Call Your Senator: Sen. Gillibrand on Israel-Hamas War and More

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer, on WNYC. Time now for our monthly Call Your Senator Segment, my questions, and yours, for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. If you're in New York State, and she's your Senator, or even if you're in one of those other 49 states that shall not be named, you are invited to call or text us with a question for Senator Gillibrand, 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692. Senator, always good of you to do this. Welcome back to WNYC.

Kirsten Gillibrand: Thanks so much. I'm happy to be on.

Brian Lehrer: Let's talk first about the Middle East and US policy and actions there. I see that you were part of a bipartisan group of senators who met yesterday with families of Israeli and American hostages still being held by Hamas, for more than 100 days now. This is day 104. What was the purpose of the meeting, and how would you describe it? I know the families asked the US government, again, to do everything you could for their loved ones' release.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Well, I can tell you the meeting was really heart-wrenching. To meet with mothers whose teenage children are being held hostage is indescribable. They fear for their lives. They fear that they're being tortured. For the young woman still being held, their parents are afraid they're being raped, and tortured. They're afraid that they're not going to survive because they're not being given any food, insufficient water. The aid organizations haven't been allowed in.

Normally, by international law, the Red Cross should be able to inspect hostages and their well-being. That's not happened. It was just very heart-wrenching, because people just are afraid that their loved ones won't survive another 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days. It was a gamut of people who-- some were American citizens. Some were Israeli Defense Force fighters. Some were just a young woman who was at the Music Festival, who was taken, all her friends were slaughtered.

Last they heard, she was still alive when another hostage was released. The purpose was to lift up their voices to make sure that America and Israel continues to stay laser-focused on hostage relief as part of the resolution of this conflict, and to really create a sense of urgency, that time is of the essence, and they need to release now.

Brian Lehrer: I want to acknowledge that today I've seen on the news, is the birthday of the youngest hostage, a baby named Kfir Bibas. If Kfir Bibas is still alive, which, apparently, they don't know, today, this baby turned one year old. He was kidnapped from a kibbutz with his parents and his brother. Yesterday, a cousin of Kfir Bibas was on CNN saying, "Kfir Bibas is not the enemy of Hamas. The Hamas don't have any rules, any rules even from the Quran, because in the Quran, you cannot do damage to kids. Hamas breaks all the rules of Islam."

That was a quote. I just want to acknowledge this hostage baby's first birthday. Have you ever had any contact with that family? Or is there anything you want to say about them?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: I've not had contact with them. I have talked to one American citizen who's her grand niece, Abigail was a three-year-old in captivity, who turned four while in captivity. She was released in the first tranche of hostages, about 50 days ago. She was there yesterday to encourage the other families to not give up and to hold out hope for their loved ones coming home.

Brian Lehrer: Well, let me follow up on that, because during the news conference at that meeting yesterday, an aunt of Abigail Edan, who did turn four just recently, and released, as you say, her aunt Liz Naftali criticized Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, saying that she was briefed, the aunt was briefed that there were several deals regarding the release of the hostages, and claimed that the holdup was with his government.

She also claimed the Prime Minister wants the war to continue so he can remain in office. Is it your understanding from Abigail Edan's aunt, or anyone else, that Netanyahu is holding up deals that could get hostages released?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: I have not heard that outside of Liz's testimony. Many Israeli citizens are very angry at their government because they don't feel they're prioritizing hostages enough, and there's been protests throughout Israel on that very subject. From America's perspective, we are continuing our prioritization of hostage releases, of a path to peace, of reducing hostilities that can impact innocent civilians, focusing on targeted anti-terrorism missions, and making sure that the conflict doesn't metastasize throughout the whole region.

The United States has been very clear with our allies and our Arab partners, how urgent the hostage releases are. It's why we've been in constant negotiations with Qatar as well as Egypt to encourage Arab allies or liaisons with Hamas, that they need to release innocent hostages now, and that this conflict cannot continue.

Brian Lehrer: Rula in Staten Island has a question about the hostages, I think. Rula, you're on WNYC with Senator Gillibrand. Hello.

Rula: Hi, good morning. Good morning. I'm calling this morning to press forward for a ceasefire in Palestine. This is a complete operating genocide. This is terrible. I feel terrible for the hostages. However, we have detainees in the Palestinian prison that are children. We have children's eyes that are blown out. Please speak to the Gazans, please speak to the Gazans. I cannot reiterate enough that this is an active genocide.

I need to hear support from our constituents, from your constituents, we want to hear your support. We want to understand that we know that you have a relationship with Israel, and it's purely political, however, there are innocent people dying.

Brian Lehrer: Senator?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Well, I share your concern and worry for innocent Palestinians who are being slaughtered in the process, but that is the aim of Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization. They have continually used hospitals and schools as bases of operations. I've seen the video of schools being used to house missiles and to launch missiles. I've seen a video of hospitals being used to hide munitions, to hide hostages, cages where hostages have been held. Hamas is the enemy here.

The only genocide that could be happening would be because of Hamas. This is not something that Israel is creating, this is something that Hamas is intending for the Palestinian people.

Brian Lehrer: Israel is waging the war in the way that it's waging, even if everybody accepts the premise that Hamas started it, and Hamas needs to be destroyed.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: I met with Israeli Defense Forces, on the trip we took to the Middle East. We met with leaders in Saudi Arabia, in Jordan, and in Israel. In meeting with their military, they have a very, very humanitarian-based and human rights-based assessment of targeting. They have to do very rigorous reviews about which sites they can target, how many innocent civilians could be collateral, and they do not allow some targeting to happen because there are too many innocent civilians that are present at the detriment of the security forces that are fighting combat in those locations.

Many have died because they didn't take out certain targets of Hamas targets. The reality is, this is what a war looks like, and this is the intention of the attack that Hamas made. They intended for Israel to retaliate to try to destroy Hamas and the terror networks. They built miles and miles of tunnels under Gaza so that they could bring munitions freely throughout all areas of Gaza so that they could be able to launch this attack.

They spent millions of dollars of relief aid, money that the United States sent to the Palestinians for food, water, housing, and economic development, to create a terror machine. This is what happens in a war. It is not easy to defeat terrorism. However, the United States is really pushing Israel to move to the next stage of their operations, to only targeted anti-terrorism missions, to use less ordinances and bombs that can kill too many civilians towards these targeted operations, and they have done that.

There's concern that this conflict could continue to grow to the north, with Hezbollah attacking Israel. We also have attacks on US troops in Iraq, Syria, and what you've just recently seen, with the Houthis launching attacks from Yemen against American, and our allies' shipping operations in the Red Sea, and we've had to respond to that. This is terrorism, unfortunately, rearing its ugly head, almost all supported by Iran.

Your enemy should be Iran and Hamas, and other terrorist groups that seek to destroy peace and destroy innocent life.

Brian Lehrer: We're going to get to the US and the Houthis as we go. I do want to acknowledge that most of the calls that have come in are various versions of challenging the US' unconditional support, as many callers are characterizing it, for Israel, the way they're fighting their side of the war. I'll take one more of those calls. Eric, in Queens, you're on WNYC with Senator Gillibrand. Hello, Eric.

Eric: Hello. My name is Eric. I'm a resident of Queens. As a Palestinian American, I wanted to know how you can care so much about women's and children's rights in this country while encouraging Israel to mass kill women and children in Gaza. Why haven't you called for a ceasefire? Why don't you vote for Senator Sanders' bill, which did the bare minimum to hold Israel accountable for its current genocide? I don't want to hear IDF's talking points again. I hear them enough, speak to me as an actual human being and as a constituent.

Brian Lehrer: Eric, let me follow up with you with a question before I turn it over to the Senator. I'm going to follow up specifically with her on the Bernie Sanders bill that you're referencing.

Eric: Yes, thank you.

Brian Lehrer: If you've been listening to Senator Gillibrand so far, she's been talking about how Hamas started this. Hamas wanted a big war to try to destroy Israel and draw others in, Hamas embeds among civilians, all of that. Do you want to blame both?

Eric: No, I don't want to blame both. Israel has been oppressing Palestinians for 75 years. When you have millions of people living in an open-air prison, terrorism organizations are going to arise. That's what happens. The only way to address this, is to have equality within Israel, Palestine, and the US is not supporting that or encouraging that, and by any means.

Brian Lehrer: Eric, thank you very much for your call. I'm going to play a clip of Senator Sanders that I have pulled for this, Senator Gillibrand, and get your reaction. This will focus on Eric's question. On CNN, on Sunday, Senator Sanders cited the more than 20,000 deaths, many of them women and children, as he called, for enforcing US law, for arming other countries that Sanders says Israel is violating. He cited the deaths, he cited the impending famine there, reported by the UN. He said this.

Senator Sanders: My view has been, from the beginning, Israel has a right to respond to this horrific terrorist attack from Hamas. You do not have a right to go to war against an entire people, women and children, and the United States Congress has got to act, because a lot of this destruction is being done with military weapons supplied by the United States of America. What the resolution that I'm introducing is about, it's consistent with a Foreign Assistance Act.

It says that if American Military assistance is given to any country, Saudi Arabia, Israel, any other country, it has got to be used consistent with human rights, international human rights standards, and American law. In my opinion, that is certainly not the case.

Brian Lehrer: Senator Gillibrand, what about-- in your opinion, is the US acting consistently with its own Foreign Assistance Act, considering some of the actions in the war?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Based on all the information I have, I believe it is acting consistent with the laws that we require of them. You are obligated to follow international human rights. Hamas is not following international human rights. Hamas refuses to let the Red Cross come in to look at hostages to make sure they're still alive, to give them medicine. Israel is following the human rights requirements of war. I just disagree with Senator Sanders's analysis, but your caller uses a lot of words that are not applicable.

Israel is not engaged in a genocide. Israel is not an occupying force of Gaza. It has been outside of Gaza for 15 years, where the Gazan population, the Palestinians, elected [unintelligible 00:14:55] as their government, which then proceeded to not allow for free elections. Palestinians have been able to form a state for the last 75 years and have chosen not to. We have not had good negotiating partners with the Palestinian government authorities to help them.

We also have an opportunity now to build that second Palestinian state. Part of the trip that I took to the Middle East was to talk to Arab leaders about their willingness to rebuild Gaza, to rebuild a Palestinian state, to actually participate in the anti-terrorism work of keeping Hamas out, and other terrorist proxies of Iran. Your caller doesn't believe that Israel has a right to exist. Your caller has said that he does not believe that what Hamas did was wrong.

Hamas raped, mutilated, and tortured women. People were beheaded brutally, people were tortured by objects, as well as individuals. Babies were slaughtered. These are facts. I've seen the evidence in the video international organizations has going on. We have never seen an organization commit the type of terror and assault on innocent civilians. What they did to the people who were at a concert.

The massive rape of the women that were there is so outrageous that your caller is not accepting that that is wrong. It's absolutely against every human rights requirement. It's against humanity. It is a crime against humanity. That lack of clarity and the misunderstanding of what has happened over 75 years, Israel has a right to exist because the world community came together after the Holocaust where 6 million Jews were slaughtered, that said they have a right to exist in a state of their own.

That's why political leadership matters. The Palestinians need to elect political leaders who will build a state. The United States is committed to that. We spent our trip in the Middle East asking Arab leaders to help us build that, and to help us fight against terrorism. Your enemy here is Iran and its proxies who are feeding terrorism to Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, terrorism against our troops, Americans in Iraq and Syria, against our shippers and our allies in the Red Sea.

That is what's happening in the Middle East right now. It is not a genocide against Palestinians. It is an effort to destroy Hamas and the terrorist organizations that want to kill babies, rape women, and destroy innocent lives. We will, as Americans, do everything we can to protect Palestinian innocent life too. We are urging Israel to change the nature of its combat operations against Hamas to provide more protection.

I can tell you the aid that's being sent in is not getting to the people who need it, because Hamas steal it for themselves first, and they bring it to their tunnels to keep their warfighters and their terrorists healthy, and able to continue the war. I'll tell you one more thing. Hamas has said, "Give us a ceasefire so that we can rebuild our terrorist operations, so we can invade Israel again. Give us a ceasefire so we can commit October 7 over and over and over again."

If your caller is for that, your caller is not for basic human decency and human rights. I would just be much more thoughtful in analyzing the facts and what the leaders of Hamas are saying that their intentions are.

Brian Lehrer: You talked about your trip to the Middle East this month. I know you went to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Israel, and I want to get your reaction to reporting today by NBC's Andrea Mitchell, who's been covering Secretary Blinken trip in the last week. She reports that the Saudi Crown Prince offered to normalize relations with Israel as part of a Gaza reconstruction agreement, a diplomatic development Netanyahu has long sought, she reports, but only if the Israeli leader agrees to provide Palestinians with a pathway to statehood.

According to officials she's citing, Netanyahu rejected the offer, officials said. Here's a little of Andrea Mitchell describing that potential breakthrough offer from the Saudis on MSNBC this morning.

Andrea Mitchell: Every Israeli leader prior to Benjamin Netanyahu has gone along with a two-state solution, giving the Palestinians some hope, some aspiration. That was not the demand of the Saudis and the other Arabs for normalization before October 7th, now it is. Multiple officials, Arab, as well as US officials, say that since October 7th, since everything's happened with the Israeli offensive, they feel that now, the demand has to be for a lot more for the Palestinians.

It has to be statehood. That is something that Netanyahu flatly rejected in the meetings. That's why the administration is now thinking of a post-Netanyahu world.

Brian Lehrer: NBC's Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC this morning. The headline, Senator, on her story, is, "Frustrations between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu mount." First of all, did you hear anything like that offer when you were in Saudi Arabia? Would you like to take a public stand here, that you're on Biden's side or Netanyahu's side on endorsing the framework of a two-state solution pathway in exchange for Saudi normalization?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Well, the purpose of my trip to the Middle East was to pitch that very deal. When I met with MBS, I literally offered the same vision because this is a vision we've had since the beginning of last year. When I took a trip with several senators to the Abraham Accords nations, I came on your show and told you about it, and this is what we talked about.

We talked to the countries that had already signed on, with the ambition of adding Saudi Arabia. This was the goal of Prime Minister Netanyahu at the time, was to create a regional defense agreement where each of these Arab nations would align themselves against Hamas, and against Iran and all its proxies. In exchange, the United States would not only provide economic ties, but military investments and ties.

What the Arab world and Israel would do for the United States would be to build a Palestinian state, to build it, and each Arab country would take responsibility for one thing, whether it was education, water treatment, economic development, food supply chains, or energy supply chains, and all of the Arab countries that were part of the Abraham Accords were all in, so UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Israel, all in, in January of last year. The hope was that we could get Saudi Arabia.

When I was in Saudi Arabia, meeting with MBS last week, a week and a half ago, I revisited the same issue. He, of course, said he was very open to this. He thought this was a very good solution. It was a way to create a path to peace on day two, after the war was over, to rebuild a Palestinian state, and that he committed in the meeting that I was with, that he would do anti-terrorism missions, that he would create stability for the Palestinians because that is not something Israel can do alone, and shouldn't have to ever do again.

It should be the responsibility of the Arab states to provide security, to fight against Hamas, to fight against Hezbollah, to fight against Iran, with the United States and Israel helping. MBS was very much open to that. With the Jordanians, the Jordanians were working overtime to get a new Palestinian leadership, because the current Palestinian leadership has been unable to create a Palestinian state for decades, and unwilling to even hold elections. The Jordanians were working overtime to secure a path to a new Palestinian leadership.

When we presented this idea, when I presented this idea in my five minutes with Prime Minister Netanyahu, he would not answer the question of the second state. I don't know if it's his unwillingness because of his current government or his change of view, or he's never ever going to consider it again, but he's wrong not to consider it, because this is the path to peace. This is what President Biden has in his vision for Middle East peace. This is what our allies have in their vision for Middle East peace.

This was the vision of the Israeli government before October 7th. I think October 7th was so brutal and so deeply destructive to the psyche of the Israeli government and the Israeli people, that they are not thinking straight. I'm hopeful that we can get Israel back on board, because this is the path to peace, and this is what should happen as soon as we can end the conflicts. I'm hoping this can happen in weeks and months, because this is something that has to happen now, before too many innocent lives are lost in both the Palestinians and in Israel.

Brian Lehrer: I want to acknowledge that many people are texting objections to your previous answer. I'll read a short one that sums up the gist. It says, "The atrocities of October 7th were horrific, but the senator hiding behind that bloody flag to justify a horrific response." Let me follow up with a specific question that I think gets to part of what the listeners are writing about, and also in response-- It goes to what Senator Sanders was saying.

If you are saying, as you did say a minute ago, that you support the US putting pressure on Israel to fight the war in a less intensive way, meaning to preserve more civilians' lives. Why wouldn't you be for enforcing that by placing conditions on the military aid rather than just saying what you said, which critics will say is empty words?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: There are conditions on our military aid that they have to follow all human rights requirements and all laws. As you have said, and as the caller has said, and as Hamas has said, Israel is fighting for its existence. Many people, and certainly Hamas, does not believe Israel has a right to exist. If you have the expansion of this war, if Hezbollah starts increasing its violence from the north and you have more incursions by the Houthis, Israel will be fighting a war on three fronts to exist.

Brian Lehrer: What does that have to do with the intensity of the war that you want to diminish?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: You have to be successful in defeating terrorists, and terrorism, and it's not an option to ask nicely. It's not an option to just fight a little bit. It's very hard to defeat terrorism. As you know, America had a very hard time responding to 911. I didn't agree with all the actions of the Bush administration, and I voted against it many, many times, but defeating Al-Qaeda, defeating ISIS is really hard, and America tried for 20 years to degrade it.

We had the support of the countries where they were being housed. We ultimately had the support of Iraq and Afghanistan. It's hard, because we did anti-terrorism missions with their support. We need to get to a point where we can do anti-terrorism missions with the support of the Palestinian government. Hopefully, if we rebuild a Palestine, that will be part of the ongoing operations of work between Arab states and Palestinians to defeat terrorism.

You cannot respond to a terrorist organization invading your country and killing your civilians, you have to protect your civilians somehow. It's very hard, it's not easy. We want more strategic missions. We want less bombs. We are urging them to do so, and they actually have done. Their largest brigades are already leaving Gaza and going back to their original stations. They have begun those reduced presence operations.

The people who are upset are not knowledgeable of how you fight terrorism and how you do it effectively, and it's very hard to do.

Brian Lehrer: A few more minutes in our monthly Call Your Senator segment, with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. We are going to turn the page for the rest of the segment and talk about other things. Jeremy in Astoria, you're on WNYC. Hello, Jeremy.

Jeremy: Yes, hi. Thanks so much, Senator. It's an honor to speak with you. I'll give you a break from the Middle East here for a minute. I wanted to ask about federal alcohol taxes. Brian has had discussions on his show recently about alcohol consumption being up and the national debt growing. Alcohol taxes have not been adjusted for inflation since the early 1990s, which is costing us billions in annual revenue.

Also, adequate taxes on alcohol can discourage excessive consumption and cut into underage drinking. Lastly, I'm sure the lobbyists from the alcohol industry would say, "Oh, it would be unfair to adjust these rates because people just want to go to the bar and have a drink." Well, in a Manhattan bar tonight, the federal alcohol tax on a martini is less than $0.15.

Brian Lehrer: Jeremy, I'm going to leave it there for time. Senator, are federal alcohol taxes and the possibility of increasing them on your radar at all?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: It's not on my radar, but I will look into it, and I will investigate your assessment, I don't know much about it, so I will look at it.

Brian Lehrer: Eric in Manhattan, you're on WNYC, with Senator Gillibrand. Hello, Eric.

Eric: Good morning. My name is Eric Weltman. I'm a senior organizer with Food & Water Watch. Senator Gillibrand, I have some bad news. New York's fracking ban is under assault. There's a newly formed Texas company. There's attempting to evade our fracking ban with a scheme to drill thousands of wells and construct a dozen gas-burning power plants. This company, Senator Gillibrand, called Southern Tier Solutions, wants to use carbon dioxide captured from burning fossil fuels to, believe it or not, extract even more fossil fuels.

It's a dangerous, expensive, and unproven experiment that threatens our water, our communities, and our climate. Senator Gillibrand, we just hope that you'll speak out and urge Governor Hochul and the legislature to ban this dangerous threat to New York's water communities and climate.

Brian Lehrer: Eric, you're saying even though there's a fracking ban statewide in New York already, which was imposed by Governor Cuomo a few years ago, that there's a Texas company finding a loophole?

Eric: Absolutely. That ban, by the way, was enshrined into law by the legislature. Because this company is using carbon dioxide, again, captured from burning fossil fuels, that's a loophole in the law. It's an incredible threat to our waters, community, and climate. [crosstalk] It would be immensely helpful if you could speak out against this dangerous threat.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much, Eric. Thank you. Senator, is this new on your radar?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Yes. I've been really fighting against fracking throughout our state for a long time, because clean water is one of the greatest assets we have in our state, and it's necessary for agriculture, tourism, for a lot of the economic development throughout upstate. As for the New York City listeners, we get unfiltered water from the water table upstate.

If that gets destroyed through fracking, which has grave risks to groundwater, it would be devastating and cost us billions, hundreds of billions of dollars to rectify. I will look into this loophole and I will find out if there's anything I can do to prevent any increase in fracking in our state.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Eric. We only have a few minutes left. I see you released a report on initial results from the bipartisan Gun Safety Bill that Congress passed and that you were involved with, not nearly the gun safety laws that you want, but the most Congress has been able to pass in many years. Would you remind listeners what got passed and tell us your assessment of the initial results?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: One of the first bills I ever wrote was Anti-Gun Trafficking Bill in 2009. We've been trying to pass it since. We got a pass last year. It created a ban on gun trafficking of firearms into states like ours, from other states that have lesser firearm rules, so far, we've been prosecuting these traffickers to great success. Law enforcement has seized over 1,300 guns from suspected traffickers, including 120 in New York State.

160 defendants across the least 20 states have been charged under these laws. The guns seized are every kind of gun, about 190 were AR–15 style, 151 ghost guns, 176 suspected machine guns. This is meaningful and we've had some serious prosecutions of different gang chains, like Latin Kings, throughout the Tri-state area. We've arrested traffickers in the Bronx. We've arrested traffickers that were bringing weapons from Columbus, Ohio, all across the country and all across New York.

Brian Lehrer: Last thing, I also see that today you'll be calling, or maybe you did it before you came on, for federal funding to help low-income families afford their water bills. What's the issue and what's your proposal?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: We're just trying to make it more affordable for people to get heat in the winter. Our LIHEAP program is one of our most successful national programs that gets resources into New York. The average family right now spends more than about a thousand dollars on water costs, which can be a significant burden, just like LIHEAP. We are building on the work we've done to try to apply it to water as well, to make sure we can get their cost down and to make sure we can subsidize the cost of their water bills.

Brian Lehrer: Can I tack one on, just in case you have anything to report? I know this is fluid in the last few days. Anything new to report on progress toward a border deal with the Republicans, or federal help for New York with so many asylum seekers? Governor Hochul announced that she will be the latest New York official to come down to DC and lobby for that. Anything to report?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Yes. We have a very strong bipartisan negotiating team working with the White House. We want to create a bipartisan consensus about ways to improve our immigration system, because it's obviously broken. We have upwards of 10,000 people coming into the country, not all, but many seeking asylum. We don't have the ability to assess the claims to adjudicate the claims fairly, it's taking two to three years to adjudicate asylum claims. It should take a few months.

As a consequence, states like New York are receiving thousands of thousands of migrants, and it's very expensive to house them, to feed them, and to provide them legal assistance so they can do their claims. The bipartisan group is working on what should the process be for asylum seeking. How many lawyers and judges do we need? How do we do it faster? How are there better legal systems to apply for so everyone just doesn't show up to the border seeking asylum?

That's what they're talking about. I think the area of disagreement is what president authorities will still exist to give asylum status to certain countries. Once they decide on where the common sense bipartisan compromise is there, we'll have something to vote on. This bill is tied to our investment in helping humanitarian aid across the globe as well as Israel and Ukraine. We are hoping to have a deal sometime in the next week or two.

Brian Lehrer: Sometime in the next week or two. Senator Gillibrand, we always appreciate that you come on and answer a lot of questions, including some tough ones. Thank you very much.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: My pleasure. Thank you.

 

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