Q: What’s the Antisemitism Awareness Act?

A: Since the horrific attack unleashed on Oct. 7 by Hamas in southern Israel, a disturbing rise in antisemitism has surged across the United States, particularly on college campuses. Reports of Jewish students targeted for harassment have culminated in unruly anti-Israel demonstrations, causing a number of schools to cancel year-end commencement ceremonies. This class of college graduates largely missed out on high school graduation events because of the pandemic. As a society based on the rule of law, we can’t allow encampments and mob rule to wreak havoc on campuses, like we saw when protests turned into crime sprees that emerged in 2020 after misguided calls to “Defund the Police.” Recently, I joined bipartisan legislation called the Antisemitism Awareness Act that would instruct the U.S. Department of Education to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism when determining whether harassing behavior is anti-Semitic in nature, and therefore violates federal civil rights protections. It states: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

I’ve also called upon the Biden administration to restore order to U.S. college campuses disrupted by antisemitic riots. The brutal attacks last October that took more than 250 people hostage and killed more than 1,200 innocent civilians serve as a chilling example of history repeating itself. Holocaust Remembrance Day marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and honors the six million people killed in the Holocaust, those who survived and the sacrifices of the heroes who freed the Jewish people from the Nazi regime. I often tell young people when I visit schools across Iowa why it’s important to study history. The attacks on Oct. 7 resurrected an ancient hatred of the Jewish people that underscores why we must learn the lessons of history so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past.

Q: Why did you support the recent military aid package?

A: Historians and scholars have called the period of time since World War II as the “long peace,” an era of stability and prosperity. For eight decades, the march of freedom and liberty has expanded democracy and human rights around the world. However, the Free World must stay vigilant and guard against authoritarian regimes seeking to snuff out freedom in their quest for power. Adversaries and aggressors, what I call the axis of anti-American dictatorships –Russia, Iran, China and North Korea – seek to displace the United States as the leader of the Free World. Instability in pockets around the world put our era of peace in peril. Consider the mission of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who has ruled Russia every day in the 21st century. In 2005, he said the “demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical disaster of the century.” Today, Russia continues its assault on Ukraine while eyeing other sovereign nations in Eastern Europe, China intimidates Taiwan with military exercises in the Taiwan Strait and Iran wants to annihilate the state of Israel from the face of the earth. I supported the bipartisan military bill that overwhelmingly passed the Senate to replenish U.S. military stockpiles and send vital military aid to Ukraine, including Iowa-made howitzer shells at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant. The United States can’t afford to idle in our hemisphere and hope we don’t get sucked into World War III. Just as we can’t ignore the crisis at our own southern border, we can’t turn a blind eye to ethnic cleansing in China, genocide against Israel and religious persecution in Ukraine. I support the legacy built by President Ronald Reagan, who promoted “peace through strength.” History teaches us that when you give dictators an inch, they take a mile. Appeasement doesn’t work. That’s why I’ve urged President Biden to deny the release of $6 billion in sanctioned Iranian assets. Every dollar controlled by the Iranian regime is used to finance terrorism. The United States must not flinch in our support for Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. It is strategic to U.S. national security and we must honor our commitment to the Jewish people that Israel is their homeland and heed the lessons of history.

This year on June 6th marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings along the coast of France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower led the Allied Expeditionary Forces that began the liberation of Western Europe from fascism and tyranny. U.S. Army Rangers scaled 100-foot cliffs of Pointe-du-Hoc under heavy enemy fire, changing the course of history. We cannot let the lamp of liberty that America’s Greatest Generation helped secure 80 years ago be darkened by those who deny the Holocaust and ignore the lessons of history.

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