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Oct. 13—NORWICH — U.S. Sen. , in a luncheon speech Thursday to members of the Chamber of Commerce of Japanese Connecticut, mentioned final week’s assaults on Israel that left greater than 3,000 lifeless had been a piece of evil, requiring a way of concern much like how Individuals reacted to the Russian invasion of Ukraine final yr.
“That is private for me,” Blumenthal advised the 200 individuals who later gave him a standing ovation on the Vacation Inn Norwich. “It’s outrageous, and it threatens in a way all of us. … I do not suppose I’ve ever come right here at a time of higher menace.”
Blumenthal, who’s Jewish, mentioned he’s grateful for the outpouring of assist on each side of the political aisle for Israel, mentioning that he at present has a cousin headed to the entrance strains. He known as Israel America’s greatest and most dependable ally within the Center East.
In response to a query about protests on faculty campuses supporting Hamas, the group that launched an enormous shock assault Saturday towards unsuspecting civilians in addition to army positions, Blumenthal mentioned he hopes faculty administrations take a robust stance on the appropriate of Israel to exist and defend itself.
“Our universities and faculties have to take a stronger stand,” he mentioned. “This warfare just isn’t towards the Palestinian folks; it’s towards a terrorist group.”
Nonetheless, he acknowledged college students’ First Modification rights to precise themselves.
“They’ve a proper to say no matter they need, and I’ve a proper to sentence that perspective, and that is what I am doing,” Blumenthal mentioned.
Blumenthal took the time to attach the atrocities in Israel, the place Hamas fighters reportedly killed girls and kids indiscriminately, to the continuing, 18-month warfare in Ukraine. He mentioned he has been to Ukraine 4 occasions in that interval and has visited mass grave websites the place related atrocities occurred.
He mentioned he admired the braveness of the Ukrainian folks, who want American weapons to proceed preventing on a stage enjoying subject, although he mentioned they’ve advised him, “We are going to battle with pitchforks if obligatory.
“They’ve seen (Russian President Vladimir) Putin firsthand, and so they know he’s coming for them,” Blumenthal mentioned.
Blumenthal mentioned Putin intends to carry again the previous Soviet Union, and his subsequent goal can be a NATO nation, inevitably dragging america into warfare. He identified that the federal authorities’s spending on the warfare in Ukraine at present quantities to solely 5% of the general U.S. army finances.
“That may be a fairly good discount,” he mentioned.
However he mentioned assist for Ukraine and Israel are threatened by a dysfunctional Home of Representatives, the place the Republicans have been unable to elect a speaker and due to this fact cannot carry payments up for a vote. Whereas the Senate has moved an appropriations invoice with bipartisan assist, he mentioned the Home can not move any laws, together with something greater than a stopgap measure on the debt ceiling.
“The world is extra harmful than at any time since World Struggle II,” Blumenthal mentioned.
On different matters Blumenthal praised a bipartisan invoice on infrastructure that’s serving to to pay for enhancements to the Gold Star Memorial Bridge over the Thames River. He added “we are able to do much more” to advertise offshore wind developments, and urged the Division of the Treasury to lastly write the rules required to make clear sure guidelines, reminiscent of accompanying tax credit.
Blumenthal additionally decried gerrymandering in sure Home districts which have disadvantaged minority teams from enough illustration in some states, and mentioned he hopes the Supreme Court docket will uphold Civil Rights legal guidelines.
As well as, he known as for extra frequent use of antitrust legal guidelines to deal with consolidation within the well being care trade and promised to assist enough funding for birth-to-3 applications which have been lower lately.
Editor’s Word: This model corrects the variety of visits Sen. Blumenthal has made to Ukraine.
l.howard@theday.com
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