their families; for not turning a cheek and a blind eye to terror and bombings and missiles raining down.”

Left-wing Democratic lawmakers expressed frustration at the supportive stance of US President Joe Biden’s administration for Israel in the current conflict.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) slammed Biden’s policy on Twitter as one that would “dehumanize Palestinians & imply the US will look the other way at human rights violations.”

And in a tearful address to Congress on Friday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI), her shoulders wrapped with a black and white Palestinian keffiyeh, claimed that Israel was an “apartheid state.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN) separately told the debate: “Instead of condemning blatant crimes against humanity and human rights abuses, many members of Congress have instead fallen back on a blanket statement defending Israel’s airstrikes against civilians under the guise of self-defense.”