[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 57 (Tuesday, May 1, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4094-S4095]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           MIDDLE EAST PEACE

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed 
in the Record a ``Commentary'' on the mideast peace process.
  There being no objection; the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

[[Page S4095]]

            [From the Philadelphia Inquirer, Apr. 27, 2001]

                   Mideast Peace Process Must Resume

                      (By U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter)

       Escalating violence has deadened the Middle East peace 
     process. As usual, all sides look to the United States to 
     influence the parties to end the violence and resume the 
     quest for peace.
       In mid-April, at the request of Egyptian President Hosni 
     Mubarak, I met with Palestinian Chairman Yasir Arafat in 
     Cairo. When I arrived for our 10:30 p.m. meeting, Arafat said 
     that as we spoke, Israeli helicopters and missiles were 
     attacking Palestinians in Gaza. He did not mention that the 
     Israeli action was in retaliation for mortars fired into 
     Israel earlier that day.
       Our discussion, which lasted until nearly midnight, was 
     interrupted every few moments by aides bringing him the 
     latest dispatch on the fighting. I told Arafat I was 
     convinced Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would not 
     resume the peace process until the violence ended.
       Since the sequence of events demonstrated that Israel was 
     responding to Palestinian provocation, it was up to Arafat to 
     demonstrate his best efforts to stop the violence. After all, 
     it was Arafat's famous letter of Sept. 9, 1993, that induced 
     then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon 
     Peres to shake Arafat's hand at their historic meeting with 
     President Clinton on the White House lawn four days later. In 
     that letter, Arafat renounced violence and promised to punish 
     any Palestinian who violated that commitment.
       Arafat responded that he had made an unequivocal 
     declaration at the recent Arab summit. When his statement was 
     examined, it was obvious it was so conditional as to be 
     meaningless. I then asked Arafat why he had rejected former 
     Prime Minister Ehud Barak's generous settlement offer on 
     major concessions on Jerusalem and additional territory on 
     the West Bank. Arafat said he had accepted the Barak 
     proposal. Again, on examination, there were so many ifs, ands 
     and buts that his response was meaningless. Our meeting ended 
     with no realistic hope that any significant action could be 
     expected from Arafat.
       The situation was equally bleak when I traveled on to 
     Beirut and Damascus. Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, had 
     continued to attack Israeli border settlements from Southern 
     Lebanon, leading Israel to bomb Syrian radar. Beirut once 
     touted as the Paris of the Middle East, has not recovered 
     from Lebanon's civil war because of factional quarrels and 
     Syria's continuing dominance of the country.
       In Damascus, Syria's foreign minister Farouk Shara agreed 
     with Sharon that Israeli-Syrian peace talks on the Golan 
     Heights would be pointless at this time. Before President 
     Hafez al-Assad's death, the parties had come very close to a 
     settlement but were now back to square one.
       Notwithstanding the bleak prospects, the Bush 
     administration, aided by Congress, must push the parties back 
     to the bargaining table. There is no doubt that the countries 
     involved listen to Uncle Sam. When Secretary of State Colin 
     Powell criticized Sharon's tough retaliation as ``excessive 
     and disproportionate,'' Israel modified its tactics.
       Congress has spoken emphatically: 87 senators and 209 House 
     members wrote on April 6 to the President calling for the 
     closing of the Palestinian office in Washington if the 
     Palestinians did not stop inciting violence. I have urged 
     President Bush to appoint a special envoy for the Middle East 
     just as President Richard Nixon used Henry Kissinger for 
     shuttle diplomacy and Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, 
     George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton assigned envoys such as 
     Dennis Ross to the peace process. President Bush may soon 
     find it necessary to become personally involved like his 
     predecessors.
       The escalation of Israeli-Palestinian violence may 
     encourage other terrorist groups, such as Hamas and Islamic 
     Jihad, to attack not only Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but also 
     U.S. interests around the world. The peace process cannot be 
     abandoned; one way or another, a way must be found for 
     Israelis and Palestinians to live together on that tiny 
     parcel of hallowed and historic land. Our vital national 
     interests in the region make it imperative that the United 
     States actively pursue a resumption of the Middle East peace 
     process.

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