Los angeles. Congressman johnson as well. What i thought i might do here say a few words of introduction if i could on behalf of mr. Stewart force stuart force. I wanted to share how much we admire his work, the work his wife has done to try to ensure that no other family has to endure the pain that their family has and ordered. , was the, taylor force Great American patriot, a west point graduate. He served his country with honor in iraq, and then served in afghanistan, and i remember our meeting last spring with senator corker. Counterpart and i put together a bipartisan house version of the Taylor Force Act, which we will be marking up in a few weeks. I want to thank him again for taking the time to address us here today. Ladies, mr. Stuart force. [applause] force good afternoon. Thank you, chairman royce, and to the Hudson Institute. As you notice very quickly, i am not an expert in any of the subject matter today. I am here as an unofficial representative of a group that no one ever wants to be a part of. Families of victims of terror. In a palestinian terror attack in israel about 1. 5 years ago, and we immediately became members of that horrific club. He was a west point grad and as chairman royce said, two combat to worse, brought his troops combat tours, brought his troops home, went back to school, was a grad student, vanderbilt university, on a spring trip to israel when the attack occurred. Conference if this believe is to get a better understanding of the big picture. Formsrrorism in all its and facets comes together. In my experience, i have always been concerned with a small part of the big picture, just taking care of smaller items and not worrying about understanding how everything works. Over the past 1. 5 years, we have had to try to understand the world at large and exactly how this terrorism puzzle is put together. Big picture is pretty hard to comprehend, but with your work, your expertise, i think we can make some inroads in the funding of terror. The goal of everybody working on the big picture and the little picture, which is the taylor i think needs to come together and provide Effective Work to get both of these things accomplished. The Taylor Force Act, if you are thatware, is legislation holds back foreign aid, United States foreign aid, to the Palestinian Authority until they can certify to the secretary of state that our foreign aid is not being diverted to reward terrorist activities. Of up to 2300ds per month, which is quite a bit more than the average palestinian earns. The severity of the crime, the severity of the act, determines how much the reward is. The fact that our tax dollars are being diverted to support terrorism is unacceptable. Would stopforce act up the funds. That is what we have been involved in supporting the last 1. 5 years. I think the goal of both those working on the big picture and those working on a small part of the big picture should be to disband the club of families of victims through lack of membership. I appreciate you being here and your work. Thank you. [applause] thank you very much, mr. Force. If many of us, i do not know we remember this, but today is also the 34th anniversary of the Marine Barracks bombing where hezbollah murdered 241 u. S. Service members. Solemnhis occasion, i think we need to all of you for providing the opportunity to share thoughts on the topics before us today. Those topics are even and kotter qatar, and what we can do to shape policy. That is important work your of the Hudson Institute. Shaping policy. Helping us shape that policy. Rep. Royce i suspect he probably needs to speak and then get down to the floor to make sure he presents them. But mr. Chairman, michael mccaul. Chairman mccaul thank you. I was proud to cosponsor legislation bearing his son name. He waschairman mccaul killed bn terrorists. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, sir. I want to thank the Hudson Institute. They helped me write my book, failures of imagination, and put together some Creative Energy in the room. I want to take you back historically. It is important to look back at year which79, the transformed the middle east and changed the world. That year, radical islamist ideology rippled around the world. They brought the ayatollah and the oppressive shia p. R. C. To power. That same year, a dark veil of sunni extremism fell over saudi arabia and other nations. The soviets invaded afghanistan. The mujahedin under the leadership of Osama Bin Laden became a force to reckon with. It was as if time had gone backwards. 38 years later, and 16 years after 9 11, the Threat Landscape remains. The ayatollah is more powerful than ever. The sunni extremist continue their reign of terror. The russians have returned to the region to control the ports in syria and prop up the dictator, bashar alassad. Fortunately, last week, we saw a crushing blow to crisis, in, and before that, in mosul. After watching, i watched the socalled caliphate metastasize in iraq and syria under the Previous Administration. After constant briefings on their external operations and threats, to the homeland, we can finally see a defeat of isis in the region. But before we celebrate or claim victory, i believe it is important to caution that rise islamic terrorism is still alive and well. All one has to do is look at Northern Africa and the recent events in niger. All one needs to do is look at iran and its growing presence in the middle. All one needs to do is look at how hateful ideology mastered the global bandwidth of the internet by recruiting, training, and radicalizing future militants to its cause. I recently traveled to israel with chairman royce and we had a candid discussion with Prime Minister netanyahu about the greatest threat to his country. The shia crescent from iran. , it is hezbollah building rocket manufacturing plants in lebanon through hamas, digging tunnels, and aiming rockets against the iron dome, and in yemen, it is backing the rebels. The Prime Minister also briefed us on the relationship and opportunity that has arisen. Etween israel and saudi arabia once proclaimed enemies. Now, these two nations have a unique alliance. Iran. Emy of my enemy is this thread exists not only against what iran references to the little satan, but also what it calls the great satan, the United States. The threat of a nuclear iran is real and must be stopped. In congress, under ed royces leadership, we passed sanctions. Announced, we will sanction the revolutionary guard corps, a bill i passed in two prior congresses to designate them as a foreign terrorist organization, because that is what they are. Thelly, we must deal with issue of financing. Qatar stands as a leader when it comes to funding hamas. Isis extremists. In syria, they Fund Al Qaeda and the taliban. Qatar has a unique and disturbing relationship with iran. I believe it is time to hold them accountable. If qatar is to remain an ally, it must renounce its tempora affiliations. Thank you. [applause] the Muslim Brotherhood continues on the march to threaten egypt and the region. There is also i qaeda that al qaeda that grew out of the brotherhood. The socalled arab spring liberated them. President lcc is trying to restrain them and we must support them. UseMuslim Brotherhood under of proclaimed allah used it off hitlers to wreak the holocaust upon the jews as the fine punishment and praised him for putting the jews in their place. Winning the struggle is personal to me. My father was a bombardier in world war ii and participated in a dj air campaign. He bombed not these. I recently visited auschwitz to see the terror and systematic extermination see not these perpetrated on the jewish people and the horrors of the gas. Hambers what my father and their fathers were fighting against was pure evil. It is no surprise that the radical islamists were then allies of the nazis. A once famous jewish man said in jewish history, there are no consequences. We must always remember and never forget. Thank you. [applause] rep. Royce thank you, chairman mccullough. Congressman brad sherman is with us. Onhas done important work the subcommittee of Foreign Affairs. This has been part of his focus. He is with us here today and he is a good friend and colleague. We would like to welcome congressman brad sherman. [applause] hello. Erman i am brad sherman from californias best named city, sherman oaks. [laughter] years, iman for 21 sat with chairman royce on the Foreign Affairs committee, and he was there back in 1997, when i put forward the proposition that you ron was the number one threat to American National security. Funny ar, a mere all amir is trying to perform an effort of political gymnastics that would have [laughter] rep. Sherman look at the splits. He seeks to have one foot with in the extremist sunni. He seeks to put another foot with the United States, the moderate sunni, and the gulf cooperation council, and while beyondegs are separated human capacity, he is trying to do it all while kissing ayatollah ho. Oft is a disabling act political gymnastics. He may believe that we are obligated to protect his regime an americanosts political base. The castro brothers never reached the same conclusion. It is time for all funny to pick alfahni to stop supporting, spirit we need the maximum enforcement and international support. To justify additional sanctions is to renounce the nuclear deal. Doing that would cause europe not to support our additional sanctions, and in many of the was theney with a iran free to reopen its nuclear orgram without inspections restrictions. Fortunately, the world is based beyondsed with an almost possible use of natural resources, and that is our supply of evil coming from tehran. We can impose the maximum sanctions without even mentioning the iran deal, and then we will have european support as we point to almost 500,000 dead syrian civilians, a direct responsibility of tehran, as we point to the terrorism tound the world, as we point how they treat their own people and the execution of those in the lgbt community. There is no shortage of reason , andpose sanctions on iran if we do enough, they will come begging to us to have the pending on all issues, including the inadequacies of the nuclear deal. Thank you. [applause] rep. Sherman another member of congress who has been very active on these issues is congressman johnson. A good friend, and i would like to welcome him at this time. Thank you. N good afternoon to the visitors here today. Thank you for having us. Extend my apologies not my apologies, but my condolences to you on the loss of your dear son, and i would say that before we can reach peace in the middle east, we are going to have to resolve the dispute involving the palestinian state homeland before we can have peace in the middle east. It is my opinion that we are going to need to solve the ,sraelipalestinian conflict and it will have to result in a two state solution. One stage for the palestinians and another for israel. Once that is done, it will go a long way towards diffusing all a radicalism that is in existence in the middle east that issue of course is not the only issue. It is not the greatest threat to america, but before i begin my talk, let me say how much i appreciate the Hudson Institute, an organization committed to dialogue and understanding. Institutethe hudson for its dedication to American Leadership and Global Engagement , for a secure, free, and prosperous future through the disciplines of defense, economics, health care, technology, culture, and international relations. As well as the rule of law. Before we can begin to talk about peace in the middle east or the suppression of violent extremism that is really threatening to the whole world, we have got to look at the issue of islam and islam is not a religion of hatred and bylence but it has been used forces that cloak themselves in islam, and then proclaim to , distorting its teachings. , think we must respect islam the worlds secondlargest religion, one of the three abraham it religions. I think we must respect that religion, and we must respect those who want to be peaceful adherence to that religion. And they aregroup based they are saudi arabiabased. Islama wahhabist sect of which is the state religion of saudi arabia which is the greatest exporter of ideas of violent extremism on the face of the earth, in my humble opinion. [applause] and until we can address the issue of saudi mrabia support for wahhabis and its spread of violent jihadist philosophy, then we will continue to kind of meyer mud. Lves in the wean ourselves from our dependence on oil, the driving force of our policy toward saudi arabia, so we can deal with this issue of hobbies wahhabism to a greater degree than we do now. Up on a fewsum thoughts. The first is that israel is contending with a deepseated hatred nurtured by leaders of the plr. And nurtured over many years. I have seen these textbooks. This has occurred in mosques, in schools, newspapers, on the television. This has to stop. Witness told our committee, incitement is the term we usually use, but that is not what we mean. What we mean is teaching generations of young people to hate jews by demonizing and dehumanizing them. That is the point. That is what we seek to address here. That is what the Taylor Force Act seeks to do. Thisse the other aspect of is that people are being lured to terrorism by more than just words. They are being lured thereby this concept of pay to play. By this inducement. By this financial reward that says the longer the sentence, the more people that are murdered, the greater the stipend that goes to you when you get out, ghost your family in the meantime, or goes to your yourself you martyred in undertaking this act of murder. Sure that weo make do this right, and that we send a clear message to the Palestinian Authority. Terrorismor acts of are an accessible. On the ron paul mother u. S. Has got to respond to the full range of threats from you run, not just their nuclear program, because we see in syria, any rock, we see it right up along western syria now, with the forces, and the irgc. They are taking advantage of this fight against isis. And they are moving in, brutalizing syrians, and they have seized so much territory. Meanwhile,they are taking advanf this fight against isis. Hezbollah, irans temer proxy, is amassing fighters and troops along israels border in the north, along the border in the east, and the ron continues to acquire destabilizing conventional weapons, but also intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Has taken aration realistic approach on iran, recognizing the full range of these threats. This is what we have been onsaging in a bipartisan way our committee. This is what brad sherman and i, others,all, and the eliot engel, have been talking about as we push these policies. Within the Administration MustWork Together to confront these threats while ensuring iran never developed a nuclear capability. I will add another point. That approach was evident over one week ago when the administration implemented a provision that Congress Passed in july, as Mike Mccullough shared with you, as mike mccall shared with you. To turn up the pressure on the iran, and this week, the house is going to do its part by bringing up my legislation on the house floor that we passed down at committee targeting irans Ballistic Missile program and targeting hezbollah, the leading terrorist proxy. A history ofhas facilitating radicalization and broken promises to reform its behavior. In 2014, saudi arabia, the you uae, bahrain, said qatar was interfering with their internal affairs, promoting extremism and other jazeera qatari Media Networks and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the region. After that dispute, they reportedly promised to address these issues, promised not to harbor persons with harmful agenda for the other states, and promised not to support any organization fighting the legitimate governments in yemen and in egypt. Kutcher has failed qatar has failed to live up to its words. That is why saudi arabia, egypt, and bahrain cut ties this past june. Until may of this year, qatar was hosting senior hamas financiers. , myselfpresentatives and several other members, including mr. Brad sherman, introduced the deflation increasing sanctions against those that provide support to hamas, qatar expelled those senior hamas financiers. But given qatars history of false reform and broken promises, i am concerned this is a tactical move, not a strategic shift away from supporting hamas. Go hop must fundamentally alter its policies. No more bait and switch. No more backsliding. We need real commitments from qatar. To and its permissive attitude and actions toward violent extremists. And on our hamas bill, a continuing impediment to peace and security for the middle east is,s. This deadly Terrorists Organization continues to work towards israels destruction. Hamas uses other human beings as shields by hiding their terror tunnels under schools. I have seen them myself, and so mccall. Rman o hamas is responsible for the murder of more than 400 israelis and 25 americans. Legislationve further isolates hamas. Anyone who funds or provide support to hamas should face u. S. Sanctions. Hamas is a Foreign Terrorists group and specially designed specifically by the United States as a global terrorist threat. I mention one last issue i would like to bring up, the Muslim Brotherhood