[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 38 (Friday, March 21, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1286]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SUICIDE BOMBING IN TEL AVIV

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Saxton] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, recall with me for just a moment where you 
were and where all of our friends were on the day the World Trade 
Center was bombed and think back for a minute about how that made us 
feel. It is within that kind of a context that I viewed an occurrence 
earlier today when I heard that a bomb had been exploded in Tel Aviv by 
a suicide bomber. I immediately picked up the telephone and called a 
friend that lives in Tel Aviv with her husband, an elderly, older 
couple, and she described to me over the telephone what a friend of 
hers, an eyewitness to this bombing, saw.
  It seems that it was lunchtime and the waiter, who was the one who 
described this, saw a man who looked like he did not belong there enter 
the streetside cafe with two bags. As the waiter approached the 
individual to find out why he was there, he simply sat a bag on the 
chair, which caused the bag to explode. Forty-seven people were wounded 
and 3 were killed by this fanatic who caused this to happen.
  The Associated Press writes an account of what it was like. The 
Associated Press writes:

       The blast scattered chairs, tables and umbrellas on a tree-
     lined boulevard just yards away from City Hall. Smoke rose 
     from the charred wood and cloth umbrellas, and napkins and 
     half-eaten plates of food were strewn about.
       Among the injured was a 6-month-old girl in a red and blue 
     clown costume. Her head was matted with blood as she was 
     carried away screaming.
       There was a powerful boom, glass flying everywhere, and 
     there was a lot of blood, said the cafe's shift manager who 
     gave his name as Roi. He sobbed hysterically, sitting back on 
     the sidewalk holding his head.

  This happened today. This happened in a cafe that I have visited. 
This happened within 2 blocks of my friends' home, and it causes us as 
Americans to wonder why.
  Well, one does not have to look far to find out why, because, as the 
Speaker knows, during Desert Shield and Desert Storm the West proved to 
those countries that would sponsor these kinds of acts that in order 
for them to carry out their desired, or to attain their desired goals, 
they are going to have to find some way to do it other than through 
conventional military means, and terror is one of the tools they use. 
What I described is terror. What is in this AP article is something 
that we as Americans find hard to believe and can only imagine. And yet 
in that part of the world, this is an all too often occurrence.
  As we look to see why the same AP article quotes some individuals who 
may have had something to do with this. If I can quote an Hamas leader, 
Ibrahim Maqadmeh, ``Jerusalem will not be restored by negotiations, but 
only with holy war, whatever the sacrifices,'' he said today, he told a 
crowd of 50,000 cheering people in Khan Unis in the Gaza Strip.
  In the West Bank town of Nablus, a different Hamas leader told the 
crowd of 10,000 supporters this afternoon, today, ``I have good news 
for you,'' he said. ``There is a suicide operation in Tel Aviv'' today.
  The crowd clapped and cheered. God is great. This is the only 
language that the occupiers, meaning the Israelis, the occupiers, this 
is the only language the occupiers understand, the language of 
martyrdom, said the Hamas leader Hamed Bitawi.

                              {time}  1400

  These are difficult situations to talk about and, for me, quite 
impossible to understand, and I hope, Mr. Speaker, that the American 
people and particularly the administration will take note of this 
event.

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