[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 40 (Friday, April 12, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2608-S2609]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE MIDDLE EAST

  Mr. HAGEL. Mr. President, I come to the floor this morning to speak 
on the Middle East. I begin my comments this morning with a statement 
of support for Senator Daschle's comments yesterday concerning his call 
for restraint by our colleagues while Secretary of State Powell is in 
the Middle East. Senator Daschle's statement was wise. It is important 
we all listen carefully to what Senator Daschle said. And, more 
importantly, in my opinion, it is important that we follow his 
suggestion.
  President Bush was correct in his assessment that he presented to the 
American public and the world last Thursday in his speech when he 
informed the world he was going to be engaged in the Middle East by 
sending Secretary Powell to the Middle East. It was a correct decision.
  Secretary Powell is now engaged in a very difficult, dangerous, and 
delicate mission. Yes, there are great risks for the President's 
prestige, our Nation's risk to that prestige, and to America's 
prestige. There are risks all around.
  We must not misunderstand the reality of with what we are dealing. We 
are not dealing with some abstraction or some theory. We are dealing 
with the cold, brutal reality of what is taking place in the Middle 
East. There are no good options. There are no risk-free options for 
America, for Israel, for the Palestinians, for the Arab world, and for, 
indeed, the entire world.
  There are far greater risks if the United States of America does not 
engage and provide leadership where there has been a vacuum of 
leadership, which, in my opinion, has produced much of this danger, 
chaos, and turmoil, and which I believe borders on the brink of a 
raging inferno if this is not brought under control. We have no option 
but to lead. Terrorists win if we don't engage--if we allow ourselves 
to be held captive to terrorist actions.
  As we follow this through, do we believe things will get better? 
Things won't get better. Things will get worse and more dangerous and 
will draw more and more of the world into this conflict. So we have no 
option.
  The President is right. If this situation continues to spiral out of 
control, it serves no one's interest or purpose except the fringes, the 
radicals, and the terrorists.
  It is not in Israel's interest, nor the Palestinians' interest, nor 
the world's interest to allow this problem to continue. Of course, our 
hearts go out to the Israeli people today, and to the victims and 
families of the latest terrorist bombing in Jerusalem. We can never 
justify nor condone acts of terrorism.
  Unfortunately, I am not surprised that on the day Secretary Powell is 
in Israel meeting with leaders to attempt to bring some sanity to this 
situation that the terrorists have struck. That is what they always do. 
They try to drive us back. They try to fragment us. They try to get us 
to argue amongst ourselves as to strategy and policy. But we must not 
fall prey to terrorist actions and allow ourselves to become paralyzed 
by what they are doing.
  No Nation and no people should have to live under the conditions the 
Israelis are presently living under and the Palestinian people are 
enduring.
  That is why Secretary Powell is there. Let us not forget why he is 
there. Let us cut through the fog. He is there to try to bring some 
stability and peace and pull apart the warring factions so that we can 
get on with a settlement, get on with lives, and hopefully on into a 
future for all peoples of that region. That is why he is there.
  President Bush has been very clear in his condemnation of terrorism 
and his unprecedented commitment to ending it. We understand Israel's 
right to defend itself. We are committed to that right. We have helped 
Israel defend that right. We will continue to do so. But it should not 
be at the expense of the Palestinian people--innocent Palestinian 
people and innocent Israelis who are paying a high price. Both Israelis 
and Palestinians are trapped in a war not of their making.

  We must step back from this great tragedy and recognize one constant: 
That the more the violence escalates, the more the terrorists win, and 
that further violence will embolden the terrorist bombers in Israel and 
elsewhere, and it will spread and spread.
  We cannot allow a vacuum of leadership to develop in the Middle East. 
That, too, is why Secretary Powell is there. Secretary Powell is on a 
critical mission to help end this cycle of violence and eventually help 
both sides see a future where there can be peace. Look over the 
horizon. Is it imperfect? Absolutely. Is it full of problems and holes 
and gaps, imperfections and flaws? Absolutely. But if we do not anchor 
ourselves to some hope, some plan, some leadership--all, yes, full of 
risk--then what is there, what will there be?
  We must be reminded that this cannot, and will not, be accomplished 
in one trip. This will take time. We must have patience. We must stay 
focused, disciplined, and prepared for setbacks. And there will be 
setbacks. But allowing this to spiral out of control is not an option.
  The military solution alone is not an option. That is part of it. We 
will get to a time--I have confidence we will--where we will be asking, 
How do we guarantee this peace? Will America be called upon, NATO 
forces be called upon to help guarantee this peace? Maybe. But we 
should now put all our creative, new, wider-lens thinking on this 
issue, and all our foreign policy in this new world in which we live, 
on the table. It will require some new thinking.
  Who guarantees this peace? If, in fact, we expect Israel to pull back 
to their pre-1967 borders, who guarantees that peace? Those will be 
difficult decisions for this body to be part of making, as well as the 
President having to make those difficult decisions. I do not tremble 
with any fear or quake with fear that we are not up to that. We will 
get to that. We must be prepared to think through that--and long term.
  The Secretary's mission is all about the war on terrorism. Let's not 
get disconnected to the broader purpose. Its purpose is to end the 
violence and terror. The Middle East is connected to our policies in 
Afghanistan and Iraq. We are paralyzed now in some of these areas 
because we are totally consumed with the Middle East, and appropriately 
so. We have few options anywhere until this Middle East issue is on 
some track of resolution.
  The situation in Afghanistan, as the Presiding Officer knows, is 
still very fragile and very dangerous. There is a long way to go. We 
must not allow Afghanistan to unwind. The investment, the progress, the 
good, the justice, the dignity--all that has been brought to that land 
as a result of American leadership, which we must preserve--we

[[Page S2609]]

cannot allow to erode and for us to go back to a time when we were 
losing there.
  Deadly terrorism stalks the world. It is the great challenge of our 
time. It is the reality of our time. We need the help of all our 
allies, all our friends all over the world, all the Moslem nations, to 
continue to root out terrorism and stabilize and secure the world.
  This is not an American interest alone. And we cannot do it alone. We 
are the greatest power the world has ever known. We stand astride the 
globe as no power in the history of man. But we have limits, too. These 
coalitions for peace, coalitions for change, will be our future, the 
world's future. And we must lead that coalition. We cannot press 
forward on a regime change in Iraq with the fires burning in Israel or 
we will stand alone, without our allies. We will risk finding ourselves 
isolated, Israel isolated. It is not in the interest of Israel to find 
America and Israel isolated in the world.

  America's and the world's vital interests are connected to the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict--completely, directly, daily. We must give 
Secretary Powell and the President the time to work through these 
unprecedented challenges, this unprecedented violence and danger. They 
need the latitude, the flexibility to work through to a solution, in 
consultation with the Congress, of course. In this body and in the 
House of Representatives reside great expertise, ability, common sense, 
and wisdom on which the President will and is calling.
  We need an Arab coalition for peace, building upon the Saudi 
initiative of Crown Prince Abdullah, incorporating the Tenet plan and 
the Mitchell plan. We need to support the President's policies to help 
bring to this region peace which has worldwide consequences. All of the 
world will be affected by the outcome. There are consequences playing 
out today, and they will continue to play out, and they are 
uncontrollable consequences.
  In conclusion, I offer a comment that Henry Kissinger made in a 
statement recently on U.S. policy in the post-cold-war world reality. 
Dr. Kissinger said this: ``history . . . will not excuse failure by the 
magnitude of the task.'' It applies very appropriately, clearly, and 
with deadly accuracy today in the Middle East. The President has shown 
his courage and the determination that a nation as great and worthy as 
America is--and can be, and has been--to go forward with the kind of 
leadership the world expects from us, and, yes, at great risk. But that 
risk is for peace, and that risk is worth taking. It will be long and 
difficult, but it can be done. We are dealing with a manmade problem. 
We will find a manmade resolution.
  So I return to the opening of my comments this morning in once again 
suggesting that Senator Daschle had it right yesterday in calling for 
all of us on Capitol Hill to work together to support the President, to 
find solutions and resolutions. Criticism is easy. It is very easy to 
criticize. But we do not have an option to criticize. We have a 
responsibility to find a solution. And we will. We must support our 
President and Secretary Powell in his mission for peace.
  Mr. President, I thank you for your attention. I suggest the absence 
of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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