[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 55 (Thursday, April 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H3841-H3842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE SHOULD HEAR THEIR LEADERS SAY THERE IS NO 
                    ALTERNATIVE TO PEACE WITH ISRAEL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York [Mr. Engel] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, just yesterday the Palestinian Assembly 
finally took steps to amend their charter, which calls for Israel's 
destruction. I have been speaking about that for a number of years here 
on the House floor. The United States aid to the Palestinian entity, 
which is about a half a billion dollars, is predicated on the removal 
of those covenants. Just last week I took that to the House floor and 
said that the date, May 7, is the date by which the covenants must be 
amended. According to United States law that date is 2 months after the 
Palestinian elections.
  Yesterday the Palestinian Assembly did take steps to remove the 
covenants. The council amends the Palestinian national covenant by 
canceling clauses which contradict the letters exchanged between the 
PLO and the Israel Government. So, in essence, the clauses which 
contradict the letters exchanged by the PLO and the Israeli Government 
are those clauses which call for the destruction of Israel.
  That is a positive step, although I must say, Mr. Speaker, it would 
have been far better if they would have been much more explicit and 
explicitly mentioned the covenants which are revoked. That would have 
been a lot better. Still, I want to give credit where credit is due.
  The second thing to which they agreed was that the Palestinian 
Assembly would draft a new charter within a few short months. We are 
going to be looking and we are going to be seeing what is the language 
in that charter. We want to make sure that the new charter that is 
drafted has language which is compatible with pursuing peace. I think 
that is very, very important.
  Again, while I commend the Palestinian authority and commend Yasser 
Arafat for taking steps finally to remove the covenants which call for 
Israel's destruction, I want them to know that we in the United States 
Congress will continue to monitor the situation very closely and 
continue to watch the new charter which is going to be drafted by the 
Palestinian assembly.
  We do not want double talk. The problem on the Palestinian side for 
too long has been doublespeak, talking out of 10 or 15 sides of their 
mouth. If you want peace you need to be unequivocal, you need to state 
that you want peace, and you need to say it both in English and in 
Arabic, so it is not only for American public opinion consumption but 
it is for the home crowd, so to speak. The Palestinian people should 
hear their leaders say that there is no alternative to peace with 
Israel. I wanted to say that.
  I wanted to also comment on some of the other events in the Middle 
East. I found it a bit hypocritical that the U.N. Human Rights 
Commission in Geneva condemned Israel for the bombings in Lebanon, in a 
totally one-sided and ridiculous resolution, which said nothing about 
the Hezbollah guerillas which started this whole thing. The United 
States, to our credit, voted against it. There were only a handful of 
countries voting against it.
  I thought it was especially hypocritical for the U.N. Human Rights 
Commission to do that, at the same time when the U.N. Human Rights 
Commission recommendations against the human rights abuse in China were 
not supported by the majority of countries voting, so it is hypocrisy, 
again. I think that is a bit ridiculous.
  In Lebanon, Mr. Speaker, we ought to call it the way it is. That is, 
clearly, that the disruption and the hardship on both the Israeli 
population and the Lebanese population near the border rests solely 
with Syria, and with Hafiz al-Asad.

                              {time}  1345

  Syria, in essence, controls Lebanon. Lebanon has really ceased to 
exist as a free and independent state. There are 40,000 Syrian troops 
in Lebanon, and if the Syrian troops wanted to, they could control 
Hezbollah. They could prevent Hezbollah from wreaking havoc on Israeli 
civilians just south of the border.
  That is what happened again and again and again during the past few 
weeks. No government at all can tolerate the wanton shelling of its 
citizens without some kind of response, and that is exactly what the 
Israeli Government has done. They have responded to the Hezbollah 
attacks.
  Now, the Israeli attacks have hurt and killed civilians, and it is 
very, very unfortunate that civilians are maimed or killed. But it 
should be remembered that the Israeli troops, the Israeli attacks are 
going after the Hezbollah terrorists, whereas Hezbollah is specifically 
going after Israeli civilians.
  So I say to the Syrian Government and to Mr. Assad, who talks a good 
game of peace but has shown absolutely zero, the nerve of him to keep 
our Secretary of State waiting and not

[[Page H3842]]

to meet with Secretary Christopher. I think we will watch the events in 
the Middle East very, very closely, and I am glad that peace seems to 
be moving forward.

                          ____________________