[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 68 (Tuesday, June 6, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H3893-H3894]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  DISTURBING TRENDS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about some 
disturbing trends in the Middle East. I admire enormously the 
commitment of Prime Minister Barak of Israel to try to find a peaceful 
solution to many of the disputes that have troubled the region. I 
believe historically the record is very clear that Israel sought it 
first to live in peace with its neighbors. It was forced to resort to 
armed conflict to defend itself.
  Prime Minister Barak to his credit has been willing now after 50 
years and

[[Page H3894]]

more of conflict to take some risks for peace. That is not always 
unanimously agreed upon within Israel. Israel is, as we know, the only 
genuine democracy in this part of the world. The people of Israel are 
contentious in some ways as befits people in a democracy when important 
issues are at stake. And Prime Minister Barak to me is an admirable 
example of an elected official who is trying to lead in the direction 
that he thinks is important.
  And in so doing, he has espoused some positions that he believes and 
I believe will lead to a lasting peace if they meet with an appropriate 
response from those with whom he seeks to negotiate. What is especially 
troubling to me has been the negative responses his initiatives have 
drawn.
  His offer to withdraw from the Golan Heights is really by historical 
standards an extraordinarily generous one. Very few nations which have 
won this sort of strategic territory and battle have voluntarily given 
it up, even in the face of the kind of hostility that Syria has evinced 
towards Israel. But Prime Minister Barak, taking a request politically 
based on his military judgment, which obviously everyone who knows him 
respects, was willing to make a deal with the Syrians in which Israel 
would have given up that very large strategic amount of territory with 
some safeguards, and essentially, President Assad of Syria refused any 
kind of reasonable deal.
  Interestingly, had Assad agreed to the deal, it would have been 
controversial within, as real as having given too much to Syria, but 
Syria would not accept that. For years, people have been urging Israel 
to withdraw from Lebanon. There is a U.N. resolution that says Israel 
should withdraw from Lebanon. When the negotiations with Assad ended, 
because I believe of Assad's unreasonable hostility, Prime Minister 
Barak again courageously said, I will withdraw unilaterally from 
Israel; and one of the most extraordinarily depressing reactions I have 
seen people who had for years had been pressing Israel to withdraw then 
began to attack Israel for withdrawing unilaterally, as if they needed 
permission to do what people had been berating them for not doing.
  And what happened when Israel withdrew was an outburst of hostility 
and of inappropriate behavior in much of Lebanon which can only 
strengthen the hands of those who believe within Israel that Prime 
Minister Barak has been making a mistake. So in these two important 
areas with regard to Syria and to Lebanon, you have an elected 
official, a democratic leader of his country, taking some risks for 
peace and being met with an extraordinarily hostile reaction; and then, 
finally, we had a few weeks ago violence on the part of many in the 
Palestinian areas, including gunfire between the Palestinian authority 
in Israel.
  Again, I want to stress Israel has in the past couple of decades 
beginning with Prime Minister Begin in the Sinai, engaged in more 
withdrawal from territory it had been forced to fight to conquer than 
almost any nation I can think of. And I am talking now about turning it 
over to the enemies, not with a period of demilitarization. It is not 
like America, the allies keeping Germany in a very subordinate position 
for a long time that was not being occupied. It was simply turned over 
in many cases, and to see the negative reactions from Syria, from 
people in the south of Lebanon, the more extremists there and within 
the Palestinian community, is very troubling to me.
  I admire the willingness of Prime Minister Barak to persevere. I 
believe he does this because he understands what is truly in his 
country's long-term interests. I hope the United States Government will 
continue to be a strong supporter and partner of Israel and, in 
particular, make it clear to the extent that Israel does withdraw from 
some of these areas, potentially exposing itself to some of the 
problems that might come up that the United States will continue to be 
a reliable partner. But it has to be noted that the kind of negativism, 
the kind of extreme hostility which Prime Minister Barak's openness has 
called from on the part of many Arabs cannot be helpful.
  I admire, as I said, Prime Minister Barak for not being deterred by 
this. He is not allowing the extremists to undermine his efforts, but 
they ought to understand and people elsewhere ought to understand that 
there is a price to be paid for this. So I hope, Mr. Speaker, that as 
Prime Minister Barak goes forward in partnership with the U.S., we will 
begin to see responsible leaders in the Arab world exercise the kind of 
reciprocal approach that the prime minister's courage deserves.

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