[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 44 (Thursday, April 18, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E576]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  ON THE SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MICHAEL R. McNULTY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 18, 2002

  Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, as terrorist attacks and homicide bombings 
continue to ravage Israel and her citizens, I call on the 
Administration to express its unqualified support for the only 
democracy in the Middle East, and our most loyal supporter at the 
United Nations.
  Two weeks ago, I stood with members of the United Jewish Federation 
of Northeastern New York and Rabbis from across the Capital Region of 
New York State, and recounted the horrible story of a March terrorist 
attack that ripped through the heart of an Albany family--by stealing 
the life of Avia Malka, a nine-month old infant visiting Netanya, 
Israel on the joyous occasion of a family wedding. An armed homicide 
bomber walked into the lobby of the family's hotel, began shooting, and 
then detonated his device. The infant Avia was shot in the head, struck 
by shrapnel, and killed. Her father remains in the hospital and still 
cannot walk.
  Mr. Speaker, I am deeply disappointed with the contradictory 
statements made by our President in recent weeks, and I totally 
disagree with our vote at the U.N. asking Israel to retreat from its 
pursuit of Palestinian terrorists. For the President to embrace such a 
policy is completely contradictory to the principles of our own 
international war against terrorism.
  In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly recommended partitioning 
the British mandate called Palestine into two states, a 5,500 square-
mile Jewish state, and a 4,500 square-mile Arab state, and a ``corpus 
separatum'' international zone around the holy city of Jerusalem.
  Jews accepted the partition plan but the Arabs did not. Israel 
unilaterally declared its independence in May 1948, and the Arab states 
attacked the new state. Therefore, the Palestinians could have had 
their own state in 1947, but rejected it.
  In 2000, former Israeli Prime Minister Barak offered a peace 
agreement, which included not only further land transfers, but also 
nearly all that Chairman Arafat requested--and Arafat and the 
Palestinians rejected that offer, too.
  In addition, the first three wars against Israel (1948, 1956, and 
1967) all occurred when the West Bank was in Arab hands. On January 1, 
1965, Fatah, the main branch of Arafat's organization, launched the 
first terrorist attack on Israel--all within the 1967 borders.
  Last year, Faisal Husseini, a ``moderate'' within Arafat's 
leadership, offered the following response when asked whether the 
Palestinian goal is still the elimination of the State of Israel: ``If 
you are asking me as a Pan-Arab nationalist what are the Palestinian 
borders . . . I will immediately reply, `From the river Jordan to the 
Mediterranean sea.'' '
  Mr. Speaker, arguing that `returning' these lands would ensure peace 
is simply ignoring history!
  Israeli citizens have lived with terrorism since the founding of 
their country in 1948, and have had to fight five wars just to survive. 
It is past time for all civilized countries to support the right of 
Israel to exist, and to denounce in unambiguous terms the terrorists 
who block the road toward peace in the region.

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