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“PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S2386-S2387 on April 9, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Madam President, it has become very clear to me and to others that the linchpin of stabilizing the Middle East and also to developing an allied coalition of Arab nations in the war on terrorism is the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unfortunately, in the past 2 weeks, while Congress has been on recess, we have seen an escalation of violence. I strongly believe that Yasser Arafat must shut down the suicide bombers or there will be no opportunity for peace in the Middle East.
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia expressed a vision for a peace plan. Secretary Powell is in the area to see if he can capitalize on this vision and restore peace and stability, at least to get a cease-fire. His job is, indeed, a difficult one.
The suicide bombings are a potent weapon and they have been precisely calculated to destroy any chance for peace. Again, why? If these suicide bombers cannot be stopped, the situation can only deteriorate and the result will only be full scale military conflagration.
Israel cannot be expected to place a limit on her own self-defense or end her effort to capture terrorists so long as fanatics on the Palestinian side continue to plot and carry out these attacks.
Indeed, some 30 years ago, I recall hearing former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir say:
We are not going to die so the world will think well of us.
An overwhelming majority of the Israeli people still feel the same and believe as I do that Israel has a legitimate right to self-defense.
Forces under the control of Yasser Arafat have been directly involved in perpetrating the recent wave of deadly terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. Many of these attacks have been carried out by Arafat-affiliated groups such as the Al Aqsa Brigade, recently designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization, and the Tanzim. These are parts of his own military apparatus.
During the week of Passover, 46 Israelis were killed and more than 120 wounded. In March alone, 125 Israelis were killed in the attacks which culminated in the bombing of the Passover ceremony in Netanya.
According to documents recently seized by the Israeli military from Palestinian Authority headquarters, one of Arafat's top advisers who works out of his office is directly involved in financing the illegal weapons purchases and the terror activities of the Al Aqsa Brigade. This same Palestinian Authority was directly involved in efforts to illegally smuggle in more than 50 tons of arms from Iran a few months ago.
Arafat resumed using terror as a tactic after he walked away from Israel's historic peace concessions at Camp David in 2000. The offer placed on the table at Camp David may not have been perfect, although I happen to believe it was excellent, giving the Palestinians 96 percent of what they wanted. They have not put an offer on the table. Rather, they have opted for violence.
Since the fall of 2000, Arafat and his forces have engaged in hundreds of acts of terror against Israel, principally targeted at civilians. Arafat and other Palestinian officials have been directly involved in inciting violence against Israel. Arafat and other Palestinian officials have been directly involved in failing to thwart terrorist operations because they know how powerful those operations are.
Arafat and other Palestinian Authority officials have been directly involved in releasing terrorist suspects rather than arresting them. Arafat and other Palestinian Authority officials have been directly involved in failing to confiscate the weapons of terrorist suspects.
All of these actions are required under the terms of peace agreements he signed and to which he claims to be still committed. So why is all of this happening? I believe there is a hidden agenda, and that hidden agenda is to drive out the Jewish people and create a Palestinian state, which includes Israel. This has been the Palestinians' historic quest. Many of us hoped that through the Oslo process this quest could have been changed. But I am increasingly beginning to believe it has not been changed.
It may be unreasonable to expect that Arafat will be 100 percent successful in bringing Hamas and the Islamic Jihad totally under his control. But he can control Fatah and the Al Aqsa brigades and the Tanzim. So far, it is impossible to make the argument that he has even tried. We must remember that Yasser Arafat has rejected all Israeli peace plans, and he rejected General Zinni's recent cease-fire plan, which Israel accepted.
General Zinni went to the Palestinians and said: What do you need? He then went to the Israelis and said: What do you need? He then put them together and presented each with a cease-fire plan. The Israelis accepted it; the Palestinians did not. So one must believe the Palestinians could stop this violence if they wanted.
Israeli soldiers are now going door to door. If they retreat, I believe it will be back to the suicide bombing as usual. In the past 2 weeks, there have been no suicide bombings, since the last bombing on March 31 at the Haifa restaurant which killed 14 people. The Israeli Defense Forces, IDF, have arrested roughly 1,500 people and placed 500 on the wanted list. The Israeli Defense Forces have captured more than 2,000 weapons of various types, including thousands of guns and ammunition, 44 combat vests and suicide belts, more than 60 pounds of high explosives, and nearly 50 rocket-propelled grenades and launchers. They have captured night vision equipment and sniper rifles. The IDF has also discovered 11 weapons and explosives laboratories.
In the final analysis, if there is to be a peaceful resolution of the crisis, and if there is to be a Palestinian state alongside Israel, Mr. Arafat must make every effort to take the measures necessary to bring the suicide bombing and this kind of violence to an end. That is the responsibility he bears as a leader if he wants to see his people truly live in peace and freedom.
If Secretary Powell is unable to make concrete progress in ending the violence and moving the peace process forward, I intend to move forward shortly on an updated version of the Middle East peace compliance legislation that I introduced with Senator McConnell last fall.
The stakes are enormous. As an editorial last Thursday in the Washington Post--and I find myself strongly agreeing--stated:
It should not be hard to agree that a person who detonates himself in a pizza parlor or a discotheque filled with children, spraying scrap metal and nails in an effort to kill and maim as many of them as possible, has done something evil that can only discredit and damage whatever cause he hopes to advance. That Muslim governments cannot agree on this is shameful evidence of their own moral and political corruption.
And,
The Palestinian national cause will never recover--nor should it--until its leadership is willing to break definitively with the bombers. And Muslim states that support such sickening carnage will risk not just stigma, but their own eventual self destruction.
So either terror ends or full-scale war begins. This is the way I see it.
Hopefully, the world will respond. Despite all that has happened, the United States can and should encourage Israel to sit down at the negotiating table for one final try. We should be responsible to get the Israelis to that table. But if the United States is to do so, the Arab world must also rise to the occasion and exercise this same control over Arafat and the Palestinian terrorists. That should be the responsibility of the Arab world.
I must say I was struck by the unhelpful nature of Ambassador Bandar bin Sultan's recent op-ed piece in the Washington Post. It seems to me if there is ever a time for responsible Arab governments to shut down suicide bombing as an acceptable tactic for anything and push Yasser Arafat into a cease-fire, real negotiations, and a peace plan, that time is now. Both the Saudis and the Egyptians are well known for seeking and destroying terrorists or others who threaten them. But they fail to allow Israel the right to do the same or to destroy the infrastructure that organizes and arms the suicide bomber and recompenses the bomber's family. Suddenly, those who kill and maim Israeli citizens are heroes, as long as it is only Israelis they kill.
Some believe that the Saudis want to have it both ways--support Americans in our war against terror, and support Yasser Arafat as he wages terror. Ambassador Bandar bin Sultan gives credibility to this argument. Any premature withdrawal of Israeli troops before they are able to seek out and destroy the members of the terrorist network must be replaced by a serious commitment of the United States and all moderate Arab States to stop the terrorist bombing. If it is not, then this country's war against terror will be mortally wounded by hypocrisy.
I suggest that Secretary Colin Powell pick up the Saudi peace plan and place it squarely on the table of world opinion, with the following caveats:
1. Withdrawal of Israel to the 1967 borders and agreement to the creation of a Palestinian State, to be conditioned by: A, defensible borders; and, B, a division of Jerusalem along the lines of that proposed by President Clinton at Camp David.
2. A 5-year phaseout of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This is a difficult pill to swallow, but it is also one that has to be done if there is going to be true peace and the ability of an Israeli State to stand side by side with the Palestinian State.
3. No physical Palestinian right of return but just compensation as provided for in United Nations Resolution 194.
4. All suicide bombings stop or the agreement is invalidated.
5. A peacekeeping and monitoring of the agreement by the United Nations and/or the United States over the next 5-year period.
If it is true that all Palestinians want is their own state and government, then they shall have it. If it is also true that what they really want is the destruction of the State of Israel, then this will become crystal clear to the world. Israel has a right to live in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders, and only Arab States committed to peace can bring this to a peaceful end.
The ongoing wave of terror threatens the survival of Israel as a free democratic and civilized society, and it risks engulfing the entire Middle East in chaos and war.
Israel must fight against this terror, just as we do, just as surely as the United States must fight and destroy al-Qaida and the other terrorist groups with global reach. And I firmly believe the United States should stand by Israel's side in the quest for peace and security.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
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