[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 43 (Wednesday, April 17, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H1385-H1386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 UNITED STATES SHOULD STAND WITH ISRAEL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of our friend and 
ally, Israel, for celebrating the 54th Independence Day for the State 
of Israel. It is important at this time that we stand with our friend 
and ally, Israel.
  There is a famous story that Davy Crockett told. It is in the book 
``Three Roads to the Alamo.'' Davy Crockett got into an argument and 
then there was a brawl afterwards. One of his friends did not help him 
out and Davy Crockett got kind of beaten up in the brawl. He asked his 
friend afterwards, how come you did not help me? His friend said, well, 
it was really controversial and it was kind of a difficult decision, 
and I was not sure if I wanted to back you up. He said, hey, you do not 
need friends when everybody is in agreement with you. You do not need 
friends when everybody thinks what you are doing is wonderful. You need 
friends when you are in a fight and there is a question over the 
principles.
  We are not the government of Israel. It is a difficult time for 
Israel. They made some decisions to go after terrorists that were 
attacking their right to exist, just like we have gone after terrorists 
that are attacking our right to exist. Whether or not I would have done 
the completely same methods that Israel has used, I do not know. I 
think so, but I am not the leader of Israel. Ariel Sharon is the Prime 
Minister of Israel and the leader of Israel, and I believe it is 
important that we stand with them.
  One of the debates when I have been in the Middle East is whether or 
not Israel has displaced the Palestinians. Any student of history, even 
somebody who has not focused on history, realizes that there has been a 
conflict, basically, an eternal conflict over who was where. But when 
the Jews were dispersed around the world and others moved in does not 
mean that when the Nation of Israel was created in 1948, that suddenly 
the people who were displaced at that point had any more of a 
legitimate claim, even in a secular way, than the people who were moved 
out and dispersed before that.
  It is important that we recognize that that is an independent state 
of Israel. When we met with Dr. Arakat and the Palestinians in Jericho, 
Dr. Arakat was promoting that they needed a contiguous state, a 
Palestinian state. Part of the argument that I had was why should we 
trust you when you still have it in your Constitution that Israel does 
not have the right to exist. Conflict erupted, verbal conflict in the 
meeting, because he said that that was not politically possible. But 
why should Israel trust the words of the Palestinian Authority if they 
do not grant their right to exist?
  Part of the problem is, as we have seen multiple times there, when we 
pushed and western powers pushed Israel to back off the Golan Heights, 
people can look right down on Israeli citizens and shoot down on them 
that the reason that they cannot have a contiguous state is that there 
is not much water in that area.

                              {time}  1800

  The reason they cannot have a contiguous state is there is not much 
water in that area. They have water pipes going through. If those 
things are controlled by people committed to their destruction, they 
cannot exist as a state.
  Furthermore, we have a longtime moral and secular argument about 
whose capital Jerusalem is. It is a shrine to many nations. We have 
some conflicts that are not easily reconciled. Israel, unless they have 
the flexibility to take out the terrorists, will not exist as an 
independent state. So we can commemorate the independence of Israel, 
but unless they can make sure they have a water supply that comes, 
unless they make sure people are not shooting down on them from the 
heights, people who can hide in terrorist camps, they cannot exist and 
have an independent state.
  Furthermore, we have a lot of whining about how Israel treats the 
Palestinians. It is tough. Quite frankly, I might handle some of these 
things slightly differently. But we know this for a fact, Palestinians 
can become citizens in Israel. They can vote in Israel, in the Israeli 
elections. They can own property in Israel.
  But when we go to the Arab countries around Israel, they treat the 
Palestinians like dirt. They cannot own land.

[[Page H1386]]

They cannot vote. They are a homeless people. They only want to put the 
Palestinians in the Israeli territory, but they will not give any 
flexibility to these poor people in their countries. Why is it totally 
Israel's burden to give up their land to make themselves unsafe because 
Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Syria do not want the 
Palestinians in their country?
  These borders have been fungible for thousands of years. To argue 
that the Palestinians' border should be precisely right here, the Arab 
countries need to show some real concern; not just lip service on what 
Israel's obligation is to the Palestinians, but what their own 
obligations are to help these poor homeless people.
  The big conflicts in the Middle East are not going to be between 
Israel and the Palestinians. There are other conflicts far broader with 
bigger countries. Israel clearly needs to come to peace with their 
Palestinian neighbors. They have much more, and long-term, in common 
than they do with Iran and Iraq, and other greater sources of conflict 
in that region.
  But ultimately, Israel must have the right to exist. People have to 
be able to go to a bar mitzvah, to a pizza place, to move around in a 
shopping center, to go to the synagogue, without being in fear of being 
terrorized and blown up. They have to be able to live in their houses 
without people shooting down on them from the mountains, or from planes 
overhead.
  It is important on this Independence Day that we show courage and 
stand with our friend and ally, Israel, as they stood with us.

                          ____________________