Van Nuys, CA -- Howard L. Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has released the following statement concerning the security situation in Israel:

"Israel has a right, indeed a duty, to defend itself in response to the hundreds of rockets and mortars fired from Gaza over the past week. No government in the world would sit by and allow its citizens to be subjected to this kind of indiscriminate bombardment. The loss of innocent life is a terrible tragedy, and the blame for that tragedy lies with Hamas."