Kevin Dellicker for U.S. Congress

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

My son Jake took this photograph of Gaza during a college trip to Israel last January. You can see the wall in the foreground that Hamas terrorists breached to kill 900 people, including at least nine Americans. Proportional to Israel’s population, this attack was eight-times larger than Al Qaida’s 9-11 attack on the United States. It’s the largest mass killing of Jews since the Holocaust.

In military terms, this was a raid. Hamas terrorists surprised Israel during a religious holiday, killed as many civilians as they could, kidnapped at least 100 people, and then retreated to Gaza. Now they are using those hostages as human shields. Besides killing and kidnapping, Hamas had no apparent tactical objective. This was terrorism, pure and simple.

In the near term, we must fully support Israel’s response. Their leaders have asked for specific military assistance; we must urgently provide what they need. This war is going to get even uglier very fast, and Israel doesn’t need faraway critics second-guessing their every move. The Hamas playbook is to gain worldwide sympathy against Israel through staged and provoked atrocities. Don’t fall for it.

This is an extremely dangerous situation. Hamas and Hezbollah, the other terrorist organization launching missiles against Israel, are both backed by Iran. If Israel finds conclusive evidence that Iran exercised operational control over these attacks, they may launch a military response. The United States has moved warships and fighter aircraft into the region to defend our allies and our interests. Americans don’t want escalation, but sovereign nations make their own decisions.

In the long term, we must recognize that our world has become much more dangerous. China is threatening American interests in an aggressive attempt to supplant western ideals with communist repression. Russia is a second-rate autocracy with nuclear weapons and an inferiority complex. North Korea and Iran are unpredictable. Cartels control the Mexican border. Terrorists lurk in the shadows and explode when the time is right.

I get it. Most Americans just want to be left alone. I had a bunch of other cheery options for today’s feature photograph besides this barren picture of Gaza: happy photos from the Bright Hope Pregnancy Support Center dinner in Center Valley, the Garlic Festival in Easton, the Prayer Breakfast in Stroudsburg. But the shocking events in Israel are a stark reminder that evil strikes when it wants, even when we’d rather be enjoying the Apple Festival in New Tripoli.

It’s time to wake up. As our national security environment has changed, our foreign policy, our military readiness, and our national consciousness has not. We must stop making trade deals with countries that want to destroy us. We must stop projecting weakness and disengagement abroad. And we must assume our rightful leadership role defending freedom and virtue in the world.

Almost every day on the campaign trail, I hear someone say they oppose “forever wars.” Trust me. I’ve been to war four times and don’t want to go back.

But we can’t prevent conflict by hunkering down and hoping bad things won’t happen. On this earth, the only way to avoid wars is with overwhelming diplomatic, economic, information, and military power that keeps our enemies cowering in their cages.

That’s peace through strength. We used to have it. That’s what I want to rebuild in Congress.

Keep America Free.