EXCLUSIVE: Senate Intel Chair Cotton on Yom Kippur Manchester terror attack: “Appeasing terrorists is a failed policy”
Arkansas lawmakers were more forthright in addressing the problem of Islamic terrorism than the leader of the United Kingdom was in the wake of terror in Manchester
Hours after a deadly terrorist attack targeting Jews on Yom Kippur in the United Kingdom, one the Senate’s leading foreign policy voices told the Washington Reporter that the noticeable uptick in terrorism across Western Europe makes “clear that appeasing terrorists is a failed policy.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), the Chairman of the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence, told the Reporter that he is “praying for the victims of today’s depraved terrorist attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester.”
“Today’s attack and the recent arrest of Hamas terrorists in Germany make clear that appeasing terrorists is a failed policy,” Cotton continued. “It puts all of Europe at risk.”
The terrorist appeasement that Cotton is referring to is how several countries in Western Europe, notably the United Kingdom, recently led a push to recognize “Palestine” — a country that has never existed and that many fear would sponsor precisely the types of deadly attacks on Jews around the world that struck Manchester on the holiest day of the Jewish year.
While Germany has not recognized “Palestine” — in part due to its culpability for the Holocaust — it too is not immune from the ravages of Islamic terror — both now and in the past.
Cotton also referred to the recent arrest in Germany of three alleged Hamas terrorists — two German-born, one from Lebanon — who were charged with attempting to attack Jewish institutions in the country.
For years, Germany had a lax migration policy that allowed countless poorly vetted refugees into its borders.
While many in Western Europe have allowed political correctness to dictate their migration policy, Cotton — and of one his fellow Arkansans in the House — are notably more straightforward in the aftermath of these terror attacks and arrests.
Rep. Rick Crawford (R., Ark.) — the Chair of the House’s Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence — was far clearer in immediately analyzing the threat than the United Kingdom’s own leadership, typified by Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, was.
“It is infuriating that we need to reiterate that the Jewish people should be able to exist in their place of worship without the fear of being attacked or killed,” Crawford said. “This terrorist attack comes on top of reports that German police foiled another attempt by Hamas terrorists planning a separate attack on Jewish institutions. The antisemitic rhetoric that has been spewed by Hamas terrorist sympathizers has provided these terrorist groups with the space to invoke terror on the Jewish people. And that is unacceptable.”