Congressman Cohen Presides at Helsinki Commission Hearing on Israel and Ukraine Against Terrorism

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), the House Ranking Member of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, today chaired a hearing entitled “Israel and Ukraine Against Terror.”

In his opening statement, Congressman Cohen said in part:

“On October 7, Israel experienced a terrorist attack from Hamas that was brutal, inhuman and has caused the world to concentrate on the Middle East. The world needs to be looking at what’s going on in the Middle East and the horrific deaths that Hamas caused…

“America is pretty well united behind Israel and that’s commendable and good and should be the case. But there are parallels between Israel and Ukraine and Hamas and Russia and those parallels are pretty clear to anybody that looks at this issue and players with an objective eye…Russia’s no different than Hamas in what they’ve done in attacking a sovereign nation and wanting to commit genocide…

“So we hope we can have funding for both Ukraine and Israel, and there will be a package the president is going to propose to do that because they are parallel situations.”

See the entire opening statement here.

See his questions to witnesses here.

Witnesses at today’s hearing were:

• Oksana Markarova, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States of America;
• Eliav Benjamin, Deputy Head of Mission, The Embassy of Israel to the United States;
• Jamil N. Jaffer, Founder and Executive Director, National Security Institute at George Mason University;
• Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, Senior Vice President, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies;
• Dr. Dan Twining, President, International Republican Institute

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