[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 37 (Tuesday, April 9, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2386-S2387]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Madam President, it has become very clear to me and 
to others that the linchpin of stabilizing the Middle East and also to 
developing an allied coalition of Arab nations in the war on terrorism 
is the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unfortunately, 
in the past 2 weeks, while Congress has been on recess, we have seen an 
escalation of violence. I strongly believe that Yasser Arafat must shut 
down the suicide bombers or there will be no opportunity for peace in 
the Middle East.
  The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia expressed a vision for a peace plan. 
Secretary Powell is in the area to see if he can capitalize on this 
vision and restore peace and stability, at least to get a cease-fire. 
His job is, indeed, a difficult one.
  The suicide bombings are a potent weapon and they have been precisely 
calculated to destroy any chance for peace. Again, why? If these 
suicide bombers cannot be stopped, the situation can only deteriorate 
and the result will only be full scale military conflagration.
  Israel cannot be expected to place a limit on her own self-defense or 
end her effort to capture terrorists so long as fanatics on the 
Palestinian side continue to plot and carry out these attacks.
  Indeed, some 30 years ago, I recall hearing former Israeli Prime 
Minister Golda Meir say:

       We are not going to die so the world will think well of us.

  An overwhelming majority of the Israeli people still feel the same 
and believe as I do that Israel has a legitimate right to self-defense.
  Forces under the control of Yasser Arafat have been directly involved 
in perpetrating the recent wave of deadly terrorist attacks against 
Israeli civilians. Many of these attacks have been carried out by 
Arafat-affiliated groups such as the Al Aqsa Brigade, recently 
designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization, 
and the Tanzim. These are parts of his own military apparatus.
  During the week of Passover, 46 Israelis were killed and more than 
120 wounded. In March alone, 125 Israelis were killed in the attacks 
which culminated in the bombing of the Passover ceremony in Netanya.
  According to documents recently seized by the Israeli military from 
Palestinian Authority headquarters, one of Arafat's top advisers who 
works out of his office is directly involved in financing the illegal 
weapons purchases and the terror activities of the Al Aqsa Brigade. 
This same Palestinian Authority was directly involved in efforts to 
illegally smuggle in more than 50 tons of arms from Iran a few months 
ago.
  Arafat resumed using terror as a tactic after he walked away from 
Israel's historic peace concessions at Camp David in 2000. The offer 
placed on the table at Camp David may not have been perfect, although I 
happen to believe it was excellent, giving the Palestinians 96 percent 
of what they wanted. They have not put an offer on the table. Rather, 
they have opted for violence.
  Since the fall of 2000, Arafat and his forces have engaged in 
hundreds of acts of terror against Israel, principally targeted at 
civilians. Arafat and other Palestinian officials have been directly 
involved in inciting violence against Israel. Arafat and other 
Palestinian officials have been directly involved in failing to thwart 
terrorist operations because they know how powerful those operations 
are.
  Arafat and other Palestinian Authority officials have been directly 
involved in releasing terrorist suspects rather than arresting them. 
Arafat and other Palestinian Authority officials have been directly 
involved in failing to confiscate the weapons of terrorist suspects.
  All of these actions are required under the terms of peace agreements 
he signed and to which he claims to be still committed. So why is all 
of this happening? I believe there is a hidden agenda, and that hidden 
agenda is to drive out the Jewish people and create a Palestinian 
state, which includes Israel. This has been the Palestinians' historic 
quest. Many of us hoped that through the Oslo process this quest could 
have been changed. But I am increasingly beginning to believe it has 
not been changed.
  It may be unreasonable to expect that Arafat will be 100 percent 
successful in bringing Hamas and the Islamic Jihad totally under his 
control. But he can control Fatah and the Al Aqsa brigades and the 
Tanzim. So far, it is impossible to make the argument that he has even 
tried. We must remember that Yasser Arafat has rejected all Israeli 
peace plans, and he rejected General Zinni's recent cease-fire plan, 
which Israel accepted.
  General Zinni went to the Palestinians and said: What do you need? He 
then went to the Israelis and said: What do you need? He then put them 
together and presented each with a cease-fire plan. The Israelis 
accepted it; the Palestinians did not. So one must believe the 
Palestinians could stop this violence if they wanted.
  Israeli soldiers are now going door to door. If they retreat, I 
believe it will be back to the suicide bombing as usual. In the past 2 
weeks, there have been no suicide bombings, since the last bombing on 
March 31 at the Haifa restaurant which killed 14 people. The Israeli 
Defense Forces, IDF, have arrested roughly 1,500 people and placed 500 
on the wanted list. The Israeli Defense Forces have captured more than 
2,000 weapons of various types, including thousands of guns and 
ammunition, 44 combat vests and suicide belts, more than 60 pounds of 
high explosives, and nearly 50 rocket-propelled grenades and launchers. 
They have captured night vision equipment and sniper rifles. The IDF 
has also discovered 11 weapons and explosives laboratories.
  In the final analysis, if there is to be a peaceful resolution of the 
crisis, and if there is to be a Palestinian state alongside Israel, Mr. 
Arafat must make every effort to take the measures necessary to bring 
the suicide bombing and this kind of violence to an end. That is the 
responsibility he bears as a leader if he wants to see his people truly 
live in peace and freedom.
  If Secretary Powell is unable to make concrete progress in ending the 
violence and moving the peace process forward, I intend to move forward 
shortly on an updated version of the Middle East peace compliance 
legislation that I introduced with Senator McConnell last fall.
  The stakes are enormous. As an editorial last Thursday in the 
Washington Post--and I find myself strongly agreeing--stated:

       It should not be hard to agree that a person who detonates 
     himself in a pizza parlor or a discotheque filled with 
     children, spraying scrap metal and nails in an effort to kill 
     and maim as many of them as possible, has

[[Page S2387]]

     done something evil that can only discredit and damage 
     whatever cause he hopes to advance. That Muslim governments 
     cannot agree on this is shameful evidence of their own moral 
     and political corruption.

  And,

       The Palestinian national cause will never recover--nor 
     should it--until its leadership is willing to break 
     definitively with the bombers. And Muslim states that 
     support such sickening carnage will risk not just stigma, 
     but their own eventual self destruction.

  So either terror ends or full-scale war begins. This is the way I see 
it.
  Hopefully, the world will respond. Despite all that has happened, the 
United States can and should encourage Israel to sit down at the 
negotiating table for one final try. We should be responsible to get 
the Israelis to that table. But if the United States is to do so, the 
Arab world must also rise to the occasion and exercise this same 
control over Arafat and the Palestinian terrorists. That should be the 
responsibility of the Arab world.
  I must say I was struck by the unhelpful nature of Ambassador Bandar 
bin Sultan's recent op-ed piece in the Washington Post. It seems to me 
if there is ever a time for responsible Arab governments to shut down 
suicide bombing as an acceptable tactic for anything and push Yasser 
Arafat into a cease-fire, real negotiations, and a peace plan, that 
time is now. Both the Saudis and the Egyptians are well known for 
seeking and destroying terrorists or others who threaten them. But they 
fail to allow Israel the right to do the same or to destroy the 
infrastructure that organizes and arms the suicide bomber and 
recompenses the bomber's family. Suddenly, those who kill and maim 
Israeli citizens are heroes, as long as it is only Israelis they kill.
  Some believe that the Saudis want to have it both ways--support 
Americans in our war against terror, and support Yasser Arafat as he 
wages terror. Ambassador Bandar bin Sultan gives credibility to this 
argument. Any premature withdrawal of Israeli troops before they are 
able to seek out and destroy the members of the terrorist network must 
be replaced by a serious commitment of the United States and all 
moderate Arab States to stop the terrorist bombing. If it is not, then 
this country's war against terror will be mortally wounded by 
hypocrisy.
  I suggest that Secretary Colin Powell pick up the Saudi peace plan 
and place it squarely on the table of world opinion, with the following 
caveats:
  1. Withdrawal of Israel to the 1967 borders and agreement to the 
creation of a Palestinian State, to be conditioned by: A, defensible 
borders; and, B, a division of Jerusalem along the lines of that 
proposed by President Clinton at Camp David.
  2. A 5-year phaseout of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the 
Gaza Strip. This is a difficult pill to swallow, but it is also one 
that has to be done if there is going to be true peace and the ability 
of an Israeli State to stand side by side with the Palestinian State.
  3. No physical Palestinian right of return but just compensation as 
provided for in United Nations Resolution 194.
  4. All suicide bombings stop or the agreement is invalidated.
  5. A peacekeeping and monitoring of the agreement by the United 
Nations and/or the United States over the next 5-year period.
  If it is true that all Palestinians want is their own state and 
government, then they shall have it. If it is also true that what they 
really want is the destruction of the State of Israel, then this will 
become crystal clear to the world. Israel has a right to live in peace 
and security, within internationally recognized borders, and only Arab 
States committed to peace can bring this to a peaceful end.
  The ongoing wave of terror threatens the survival of Israel as a free 
democratic and civilized society, and it risks engulfing the entire 
Middle East in chaos and war.
  Israel must fight against this terror, just as we do, just as surely 
as the United States must fight and destroy al-Qaida and the other 
terrorist groups with global reach. And I firmly believe the United 
States should stand by Israel's side in the quest for peace and 
security.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.

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