[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 89 (Wednesday, July 8, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7695-S7696]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         JERUSALEM POST EDITORIAL ON AMENDING THE PLO COVENANT

 Mr. MACK. Mr. President, there is much discussion in the news 
about the slow progress of the Middle East Peace Process. 
Unfortunately, much of the criticism is pointed at Israel's Prime 
Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. I was pleased to read, however, the 
Jerusalem Post's editorial of July 6 titled

[[Page S7696]]

``The Missing Summit'' which correctly identifies Arafat's failure to 
revise the PLO Covenant as a major obstacle to peace. The editorial 
reads as follows:

       The summer heat tends to slow everything down, even 
     diplomacy. In the absence of real movement in the peace 
     process, talk of summits is proliferating. Prime Minister 
     Binyamin Netanyahu has unsuccessfully pushed for a ``Madrid 
     2'' international conference, France and Egypt have a 
     proposal, and yesterday Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, 
     Jordan's King Hussein, and Palestinian Authority Chairman 
     Yasser Arafat met in Cairo. However, the only summit missing 
     is the one that is most necessary--between Netanyahu and 
     Arafat.
       When Mubarak, Hussein, and Arafat last met in September, 
     they could hardly have expected that by now there would still 
     be no deal on the much-anticipated second redeployment. Much 
     of the blame for delay has fallen on Netanyahu's doorstep, 
     and indeed Netanyahu seems to be a master at drawing matters 
     out. Next to Arafat, however, Netanyahu's delaying skills 
     seem almost amateur.
       In the current stalemate, one of the main issues in 
     contention is Israel's demand that the Palestinians amend the 
     PLO Covenant to erase its multiple calls for Israel's 
     destruction. Arafat's promise to do so is as old as the Oslo 
     process itself. The Oslo era officially began with an 
     exchange of letters between prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and 
     Arafat, days before the signing of the Declaration of 
     Principles on the White House lawn. Arafat's September 9, 
     1993 letter to Rabin states the Covenant's denials of 
     Israel's right to exist ``are now inoperative'' and that he 
     pledges to ``submit to the Palestinian National Council for 
     formal approval the necessary changes in regard to the 
     Palestinian Covenant.''
       At that time, amending the Covenant seemed imminent. It is 
     now almost six years later, and Arafat's commitment is yet to 
     be implemented. In April 1996, the Peres government attempted 
     to negotiate a formula to resolve the issue, but the 
     resolution actually passed by the PNC again made no specific 
     amendment to the Covenant. Then in January 1997, as part of 
     the Hebron Accords, Arafat again committed to ``complete the 
     process'' of amending the Covenant.
       Since then, Arafat has sent letters to President Bill 
     Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair retroactively listing 
     the articles of the Covenant that were supposedly canceled by 
     the 1996 PNC resolution. But this, too, can only be taken as 
     a statement of intentions, since the Covenant states that it 
     can only be amended by a two-thirds vote of the PNC, and 
     numerous PLO officials have stated that it has been 
     ``frozen,'' not amended. Now Netanyahu is seen to be delaying 
     matters by demanding that the Palestinians finally carry out 
     a commitment that is a foundation stone of the entire 
     process.
       Since the beginning of the Oslo process, Israel has--
     despite fits and starts, internal division, and even the 
     assassination of the prime minister--demonstrated its 
     commitment to the process by transferring territorial control 
     to the Palestinians. Even under Netanyahu, this process 
     continued with the redeployment in Hebron, and now a major 
     further redeployment is on the table. In this context, it is 
     not unreasonable to characterize the situation as Netanyahu 
     did to the diplomatic corps on Friday: ``The issue is not 
     what Israel is prepared to give--it is prepared to give 
     considerably--but it is the Palestinians' unwillingness to 
     give anything of substance.''
       In the Gaza Strip on Friday, the Palestinian Police cut off 
     Israeli settlements after the IDF refused passage on an 
     Israeli security road to a convoy led by a Palestinian 
     minister. The standoff, which could have broken out into a 
     full-fledged shooting war, was a reminder of how dangerous 
     the current situation is. But the lesson is not just that 
     Israel has an interest in resolving the existing impasse, but 
     that the Palestinians do as well.
       Now that Clinton has returned from China and the end of the 
     Knesset summer session approaches, the fate of the 
     redeployment package will be determined. So far, the United 
     States has not rejected Israel's concerns regarding the 
     package on the table, but it has not subjected the 
     Palestinians to the same public pressure that Israel has been 
     under. The sticking point is no longer the size of the 
     redeployment, since creative solutions can be found for the 
     territory surrounding the Israeli settlements that will be 
     isolated by the withdrawal. The more significant question is 
     whether Arafat will be pressed to deliver something much less 
     tangible than what Israel is delivering, but no less 
     necessary for the ultimate success of the peace process. 
     Amending the Covenant is such a fundamental building block, 
     as is an end to the long boycott by Arafat of direct 
     negotiations with Netanyahu.

  Mr. President, the Palestinian Authority has promised since 1993 to 
change the PLO Covenant so that the Israeli people can be confident in 
the Palestinian regime's acceptance of the existence of the State of 
Israel. To this day, this most basic and vital action has not been 
done. As the Jerusalem Post correctly points out, the U.S. Government 
has ``. . . not subjected the Palestinians to the same public pressure 
that Israel has been under.''
  The Palestinian Authority must formally and officially amend the 
Covenant. Until they do so, United States influence should be focused 
on this failed Palestinian promise.

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