Speaking at the 2023 Zionist Organization of America Justice Louis D. Brandeis Dinner, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) told attendees that Israel and the United States “are bound together by our shared values and our deep, religious convictions.”
“It’s the Judeo-Christian foundation that builds America,” he said. “This is one of the reasons why our nation and Israel have been able to enjoy such harmony and friendship over the years.”
At the Dec. 3 event, Johnson received the ZOA’s Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson Defender of Israel Award.
“A strong U.S.-Israel relationship is good for the entire world,” he said. “It’s something that we must maintain.”
“Today, we are we are heartbroken. We are shocked that our Jewish friends are facing an unprecedented level of attacks and persecution,” he said. “Not since the World War II era have we seen what we’re seeing now.”
Johnson spoke of a screening he arranged for congressmen on both sides of the aisle of the raw footage of Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.
“You could have heard a pin drop in that auditorium,” he said. “The only sound that you could hear was our colleagues mourning what they were seeing. Sobbing, crying and many had to get up and walk out of the theater, and I have to confess to you that I was one of them. I could not sit through the horror that we were viewing.”
