text: SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
  
      Congress finds the following:
              (1) Since 1948, the United States, Greece, and the 
          international community at large have recognized Israel's right 
          to exist and to defend itself and conduct legitimate self-
          defense.
              (2) Since 2001, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and 
          the other Palestinian terrorist organizations operating in the 
          Gaza Strip and supported by Iran and Syria have launched over 
          10,000 rockets into Israeli civilian populations and across 
          Israeli territory.
              (3) Since the beginning of 2010, Israel has provided over 
          100,000 tons of aid to the people living in Gaza.
              (4) Israel's blockade is acknowledged by the United States 
          as necessary and legal given Hamas' control of Gaza, intention 
          to secure greater weaponry for aggressive purposes and open 
          desire to destroy Israel.
              (5) According to sources, the United Nations-commissioned 
          Palmer Report which was released on July 7, 2011, concludes 
          that the Israeli naval blockade on Gaza is legal and is in 
          accordance with international law.
              (6) The Israeli Government has repeatedly indicated that 
          any desire to provide humanitarian materiel to Gaza can be done 
          through the port of Ashdod then delivered to Gaza by land.
              (7) Recent past history has suggested that the sole intent 
          of the flotillas is to provoke an Israeli military response in 
          the international waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
              (8) The Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of 
          the Treasury have determined that flotilla organizers Free Gaza 
          and the Insan Hak ve Hurriyetleri ve Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), 
          an Islamic nongovernmental organization (known in English as 
          the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian 
          Relief), have known terrorist ties.
              (9) In 2010, IHH organized a flotilla that included the 
          ship Mavi Marmara carrying 40 IHH members, including Fatima 
          Mahmadi, Ken O'Keefe, Hassan Iynasi, Hussein Urosh, Ahmad 
          Umimon, and others with known links to Al Qaeda, Hamas, and 
          other terrorist organizations who were armed with 100 metal 
          rods, 200 knives, 150 military self-defense vests, 50 wooden 
          clubs, gas masks, and a telescopic sight for a gun.
              (10) The explicit objective of the Gaza Flotilla organizers 
          that set sail in 2010 was to breach Israel's coastal security 
          by breaking the lawful and legitimate Israeli maritime security 
          perimeter around the Gaza Strip.
              (11) According to a June 7, 2010, report by the 
          Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (known by its 
          Hebrew acronym MALAM), based on security interviews of the Gaza 
          Flotilla participants, at least 40 of the 500 passengers aboard 
          the Mavi Marmara vessel were IHH operatives who boarded the 
          ship in an Istanbul port prior to the security checks conducted 
          at the port in Antalya, Turkey, to which the other passengers, 
          mostly humanitarian volunteers, were subject.
              (12) According to this Intelligence and Terrorism 
          Information Center report, these IHH activists were equipped 
          with communications equipment, flak jackets, and gas masks.
              (13) The group operated with a clear internal hierarchy, 
          with specific activists nominated as fighting commanders and 
          who turned the upper deck of the Mavi Marmara into its 
          headquarters, blocking it off to other passengers.
              (14) In the most recent organization of a Gaza flotilla, 
          Greece worked with the Israeli Government in order to prohibit 
          any violations of Israel's legal blockade of Gaza.
              (15) Greece has proven itself to be a strategic partner and 
          ally of the United States in anchoring political stability and 
          advancing economic development in the Balkan and Black Sea 
          regions of southeast Europe and Eurasia, in the Middle East and 
          northern Africa, and throughout the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
              (16) Greece is an active participant in peacekeeping and 
          peace-building operations conducted by international 
          organizations, including the United Nations, the North Atlantic 
          Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU), and the 
          Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
              (17) Greece acted without hesitation in prohibiting any 
          Greek-flagged or foreign-flagged vessels from setting sail out 
          of Greek ports into the water of the Gaza naval blockade.
              (18) Pursuant to a decision by the Minister of Citizen 
          Protection, Mr. C. Papoutsis, the departure of ships with Greek 
          and foreign flags from Greek ports to Gaza was prohibited on 
          July 1, 2011, and the Hellenic Coast Guard ordered that all 
          appropriate measures be taken for the implementation of such 
          decision.
              (19) The Greek Government worked diligently to ensure the 
          safety of even the organizers of the flotilla knowing that 
          their reckless, irresponsible, and provocative acts against a 
          sovereign country engaged in self-defense could result in great 
          bodily harm or even death to themselves and other individuals.
              (20) The Greek Government took more extraordinary measures 
          to ensure that the broader maritime area of the eastern 
          Mediterranean Sea would be continuously monitored by electronic 
          means for tracking, where applicable, the movements of the 
          ships allegedly participating in such an illegal campaign.
              (21) Greek authorities boarded ships and took into custody 
          several individuals, including Captain John Klusmire of the 
          ship Audacity of Hope as it violated Greek Coast Guard orders 
          by setting sail without permission.
              (22) Greek authorities acted in accordance with the 
          recommendation of the Quartet--the United States, the European 
          Union, the United States and Russia--as it urged countries to 
          prohibit Gaza-bound flotillas that would serve solely to 
          escalate tension in the Middle East.
  
  SEC. 2. DECLARATION OF CONGRESS.
  
      Congress--
              (1) notes the important role that Greece has played in the 
          wider European, Eurasian, and Middle Eastern regions, and in 
          the community of nations by promoting, peace, freedom, 
          democracy, and security; and
              (2) stands behind Israel for its sovereign right to defend 
          its citizens and its territory, and specifically for its 
          actions to prevent the import of offensive weaponry into the 
          hands of Hamas, Palestinian Jihad, and other terrorist 
          organizations in the Gaza Strip.
  
  SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
  
      It is the sense of Congress that the United States should take 
  appropriate diplomatic steps to express gratitude to Greece for 
  upholding the rule of law in preventing hostile forces from violating a 
  legal naval blockade of Gaza by Israel and thereby advancing the 
  security of its ally Israel.
  
  SEC. 4. REPORT.
  
      (a) In General.--Not later than six months after the date of the 
  enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the 
  Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the 
  Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a report on whether any 
  support organization that participated in the planning or execution of 
  the recent Gaza flotilla attempt should be designated as a foreign 
  terrorist organization pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and 
  Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189).
      (b) Contents.--The report required under subsection (a) shall 
  include information on the following:
              (1) The sources of any logistical, technical, or financial 
          support for the Gaza flotilla ships, including the Audacity of 
          Hope, that were set to set sail from Greece on July 1, 2011.
              (2) Any actions taken by the Department of State to express 
          support and gratitude for the principled stance taken by the 
          Government of Greece to prevent the recent Gaza flotilla 
          attempt to violate Israel's lawful blockade of Gaza.
target: Expresses the sense of Congress that the United States should take diplomatic steps to express gratitude to Greece for upholding the rule of law in preventing hostile forces from violating a legal naval blockade of Gaza by Israel and thereby advancing the security of its ally Israel.
  
  Directs the Secretary of State to report to Congress on whether any support organization that participated in the planning or execution of the recent Gaza flotilla attempt should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
feat_title: To direct the Secretary of State to submit a report on whether any support organization that participated in the planning or execution of the recent Gaza flotilla attempt should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization and any actions taken by the Department of State to express gratitude to the government of Greece for preventing the Gaza flotilla from setting sail in contravention of Israel's legal blockade of Gaza, and for other purposes.