[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 138 (Monday, September 30, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11834-S11835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              FOREIGN AID

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I now want to comment for a moment or two 
about one aspect of the appropriations process. That is the issue of 
foreign aid, which is tied into U.S. policy in the Mideast, and what is 
happening today in Israel and the conflict between Israel and the 
Palestinians, the PLO and the forthcoming summit with leaders from the 
Mideast, which is to be held in Washington tomorrow and the day after.
  I commented on this issue on Saturday as well, Mr. President. It is 
my hope that the parties, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, will be 
able to work out their problems. They are now coming to Washington with 
additional leaders from the Mideast in an overtone which may suggest 
pressure on the parties, pressure specifically on Prime Minister 
Binyamin Netanyahu.
  It is my view, Mr. President, that it is intolerable to have a 
situation where the Palestinians are firing on Israeli soldiers. The 
Palestinians are firing on Israeli soldiers with rifles and ammunition 
provided by the Israelis, pursuant to the Oslo Accords, so that the 
Palestinian police can contain the areas in Gaza and the other areas in 
which they have been given a limited amount of local authority. There 
was never any intention that those Palestinian police were to be an 
army to engage in what is, in effect, virtual warfare against the State 
of Israel.
  This makes us pause as we see a demonstration of what might occur if 
the peace process goes forward and if there is great authority for the 
PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, now known as the 
Palestinian Authority, as to what they may hope or seek to accomplish 
with a separate Palestinian state. That certainly is not part of the 
agreement on the Oslo Accords.
  A few months after the signing on the White House lawn of September 
13, 1993, I and others from this body went to take a look at what was 
happening, and we had a chance to meet with Chairman Arafat, had a 
chance to visit Jericho and Gaza, and we saw the flags of a Palestinian 
state which was already being assumed when the ink was barely dry on 
the Oslo Accords signed a few months earlier. That was not what was 
intended.
  Now we have a de facto Palestinian state with a police force 
estimated between 30,000 and 40,000, which is a veritable army. That 
context, I submit, Mr. President, is simply an intolerable situation.
  Going back to September 13, 1993, when I saw Arafat honored on the 
White House Lawn, it was a very, very difficult day considering that 
this was the man who was implicated in the murder of the United States 
charge in the Sudan in 1974. This is the man who was implicated in 
massive killings and terrorism against Israel. This is the man who led 
the hijacking of the Achille Lauro leading to the murder of Mr. 
Klinghoffer, who was pushed off the deck of the Achille Lauro in his 
wheelchair. It was pretty hard to sit on the White House Lawn and watch 
that man honored.
  It seemed to me that if Prime Minister Rabin and then Foreign 
Minister Peres were willing to shake Arafat's hand, considering that 
Israel had suffered the most at the hands of PLO atrocities, then the 
United States ought to try to be helpful.
  But now we see that a summit is planned. And, as this morning's press 
quotes, Arafat is betting that Prime Minister Netanyahu will come under 
pressure from President Clinton. If this is the case, I think it is 
time to rethink precisely what we are doing.
  Israel voted for the Likud-Netanyahu government this past election 
expressing their concerns for security. It is very easy for people 
thousands of miles away from the locale to say, ``Well, there ought to 
be pressure, and there ought to be in effect a determination, if not a 
dictation, as to what the Israeli elected officials ought to do.''
  It is my sense that Prime Minister Netanyahu can hold his own and 
make decisions for himself. But it is also my sense that there ought to 
be a statement made that the situation is intolerable with the 
Palestinians firing on Israeli soldiers, and that the United States 
ought not to exert pressure as to what the Israelis are to do in terms 
of their own security.
  I had a chance to meet with Chairman Arafat last month in Gaza. And

[[Page S11835]]

when he asked about aid from the United States, I reminded him about 
the provisions of our law which require the Palestinian authorities to 
change the PLO charter before such aid will be granted. He brought me a 
document which simply said that all provisions of the charter 
inconsistent with the September 13, 1993, agreement were invalid, which 
hardly reaches the issue about the provisions of the PLO charter 
calling for the destruction of Israel. It was obviously insufficient.
  Then there are the provisions of American law which call upon the 
Palestinian authorities to take strong steps against terrorism. I think 
they have not done that. The closing of the border is difficult with 
Romanians and others coming in to handle jobs in Israel. But when the 
open borders mean terrorism, and destruction of Israeli buses, it is 
not hard to understand why as a matter of security those borders are 
closed.
  When I discussed with Chairman Arafat the issue of terrorism, he 
discussed Abu Nidal, somebody that he knows well--had known well--and 
Abu Abbas who was implicated in the Achille Lauro hijacking and is 
under a 30-year sentence in absentia from the Italian court. Chairman 
Arafat said that Abu Abbas raised his hand to change the PLO charter. 
Those are matters which require a lot of consideration as to just what 
may be expected of the Israeli Government in terms of trusting the PLO 
and trusting the Palestinian authorities.
  Do the leopards change their spots? Here we have the Palestinian 
police firing on Israeli soldiers with guns and bullets provided by the 
Israelis.
  So let us take a look at what we expect to be done. Certainly the 
matters ought to be subject to negotiation. But we really ought not to 
allow the Palestinian authority and Arafat to get what they want at the 
bargaining table by rioting and warfare.
  (The remarks of Mr. Specter pertaining to the introduction of 
legislation are located in today's Record under ``Statements on 
Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. SPECTER. I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  Mr. INHOFE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.

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