Alabama Senator Katie Britt meets with families of American hostages in Israel
Alabama Senator Katie Britt traveled to Israel with a bipartisan senate delegation over the weekend and met with the families of Americans who have been taken hostage by Hamas. The ten lawmakers are visiting Israel as part of an official trip to the Middle East. The purpose is to meet with key leaders, advocate for regional stability, and promote long-term sustainable peace. Britt is the only freshman senator in the delegation which includes four other Republicans and five Democrats. The delegation also met with the Israeli Minister of Defense and other government leaders.
Britt released the following statement: “I want to start by thanking Senator Graham. Thank you for getting this group together. You and Senator Cardin put together a group of bipartisan senators – each of us set foot in this country not as a Democrat or a Republican. We set foot here united as Americans, standing shoulder to shoulder with Israel. When we walked in the room today and talked to the families of these hostages, I listened as a mom, I listened as a wife, as a daughter, as a sister. Thinking what these families are going through, thinking what each individual hostage is going through is absolutely unbearable. When we watched the videos and heard the stories today, the things that happened were unthinkable. The loss of life – kids having to watch their parents be murdered. Parents having to watch their children be burned to death, women having to be raped, kids decapitated. It’s disgusting, it’s despicable and it is pure evil. Make no mistake, I believe that people of all faiths can coexist in peace and prosperity. But I do not believe that good can coexist with evil. And when evil rears its head, we must look it in the eyes, and we must take it down – and Hamas is pure evil. Israel has every right to defend herself – and not only the right – they have the obligation, the obligation to their children and their children’s children. They have an obligation to the innocent. They have an obligation to the peace-loving people of this world. And that is ultimately what we want. We want Hamas to be destroyed and we want peace to be restored. President Reagan said that ‘evil cannot exist if the good are unafraid.’ Iran, Hamas – we stand here today to tell you that we are unafraid. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel. We will take you down.”
