[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 142 (Tuesday, October 23, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H7130]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                FEAR IS USELESS; WHAT IS NEEDED IS TRUST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Culberson). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. 
Pence) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, it is such a privilege to be among the very 
first to rise in this Chamber after some uncertain days, to rise 
recognizing that timeless truth, that fear is useless, what is needed 
is trust.
  We in this Chamber day in and day out do not only trust the American 
people but we trust in the God whose name is ascribed above the 
Speaker's chair. By reconvening here today, we make an important 
statement to the world, to our friends and our foes alike, that the 
American Government stands ready and willing and able to do the 
people's business even in these challenging days.
  Mr. Speaker, along those lines, I rise today specifically to speak 
about a relationship that the United States of America enjoys. It is 
not difficult for Americans since September 11 to imagine living in a 
country made the subject of repeated attacks against our citizens and 
even now against our leaders. It is also easy for every American to 
understand why a country whose innocent citizens have been murdered and 
whose leaders have been attacked would take temporary and necessary 
military action against the government and against the perpetrators of 
these acts to establish a just government in the land from which these 
attacks were launched and also to bring to justice those who harmed 
those citizens and harmed those leaders.
  Well, even though it is so easy to imagine and identify with that as 
Americans, nevertheless, Mr. Speaker, in the wake of the first-ever 
assassination of a cabinet official in Israel, as our partners and 
friends since 1948 took the necessary military action to move not only 
against the perpetrators of this dastardly attack but also against the 
authorities that have harbored them and refused to bring them to 
justice, what did the State Department of the United States of America 
say, Mr. Speaker? Permit me to quote. Philip T. Reeker, State 
Department spokesman, spoke to the world media yesterday and accused 
Israel, the Nation in question, of killing ``numerous innocent 
citizens,'' in its ``unacceptable military action in six West Bank 
towns.''
  We have seen the tanks on the news, Mr. Speaker. We know, as foreign 
minister Shimon Peres said from our Nation's capital this morning, they 
have not the slightest intention of remaining in any of these West Bank 
towns. They are about the business of requiring that the Palestinian 
Authority bring to justice those who not only killed a cabinet 
official, have organized the death of innocent citizens in Israel, but 
also, Mr. Speaker, have boasted about it on television, just like Osama 
bin Laden has done. The United States said we, quote, ``deeply regret 
and deplore Israel's actions.''
  What have they said of the Palestinian Authority or of Yasser Arafat 
or those who committed these crimes? Well, Mr. Speaker, we wrote a 
letter. The State Department of the United States deplores what Israel 
does, but we did write a letter to Yasser Arafat; not a public letter, 
but a very clear letter, we are told in the media, telling Arafat to 
make absolutely certain that the assassins were arrested.
  Mr. Speaker, there is a great verse in the Bible that we have 
inherited from the great people of Israel. It is: ``There is a friend 
who sticks closer than a brother, and now is a time for such friends.'' 
But why do we capitulate about Israel? I submit, Mr. Speaker, it is 
very simple. The reason we capitulate about Israel is because we are 
afraid. We are afraid, Mr. Speaker, to offend, to offend moderate Arab 
states that are assisting us in our own quest against a morally 
bankrupt government and against terrorists who attack our leaders and 
our innocent citizens.
  But we need not be afraid. We need to recognize that fear is useless. 
What is needed is trust. The most powerful message we can send to our 
new friends in the Arab world is that we are good friends. What is a 
more powerful or compelling message to send to King Abdullah in Jordan 
or King Fahd in Saudi Arabia than to say, ``When the going gets tough, 
when your Nation does what is necessary to be done, we will stand with 
you.'' America will always stand for justice and restraint. But America 
must stand with Israel.
  America will stand with its friends, for fear is useless. What is 
needed is trust.

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