[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 37 (Tuesday, April 9, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H1133]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           SUPPORTING THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF THE WEST BANK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to the issue of 
the terrible violence that has been wracking the Middle East over the 
recent weeks, and I rise to speak in support of the Israeli occupation 
of the West Bank.
  I believe very strongly that the primary purpose of government, above 
and beyond all other issues, is to protect the safety and the security 
of the people that they represent. This is very, very clear to us here 
in the United States, where following the attack on the World Trade 
Center, on the Twin Towers, our government has focused on the need to 
strengthen our national defenses, to strengthen our border security, to 
give the FBI and the CIA the tools they need to defend our Nation.

                              {time}  2030

  It is irrelevant to talk about so many of these other important 
issues that we wrestle with, like education, like reducing taxes on the 
American families; it is irrelevant to talk about these things if our 
people are dying in the streets. But yet, this is exactly what has been 
going on in Israel in recent weeks.
  During the holy week time period, Christiandom was celebrating Easter 
and the Hebrew people were celebrating the Jewish holiday of Passover, 
and people all over the world were shocked to see over and over and 
over again, day after day, another suicide bomber blowing himself up, 
blowing herself up, and, in many cases, killing dozens of people around 
them; the most horrific acts of violence, killing innocent men, women, 
children, leaving those who survived these explosions frequently with 
grotesque and horrible injuries that will take years and maybe be 
impossible to fully recover from. This is the situation that the 
leadership in Israel, Prime Minister Sharon, the Knesset, the 
Government of Israel were wrestling with, and by occupying the West 
Bank, they have done the right thing. They have moved the conflict away 
from the Israeli people, away from the citizenry, and into the 
Palestinian areas, which is where these suicide bombers were coming 
from.
  I believe that it would be wrong for the Israeli Government, it would 
be wrong for Ariel Sharon to withdraw from the West Bank until, and 
only until, they can be certain that they can maintain the safety and 
the security of the Israeli people in this kind of environment.
  I would like to just say in closing that the process, the peace 
process that has led ultimately to the creation of the beginnings of a 
Palestinian state in the West Bank was always predicated on the belief, 
at least on the part of the American people, that the PLO was striving, 
was working towards having peaceful coexistence with the Israeli 
people. But I must say, I do not believe that was ever the agenda. 
Indeed, I was shocked, I was amazed to recently read an interview that 
Yasar Arafat, the leader of the PLO, recently gave to the Arab 
television network, with Al-Jazeera. He is quoted as saying, ``We 
defend not only Palestine, the Arab Nation, and not only the holy 
Islamic and Christian places, but also men of freedom and honor all 
over the world. This is our destiny. This is a divine decree. Let those 
far and near understand, none among the Palestinian people or Arab 
nation will be willing to bow and surrender, but we will ask Allah to 
grant martyrdom, to grant martyrdom.'' He repeated it twice.
  He then went on to say, ``To Jerusalem we march, martyrs by the 
millions. To Jerusalem we march, martyrs by the millions, to Jerusalem 
we march, martyrs by the millions,'' and he went on to say it again. 
Through the course of what was a 5, 10 minute interview on this Arabic 
television station, he went on to call for martyrs by the millions.
  Now, this is not news to many people who have been following the 
career of Yasar Arafat. Indeed, he goes on radio every day in the 
Palestinian territories calling for the destruction of the Israeli 
state, calling on more people to come forward to martyr themselves for 
the cause of destroying the Israeli state, to push, as he likes to say, 
the Jewish people into the sea.
  We will never have peace in the Middle East until Yasar Arafat, the 
Palestinian people, agree to give up the type of horrific, unspeakable 
violence that they have been inflicting upon the citizens of Israel. 
The Israeli defense forces need to continue this effort to root out the 
fundamentalist Islamic terrorists that are occupying the West Bank, and 
they should not withdraw.

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