Johnny Isakson, United States Senator from Georgia


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, January 6, 2009 Isakson: Israel Confronting Terrorism, Protecting Its Citizens ‘Israel Is Doing Precisely What It Should Be Doing in the Best Interest of Its People’ WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., today spoke in strong support of the recent military actions by Israel in the Gaza Strip during a speech on the Senate floor. “In some reports that you see on television or you read about in the papers, you would think Israel’s actions were unprovoked and unnecessary. The opposite is true. Israel has been provoked for 15 months by Hamas in Gaza, and Israelis have finally drawn a line in the sand and moved in to try to protect the best interest of their citizens,” Isakson said. “As long as Hamas is unwilling to enter into a meaningful peace agreement that can be trusted and verified and make a meaningful effort to stop the terror, then Israel is doing precisely what it should be doing in the best interest of its people.It is doing no less than we in this United States Congress and America would do were we attacked in the same way.” Isakson also criticized the role of Iran in supporting terrorism in the Middle East and argued that Iran must not be allowed to continue to fund, support, encourage or promote terror, whether through Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, through Hamas in the Gaza Strip or by continuing to defy the world in developing nuclear weapons. “As a member of the Foreign Relations committee, I take very seriously my responsibility to look upon every nation in this world as a nation that we should respect, as a nation we should dialogue with and as a nation we should work with. But we cannot and we must not turn our head away from a nation that is causing terror to be invoked against innocent people like Iran is doing against Israel through the Palestinians in Gaza,” Isakson said. On Dec. 27, 2008, Israel launched airstrikes against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israeli ground troops entered the Gaza Strip on January 3, 2009. In November 2007, Isakson visited Israel where he stood just south of Sderot on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip and spoke with individuals who are terrorized every day by Hamas’ rocket attacks. ###
E-mail: http://isakson.senate.gov/contact.cfm Washington: United States Senate, 120 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510 Tel: (202) 224-3643 Fax: (202) 228-0724 Atlanta: One Overton Park, 3625 Cumberland Blvd, Suite 970, Atlanta, GA 30339 Tel: (770) 661-0999 Fax: (770) 661-0768

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Isakson: Israel Confronting Terrorism, Protecting Its Citizens
‘Israel Is Doing Precisely What It Should Be Doing in the Best Interest of Its People’

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., today spoke in strong support of the recent military actions by Israel in the Gaza Strip during a speech on the Senate floor.

“In some reports that you see on television or you read about in the papers, you would think Israel’s actions were unprovoked and unnecessary. The opposite is true. Israel has been provoked for 15 months by Hamas in Gaza, and Israelis have finally drawn a line in the sand and moved in to try to protect the best interest of their citizens,” Isakson said. “As long as Hamas is unwilling to enter into a meaningful peace agreement that can be trusted and verified and make a meaningful effort to stop the terror, then Israel is doing precisely what it should be doing in the best interest of its people.It is doing no less than we in this United States Congress and America would do were we attacked in the same way.”

Isakson also criticized the role of Iran in supporting terrorism in the Middle East and argued that Iran must not be allowed to continue to fund, support, encourage or promote terror, whether through Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, through Hamas in the Gaza Strip or by continuing to defy the world in developing nuclear weapons.

“As a member of the Foreign Relations committee, I take very seriously my responsibility to look upon every nation in this world as a nation that we should respect, as a nation we should dialogue with and as a nation we should work with. But we cannot and we must not turn our head away from a nation that is causing terror to be invoked against innocent people like Iran is doing against Israel through the Palestinians in Gaza,” Isakson said.

On Dec. 27, 2008, Israel launched airstrikes against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israeli ground troops entered the Gaza Strip on January 3, 2009.

In November 2007, Isakson visited Israel where he stood just south of Sderot on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip and spoke with individuals who are terrorized every day by Hamas’ rocket attacks.

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E-mail: http://isakson.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Washington: United States Senate, 120 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510
Tel: (202) 224-3643 Fax: (202) 228-0724
Atlanta: One Overton Park, 3625 Cumberland Blvd, Suite 970, Atlanta, GA 30339
Tel: (770) 661-0999 Fax: (770) 661-0768