[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 57 (Wednesday, May 8, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H2214-H2220]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       RESULTS OF CODEL TO ISRAEL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutsch) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. DEUTSCH. Mr. Speaker, this weekend three of my colleagues and I 
traveled to the State of Israel. We had several purposes for the visit. 
One was a show of solidarity with the Israeli people in terms of what 
has been going on. We visited a number of victims of terrorist acts, 
including American citizens, spent time with some families who had lost 
loved ones, children, 5-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 15-year-olds, again a 
number of them American citizens. We met with the Prime Minister, the 
Foreign Minister, terrorism experts, the head of intelligence for the 
Israeli Army, but I think probably the most dramatic part of our visit 
was a review of a very small collection of arms that was captured 
during the recent Israeli incursion.
  One thing that American television press has not given, I think, the 
American people any sense of is the amount and the type of weapons that 
the Israelis have seized over the last several weeks during their 
incursion. It is a staggering amount. It was an amount that if it were 
placed in this Chamber from floor to ceiling would more than fill this 
Chamber. The weapons are extensive, mortars, sniper rifles, night 
vision glasses, machine guns, weapons totally outlawed by the Oslo 
agreements.
  But I have a picture here which in some ways is the most disturbing 
of any of the weapons, if they can be called weapons, that we saw and 
that have been captured in the incursion. This is a suicide or a murder 
belt, one of several that we saw and touched and examined. The belt 
itself is not a makeshift belt. It is a manufactured item. It is 
clearly manufactured with a certain degree of technology in the sense 
that it is well-sewn and PVC piping, as you can see, that is stuck 
inside of a vest. That was one version. There are other versions. But I 
think the

[[Page H2215]]

point of looking at them and the impact is this belt and the weapons 
that I described, and I will show some pictures of some of the other 
weapons that we saw, this belt was clearly not made to be put in a 
museum. This belt had one purpose, and that purpose was to kill 
innocent people.
  In fact, of the belts that we saw, had those belts not been captured, 
I think what is clear is that their intended use would have occurred. 
And if for no other reason than stopping the use of one of those murder 
weapons, the Israeli incursion is justified.
  I mentioned the belt again because I think one of the things that the 
American press has not done enough of is tell this story. These are 
mortars found, again weapons outlawed under Oslo, weapons that have no 
use but offensive weapons against Israelis, found in a number of 
different locations throughout the West Bank, in Ramallah and Jenin, 
Bethlehem.
  Again I am just going to go through some of these because these are 
pictures that have not been on American television up to this point.
  Besides the weapons themselves, the ammunition, just a small sample 
of the ammunition from M-16s, from machine guns. In fact, one of the 
sickest things that we saw was a number of buckshot bullets that we 
were told the purpose of them, and there is evidence because of the 
forensic evidence of suicide or murder bombings, is that the buckshot 
is actually taken out and the little pellets, the ball bearings are 
then implanted in C-4 to make the weapons more dangerous.
  Again, these are assault rifles, which also are illegal under the 
Oslo agreement.
  These are machine guns and mortars.
  These are rifles that have been modified for the most horrific use.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Hoeffel), who has taken a leadership role on this issue and shared the 
experience of a witness in terms of the weapons.
  Mr. HOEFFEL. I thank the gentleman for yielding and want to 
compliment the gentleman from Florida for his leadership in standing up 
for Israel and the people of Israel and for helping to organize and 
really being the guiding light beyond the trip that four Members of 
Congress took to Israel this past weekend. I was pleased to join that 
trip led by the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton) and the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutsch) and honored to be here tonight to 
share some of the findings that we had.
  We designed this trip, Mr. Speaker, to express our solidarity with 
the people of Israel and the government of Israel in the face of the 
war of terror that has faced the people of Israel over these last few 
months and even over these last few decades.

                              {time}  1645

  What has happened recently has been horrible and is unacceptable, and 
the act of terror yesterday is a reminder of how difficult the 
situation is and how the people of Israel face the uncertainty every 
day, whether they will face this kind of terror, whether they will be 
able to go shopping, whether they will be able to stand at a bus stop, 
whether they will be able to socialize with friends and family in 
safety. Too many times recently the answer has been that they cannot do 
that safely.
  We feel very strongly that the terror that has faced Israel must be 
firmly opposed. We heard on our trip from Prime Minister Sharon that 
there can be no compromise with terror. President Bush has said that 
there should be zero tolerance for terror. All four of us, and I am 
sure that the whole Congress, agrees with both of those statements from 
those two leaders.
  I know those of us on the trip feel that there cannot be a Yasar 
Arafat exemption to the ``no tolerance for terror'' rule. We need to 
determine what we can do as a Nation to help Israel deal with this 
challenge and help her in her undeniable right to defend herself 
against acts of terror and to make sure that we do not set artificial 
limits or restraints upon her legitimate right of self-defense.
  Mr. Speaker, let me yield back to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Deutsch). I know that he has other photographs of some of the illegal 
weapons that we inspected, all of which were in violation of the Oslo 
Agreements.
  Mr. DEUTSCH. Mr. Speaker, before the gentleman yields back, I know 
the gentleman has some very strong words, and the first picture I had 
up was the murder belts that we reviewed. If the gentleman could just 
describe them in his own words, I think that is helpful to people.
  Mr. HOEFFEL. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to do so. I must say that 
I have never seen a more evil thing than the suicide bombing vest that 
we inspected as part of the seized weapons and munitions that the 
Palestinians have stored illegally in the West Bank. The vest that we 
inspected from a distance looks innocuous. It is a plain gray, down-
filled vest. Close inspection indicated that it was manufactured in 
China with a Western logo. It is called the Masters Company and the 
Masters name is on the vest, obviously intended for a Western audience. 
But inside the vest, a webbing has been sown and straps that are 
designed to hold small pieces of PCV piping, tubing; and the experts 
informed us that inside of those tubes, the suicide bombers place their 
C-4 explosives and a collection of ball bearings. So when the explosion 
occurs, it kills the suicide bomber, the explosive force kills and 
maims people around the bomber, and the ball bearings just shred the 
people that are in the vicinity of the bomber.
  Our delegation met with a former constituent of mine who is now a 
resident of Israel who was the victim of one of these bombings. Her 
name is Gila Weiss. She was stepping onto a bus at the Jewish market in 
Jerusalem when a suicide bomber stepped off and the vest detonated, 
killing six people, wounding 40, including Gila Weiss. Now, her 
devastating injuries are just appalling; but the doctors are confident 
that she will have a recovery and hopefully regain all of her eyesight 
that has been threatened by this explosive blast. She is pockmarked 
with shrapnel marks, but they have all been removed and the doctors 
believe she will heal well.
  The most encouraging thing about this was her spirit, Mr. Speaker. 
Her father, my constituent, flew over when they learned, her parents 
learned of her injuries and asked her in the hospital, ``Honey, do you 
think now it is time for you to come home?'' And this brave woman 
responded ``Daddy, I am home.'' And that is the spirit of confidence 
and resolve that our delegation found throughout Israel. It is because 
of that spirit that I am confident that the State of Israel will 
continue to exist and to thrive, and I look forward to giving my full 
support to that.
  Mr. DEUTSCH. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's comments.
  Before I yield to our next speaker, what I would like to do is show a 
couple of other pictures that have not been in the American press. I 
talked about the weapons seized in the incursions over the last couple 
of weeks. There is a very dramatic incident which, unfortunately, the 
incident was reported, but not the scope I think accurately, and that 
is the ship Karine A, which Israeli commandos seized. We have read 
about it, but to view it and really spend at least an hour and a half 
looking at the weapons and understanding what they were and the actual 
operation was very significant.
  These weapons were about $20 million worth of weapons from Iran. They 
were basically off the factory, off the factory, literally off the 
factory, bated with serial numbers and dates. First of all, 90 percent 
of the weapons were outside of the Oslo Agreement, maybe 95. They were 
weapons not for a police force, but for an army. Beyond mortars. In 
fact, they included rockets with explosive charges tied to those 
rockets. The equivalent of American TOW missiles, which are devices 
used to attack tanks, to be able to steer the tanks after they have 
been shot, sophisticated tank mines that were made out of plastic so 
they could not be detected by metal detectors. This is a picture of 
just some of the mortars. Again, if one was to fill, it would be about 
half of this room, the amount of weapons that were on that ship. One of 
the most disturbing things, and again, the Karine A incident, our 
Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has publicly talked about the direct 
connection with Chairman Arafat in terms of purchasing those weapons 
and being involved in the shipping of those weapons. Effectively at 
this point, Chairman Arafat does not deny that he tried to get the 
weapons in. At this point it

[[Page H2216]]

is not a debatable point about his personal involvement in bringing in 
just these extensive, very extensive weapons from Iran.

  But one of the other pictures which just gives us a sense of what 
this whole operation, the Karine A, was about, this is one of the 
containers that all of the weapons were in. All of the weapons on the 
ship were placed in some very sophisticated water-tight containers. In 
fact, some of the weapons were modified, some of the larger mortars, or 
mortar launchers were actually modified so that they could actually fit 
inside of those containers which are very sophisticated containers. 
Just a part of the sophistication, which we can see sort of on top, is 
there was a part of the container that actually had a balance between 
air pressure and water to literally place the containers at a certain 
depth in the Mediterranean Sea.
  I mean, this is a well thought-out military action. In fact, there 
were buoys with each of the containers so that they could be picked up 
by Palestinian Authority operatives in the Mediterranean Sea. It is a 
sense of the scope of what the Israelis are facing.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield now to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence), 
who I have listened to his words and I do not believe there is a 
Member, of the 435 Members in this Chamber, who has spoken more 
passionately and more effectively about the issues that America and 
Israel are facing in the Middle East, or who has been stronger and more 
forceful with his words.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I am 
very humbled by his words; and I am confident that they are overly 
generous. If anyone that might be looking in, Mr. Speaker, is paying 
attention at all, one would observe that Democrats and Republicans, 
liberals and conservatives, as we did in the resolution last week, are 
truly united in this institution in our belief in the preservation of 
the dream of Israel and our prayer for peace in the region.
  I pray, Mr. Speaker, for the peace of Jerusalem almost every day. I 
pray for the peace not just of the Jewish people of Jerusalem, but for 
the Christians and the Muslims and the people who profess no particular 
religious beliefs. It is against that backdrop that I grieve with my 
colleagues today over the most recent loss of human life.
  I think of the time of hope out of which we come to this place, Mr. 
Speaker. We come from several weeks where suicide bombings had come to 
an end, the efforts on the part of the Israeli military to rend asunder 
those who would use terrorist violence, who would use teenagers with 
bombs strapped around their chests as walking human weapons, targeting 
young families on the streets of Israel. We had seen them on the run, 
Mr. Speaker. We had seen evidence of the success of the Israeli 
military in their war on terrorism in the region.

  Then we moved, with some U.S. pressure and encouragement, into a 
posture where the head of the Palestinian Authority was allowed to 
leave his compound in Ramallah just a matter of days ago, the Prime 
Minister of Israel comes to the United States, and against this 
backdrop of hope, virtually as Prime Minister Sharon sits in the Oval 
Office, more innocent lives are lost. Over a dozen dead, dozens injured 
in two separate terrorist attacks.
  Appropriately, the Prime Minister of Israel ended all discussions of 
the peace plan that he brought to our shores and has returned to see to 
it that his people might not be made the subject of blackmail.
  So we rise today in the latest of a series of Special Orders on this 
floor, Mr. Speaker, to state facts for what they truly are. Let us 
bring a few facts, if we can, into the record.
  First and foremost, with regard to the role of the United Nations, 
let us understand, as Americans, as people who are committed since the 
inception of Israel's return to her historic homeland in 1948, that we 
are a nation committed to the territorial integrity and preservation of 
the Jewish State of Israel, that the United Nations is not similarly 
motivated, Mr. Speaker. That in fact, there is extraordinary evidence 
of a double standard by the United Nations. Why, Mr. Speaker, I would 
ask rhetorically do we have no fact-finding missions investigating 
massacres performed by Palestinian extremists? Yet, there is talk in 
the United Nations of an investigation into the so-called Jenin 
massacre, which, according to the Boston Globe, has already been 
determined to have virtually been a hoax. According to the Boston 
Globe, the Palestinian Authority's allegations are crumbling under the 
weight of eye witness accounts from Palestinian fighters who 
participated in the battle and camp residents who remained in their 
homes until the final hours of fighting, all told journalists that they 
were allowed to surrender and evacuate.

                              {time}  1700

  Mr. Speaker, there has been no massacre in Jenin, and yet the United 
Nations continues to pursue its one-sided policies.
  Fact number one: The solution lies not in the United States.
  Fact number two: Let us make no mistake about it, as there are those 
even in our own country who would call on concessions with regard to 
the 13 Palestinian militants currently held within the Church of the 
Nativity, let us have a fact on the table, Mr. Speaker. No other 
country will accept these 13 Palestinian militants. Yet many in our own 
State Department would have Israel sit down at the table of negotiating 
and trust with them.
  Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I truly believe that the recent attacks 
demonstrate that Israel's efforts in the war on terrorism are 
incomplete; that, sadly, because of pressure from the United States of 
America, it appears as though, based on the two suicide attacks of 
recent days, that we have asked our ally to stop a war before it was 
over.
  So I rise today with my colleague, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Deutsch), and others who we will hear from to say that America must 
allow Israel to complete this operation. We must allow Israel to remove 
the terrorist elements from their proximity. We are in the same 
position. We are taking our war against terrorism to the terrorists, 
and Israel must be allowed to pursue the terrorists in her midst.
  As I said in the beginning, Mr. Speaker, I pray for the peace of 
Jerusalem. I ask, as did the Psalmist, that those who love God would be 
secure, that there would be peace within her walls, security within her 
citadels. As the Psalmist goes on to write, ``For the sake of my 
brothers and friends, I will say, peace be within you.''
  I rise today as a Christian conservative Member of this institution. 
I rise to speak humbly on behalf of, Mr. Speaker, millions of my 
brothers in the Christian faith, and sisters, who share the passion 
that my colleague associated with me does.
  They are people who on Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday 
night fill the pews of little buckboard churches that dot the landscape 
of districts just like mine in the heartland of America, and they are 
people who have a passion for the dream that is Israel.
  So let there be no mistake to those who would observe among our 
colleagues and to the wider world that this is a Congress that is 
united across the lines of geography, across the lines of partisanship, 
and even across the lines of faith to come alongside our partner, our 
ally, and our friend in her darkest hour.
  Mr. DEUTSCH. Again, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments of the 
gentleman from Indiana. I really have learned a lot from the several 
statements he has made over the last couple of weeks.
  Those of us who left to go on this trip literally left as soon as we 
took the vote last Thursday in support of Israel, in solidarity with 
Israel, but also specifically in understanding what the Israeli 
government is doing in terms of its military operation.
  As the gentleman will recall, and as people watching might very well 
recall, it was a debate in this Chamber. It was an overwhelming 
support. Over 90 percent or about 90 percent of the Members that voted, 
voted in support of that effort.
  I can tell the Members a couple of things. First off, we delivered 
copies of that resolution to victims in hospitals, to the Prime 
Minister, to families who had lost loved ones. I can tell Members that 
it meant a great deal to them that they are not alone, that there is a 
connection between the United States and

[[Page H2217]]

the people of the United States and the people of Israel; that we 
should do as much as we can do to make that real, because 
unfortunately, they do feel alone.
  I sat through really the entire debate last Thursday, and again, 
generally we do not sit through entire debates, but I wanted to hear my 
colleagues who were speaking against the resolution. It was a 
disturbing afternoon.
  One of the things that we have talked about is I would welcome any of 
my colleagues in a discourse, because as the gentleman knows, our 
debates are not really debates, they are statements. They are very 
difficult. In this setting we can have discourse. I would hope that any 
of those colleagues would join us this evening and enter into a 
discourse about some of the statements that they made.
  I would also offer to those colleagues, and we have done it before in 
this Chamber, an Oxford-style debate for them in a discourse way to try 
to defend some of those positions. Some of those positions, again, I 
found disturbing, shocking, and ignorant.
  I will mention one, and there is no reason to mention a Member's 
name. One of the Members in this Chamber actually stood at this podium 
and put up two pictures of two young girls, a young girl who was a 
suicide bomber about 19 years old and a young girl who was killed by 
that suicide bomber.

  We saw the supermarket where that incident occurred. I cannot think 
of many sicker, more immoral comparisons than was delivered right at 
this podium less than a week ago. I would ask my colleague just to 
share thoughts that he had during that debate, as well.
  Mr. PENCE. If the gentleman will continue to yield, Mr. Speaker, I 
want to congratulate the gentleman and my other colleagues who were 
able to make the trip over the weekend to Israel. I am very moved, as I 
am sure anyone is that is watching, to hear that the pronouncements of 
this institution were a comfort to people who are suffering the loss of 
family members.
  I share the gentleman's frustration with what we can only describe as 
the moral equivalency that many in this country and some in this 
institution ascribe to this conflict, to either side in this conflict. 
It is born, in fairness to our colleague who posted the pictures, that 
juxtaposition first appeared to me on the cover of a prominent American 
magazine. Who would ever have conceived that a sympathetic display of 
the photograph of a murderer and the girl she murdered would be 
presented on the cover of an American magazine as two victims of the 
conflict in the Middle East? It was an outrage to me. I have no doubt 
that our colleague who used that display was prompted by that same 
national magazine.
  But it does, it seems to me, belie some of the moral confusion in the 
national media which has infected some in this institution. But I must 
tell the Members, as a friend and colleague, I was deeply heartened by 
what I heard in that debate, taking it in here and over the television 
air waves as I did in my office that day, by the way that so many of 
our colleagues seemed, against an avalanche of seemingly one-sided 
international media, to be still understanding how the hearts of the 
American people resonate for Israel; and, as the gentleman has said 
many times on this floor, about the one-to-one comparison between what 
Israel is doing in the West bank and what the United States is doing in 
the mountains of southeastern Afghanistan, and perhaps, as we speak, in 
northern Pakistan, that it is a one-to-one comparison. We are doing the 
same thing.
  As our President stood at this podium days after September 11 and 
pronounced, ``You are either with the terrorists or you are with us,'' 
Israel is the one Nation on Earth, it seems to me, that has taken up 
the mantle and joined us in the battle against terrorism.
  So I share the gentleman's frustration with many of our colleagues. I 
hope those that are with us listening in in their offices on this late 
afternoon who have a different view will join us for a colloquy of 
sorts.
  I also want to extol the Members in both parties in this institution 
who were willing to rise against media criticism and distortions and 
stand and add their names to that resolution that the gentleman so 
movingly says was a comfort to families.
  Mr. DEUTSCH. I would also mention, Mr. Speaker, just in terms of the 
discourse that occurred, on more than one occasion last Thursday people 
mentioned the Israeli occupation, almost inferring that it was a 
justification for acts of violence. Obviously, it could never be a 
justification for the killing of innocents. The last incident before 
this one that occurred was literally a 5-year-old girl was shot, 
murdered, hiding underneath her bed.
  I think one of the facts that are important, that people should 
understand, is that the Israeli government offered to end the 
occupation. That is what the Camp David Accord was about, where the 
Israeli government effectively offered to give back 98 percent of the 
West Bank and Gaza, offered to end the occupation. So it is this 
demented sort of perspective that if the occupation causes frustration 
and violence, well, the Israeli government was willing to end the 
occupation, so then why did they not accept it? It ends up bringing 
some of those issues in.

  I know the gentleman from New York (Mr. Weiner) has some very 
important statements, but I wanted to give the gentleman from 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Mr. Hoeffel) an opportunity to talk, 
because he was with some of those people who we passed on that 
resolution to. If he could just describe the interaction, knowing that 
the United States Congress had passed that resolution, and literally 
giving it to people, if he can share in his own words.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Hoeffel).
  Mr. HOEFFEL. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to. I thank the gentleman 
for yielding to me.
  The people we met in Israel on the trip this past weekend all knew 
about the resolution that the House had passed the day before. It was a 
remarkable demonstration to me of how much our actions here in the 
House are followed by the citizens and the government of Israel.
  Everyone we met with, from Prime Minister Sharon, Foreign Minister 
Peres, Security Minister Landau, to the Mayor of Jerusalem, to Mikeli 
the taxicab driver, all knew and all appreciated the work that was done 
here last Thursday on a bipartisan basis by passing that resolution 
expressing solidarity with Israel and denouncing the terror.
  So I thank the gentleman for the opportunity just to once more say 
that what happens here is followed in Israel. They appreciated the 
solidarity that we expressed, and there was a strong feeling of 
appreciation for what we did.
  Mr. DEUTSCH. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Weiner), who 
I know over the weekend wanted to join us, but in fact had activities 
in his own community showing solidarity and support for the State of 
Israel, and has worked as hard as any Member in this Chamber for peace 
in the Middle East.
  Mr. WEINER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for his 
statements today and for that kind compliment, and also for organizing 
these opportunities. We frequently in the House of Representatives are 
reduced to sometimes 2- or 3- or 5-minute debates on large global 
issues. This is now an opportunity, and it is the third or fourth time 
we have gathered to have kind of a reasonable discussion and back and 
forth about what are essentially very complex issues.
  I want to also offer my thanks to the gentleman from Indiana who 
spoke earlier. We also have a tendency sometimes in politics, 
particularly in this age of conflict debate, to be overly morally 
certain about our position on things. Sometimes we have debates about 
obscure tax policy or telecommunications policy, and sometimes we go at 
it on the floor of this Congress as if there is no doubt in our mind 
with absolute certainty that our position is correct.
  One thing that I would hope we would be able to agree upon is there 
is no moral underpinning for sending one's child out to go to a pool 
hall and then have them blown to bits by a suicide bomber. Those 16 
young people who were killed in the latest homicide bombing, what crime 
did they commit?

[[Page H2218]]

What political role did they occupy? What was it that their killing 
accomplished? What form of political debate is it that was being 
engaged in when they were blown to bits while Prime Minister Sharon was 
visiting here in the United States?
  There is no moral justification for it. There are no political ends 
that they seek to get that justifies that type of horror. I would agree 
with what the gentleman said, the gentleman from Florida. The idea that 
some have embraced or even rationalized that type of activity, saying 
it is a function of a political discussion or a political debate, 
however feverishly pitched it might be, over who controls a given piece 
of real estate in the Middle East, these are 16 families that are going 
to be sitting down to dinner tonight with their young child missing 
from the table, blown to bits by a suicide bomber.
  In that context that 350 of our colleagues, Democrats and Republicans 
from all parts of the country rallying last week to the cause of the 
U.S.'s support for Israel, and it was led, frankly, by the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania (Mr. Hoeffel), there are very few things we agree 
upon in those large numbers. But among those who argued against, there 
were certain myths that seem to have been repeated on this floor again 
and again, and in some cases they were responded to eloquently, and 
sometimes they were kind of left out there in the air.
  One of them is the myth that somehow Israel has to just give peace a 
chance, that they have not sufficiently offered opportunities for peace 
to take hold in the area. I think, and I have said before here, we can 
argue that Israel has tried every strategy. They tried the couple of 
yards at a time, trying to get to the first down marker. They tried the 
Oslo process, started in 1993, step-by-step, giving and conceding more 
to the Palestinians in terms of control of territory.
  At this time, 97 percent of the territories are under Palestinian 
control as a result of the Oslo process. Border checkpoints had been 
eased as a result of the Oslo process.

                              {time}  1715

  Well, that three yards and a cloud of dust strategy was tried. What 
was the result? More violence; no concessions when it came to things 
like not teaching young people in the Palestine territories to hate 
Israel; to removing reference in their textbooks referring to Israel 
and Jews as evil entities. So the Oslo process was tried by the 
Israelis and rejected in large measure by the Palestinians.
  Then Camp David, as the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutsch) 
mentions. That to me was kind of like the Hail Mary pass. Well, let us 
see what will happen if we try giving them everything they ask for. 
Well, that was not only rejected, but it was met with no counteroffer 
on the part of the Palestinians and the largest outburst of violence 
called the Second Intifada.
  Well, what do we have left? Now we have plans to get to plans to get 
to plans. And those, too, Israel has embraced and the Palestinians have 
not. We had the Mitchell Plan, very tough for Israel, telling them to 
withdraw from settlements of areas that many people believe in their 
heart of hearts are part of Israel proper. Israel accepted the Mitchell 
Plan; the Palestinians refused.
  Then you have the Tennant Plan to get you to the Mitchell Plan. 
Again, it requires very tough things of Israel. Israel said okay, we 
accept it. It was CIA Director Tennant here from the United States, 
sent on behalf of our government, who negotiated this plan. The 
Palestinians said no to that. We even had the Chaney Plan to get you to 
the Tennant Plan to get you to the Mitchell Plan. Even this level of 
incrementalism Israel chose to accept. The Palestinians said no because 
they refused to do thing one, which was to stop the violence, stop it 
for a period of time, allow negotiations to take place.
  So the first myth that came up in the debate on the floor was that 
Israel needs to just give peace a chance and we in the United States 
need to step back, not be as supportive of Israel, because she has not. 
Clearly a myth.
  The second myth that has emerged again and again in this debate and 
it has seeped into the mainstream media is that the problems there are 
a product of Prime Minister Sharon's intractability; that if it only 
was not Sharon and the way he behaves in his bellicose manner, maybe we 
would not have all of these problems.
  Well, I would make two points about that. One is the Intifada that 
has started this violence, that has led to 76 suicide attacks since 
October of 2000, started under Prime Minister Barak. Frankly, he was in 
for 4 months while this violence was ratcheted up and ratcheted up and 
ratcheted up. No one could argue that Prime Minister Barak was so anti-
Palestinian, bellicose and confrontational. He actually lost his prime 
ministership because he was too generous in what he was offering the 
Palestinians. Yet that is conveniently ignored by opponents of Israel 
today who want to lay this all at the feet of Ariel Sharon, with the 
simplistic explanation of what is going on.
  Let us not forget something else. Virtually every corner of Israeli 
political life today has articulated support for Prime Minister 
Sharon's efforts to weed out terrorism wherever it can be found, 
essentially has articulated support for the Bush doctrine, Israeli 
style. So the myth that this is a Sharon-created problem is just that, 
a myth.
  A third myth that was repeated again and again, and I heard it last 
night on the news again, is that the Israelis have used excessive force 
on the face of the onslaught of terrorism.
  We have as of this morning dropped one bomb for every member of the 
Taliban in Tora Bora. We have unleashed a record number of armaments in 
that area. We do so because we know how important it is to do whatever 
is necessary to root out the Taliban, to root out bin Laden and to root 
out his henchmen.
  The Israelis have made a different decision. They are not flying over 
the Palestinian territories, going to Ramallah and saying there is 44 
of these suicide bombers coming from Ramallah, we are going to level 
Ramallah. They are going house to house, down dark alleys, and making a 
conscious decision to increase the number of casualties.
  Excessive force? If the Israelis really wanted to root this out in a 
way that we have done it in Tora Bora, they would do it from afar. But 
they will not do that. It is not the way they are as a people and it is 
not the way they choose to deal with the Palestinians as a people 
either.
  So what has happened? Israelis going door to door with pictures of 
wanted terrorists, knocking on the door, trying to find them, and they 
are getting killed as a result. Far from excessive force. The exact 
opposite. Probably the most moral execution of a war you can possibly 
imagine.
  And the standoff that goes on today at the Church of the Nativity. 
Can you imagine, just imagine for a moment, first of all, the utter 
contempt of the terrorists to seek refuge in such a holy place. But can 
you imagine any other country with 13 assassins, suicide bombers, 
people who have done harm, can you imagine for a moment one of the evil 
men that attacked my city of New York, imagine if we knew one of them 
was in a local church? Would we encircle it and wait and wait and wait 
until they came out, out of respect for that church? Probably not. No 
country would do that perhaps except for Israel. Why? Because Israel 
has been the caretaker of the religious crossroads of the world for its 
entire 44 years with the utmost respect. Anyone who visits Israel can 
attest to that.
  If you look at the various places, an entire government commission 
was created, a government agency was created just for the purposes of 
protecting and ensuring the health and security of non-Jewish holy 
sites in the Holy Land because that is the way Israel chooses to do it. 
So this idea that excessive force has been used is another myth.
  And the final myth, and this is the one that perhaps is a favorite of 
those in the media, and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutsch) 
referenced it earlier, is the notion that we have to create an 
environment that the moderate Arab states can help us forge. Where is 
this moderate Arab state? Is it Iran, who tried to export 50 tons, I 
believe is the number, of armaments that cannot only be used against 
Israeli citizens, ships and planes, but just as easily against a United 
States ship or plane or people? Is that our moderate friend?

[[Page H2219]]

  How about the Saudis? The Jerry Lewis of fundraising for suicide 
bombers. Are they the moderates that produced 15 of the 19 suicide 
bombers? Are these the people that came to the United States to meet 
with our President of the United States and engage in a front page New 
York Times lecture about our moral responsibility? This is the country, 
this totalitarian regime that is run by a few hundred princes and 
potentates?
  Who are these moderates? Maybe it is Syria, Hafez Assad, the new head 
of Syria? He is an ophthalmologist or an orthopedist or an 
orthodontist. I do not know what he is. He was educated at the Sorbonne 
so we start to say maybe he is going to be the moderate face of the 
Middle East. What does he do? He turns over his government in whole, in 
toto, to Hezbollah which continues on the other front that Israel has, 
their northern front, continues to use Lebanon as a launching place for 
more terrorism.
  This is another myth that the moderate Arab states will rise up. I 
will tell you who is going to rise up. The people of the Palestinian 
territories will rise up and say what the Egyptians said, what the 
Jordanians have said, and what other people who have sought to make 
peace have said.
  In every case where someone said to Israel, here is our hand of 
peace, there has been peace. The Egyptians decided through the heroism 
of Anwar Sadat, maybe we should learn to get along, live together. 
Peace did not take that long to do.
  King Hussein of Jordan made the same decision. The moment that it 
comes that the Palestinian peoples choose through a nonviolent, through 
negotiations that they want a homeland, that they want an economy that 
is not in rubbles, that they want to peacefully co-exist with Israel, I 
can tell you that it will happen in weeks.
  The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutsch) correctly points out the 
occupation is hardly even an issue any more. The Israeli people, the 
Israeli government say we will negotiate an end to the occupation in 
exchange for peaceful co-existence.
  Let us not forget that in the final analysis, Israel is ringed by 
Arab nations who fundamentally like the idea that the Palestinian 
people are waging a war against Israel. They are a surrogate army. It 
is the Palestinian people themselves that have to make the decision. 
They say we no longer want leadership that turns over our faith to 
Hamas to go blow up children at a pool hall. We no longer want to turn 
over our faith to Yasir Arafat who says no to an offer of everything 
simply because he wants to continue to negotiate or because he does not 
want Israel's right to exist.
  When the Palestinian people rise up and say, you know, my little 5-
year-old girl should not be seeing cartoons on Palestinian terrorism 
saying put down your books, put down your toys and pick up your guns, 
when the Palestinian people decide they are not going to go to 
protests, holding their 5, 6-year-old boys and girls on their shoulder 
with mock suicide bombs around their waists, there will be peace. Until 
then it is the United States supporting a peaceful country of Israel 
who is trying desperately to do what we have been doing since September 
11; desperately trying to survive, trying to have an environment where 
they are not afraid to send their kids to school, not afraid to send 
them out for a slice of pizza, not afraid to send them out to a pool 
hall.

  I would ask my colleagues how they would feel in their town and 
neighborhoods and cities all across this country if they did not feel 
comfortable that they could send their child out for a slice of pizza 
without knowing whether they would be blown up by some person wearing 
dynamite laced with nails, ball bearings and hexagonal nuts. That is 
what Israel confronts.
  We in this Congress in a magnitude that is rarely seen around here, 
350-some-odd votes, said we in the United States understand what Israel 
confronts, and we stand shoulder to shoulder with them.
  Mr. DEUTSCH. The gentleman had so many incredible insights in that 
statement. I would like to really follow up on a couple of them.
  One, the difference between Anwar Sadat and Yasser Arafat. Anwar 
Sadat not only came to Jerusalem as a peacemaker, but got on Egyptian 
television and told his people why it was in their interest to have 
peace with Israel, and basically led them and educated them about that.
  Yasser Arafat, I am going to read this quote that he basically said 
today, right now. This is the quote. ``But we ask Allah to grant us 
martyrdom. To Jerusalem we march, martyrs by the million.''
  This is the English translation from al Jazeera, but the word martyr 
is shaheed. And the true translation that every Palestinian understands 
by that word is suicide bomber. Literally suicide bomber. It is the 
equivalent of what we would say kamikaze, and we know what a kamikaze 
means. Shaheed, the Palestinians know what it means. So he said to 
Jerusalem we march. Suicide bombers by the millions. To Jerusalem we 
march. Suicide bombers by the millions.
  When Yasser Arafat left his compound on May 3, it really is not 
martyrs in the millions, the true translation as Palestinians said the 
words and understand the words, suicide bombers in the millions.
  This is just another comment. Let me see if I can find it.
  Mr. WEINER. Mr. Speaker, while the gentleman is looking for that, if 
I could ask the gentleman to yield for a moment. One of the things that 
is important is we frequently listen to what Mr. Arafat says to Western 
television in English, and then you go read what he says to his own 
people in Arabic, and it is a world of difference. You can hold a press 
conference in the United States for CNN saying this is a terrible thing 
that has happened, and then, as you pointed out, he turns and says in 
Arabic something entirely different.
  Mr. DEUTSCH. This is from the New York Times, April 15. This is from 
Chairman Arafat's wife. And I think it is so strange to us that a 
mother could say this, but this is what Yasser Arafat and his wife are 
teaching.
  ``If she had a son, there would be no greater honor than to sacrifice 
him for the Palestinian cause. `Would you expect me or my children to 
be less patriotic and more eager to live than my countrymen and their 
father, we who are seeking martyrdom?' '' And, again, martyrdom means 
being a suicide bomber, a mother of a leader of a group. And I question 
whether or not he is a leader because one of the things that is 
interesting in your comments and one of the things of visiting and 
talking to people in Israel, is that as evil and as awful and as 
horrific as Yasser Arafat has been to Israelis, he has been as bad to 
his own people. They have indiscriminately killed Palestinians. They 
have destroyed an economy. There is no freedom. There is fear. The 
demolishment. And it is a people that does have a future. But it does 
not have a future with Yasser Arafat.
  One of the other things, and again, the gentleman went through a 
number of points that I hopefully will be able to find all the 
corresponding charts. I think I have it.
  This is our friends, the Saudis. One of the things about the Israeli 
incursion was that not only did they find this incredible stash of 
weapons, but an incredible sort of stash of documents, some of which 
have been released publicly at this point in time. And unfortunately, 
again, it is an issue where the press really has not, I think, talked 
about them specifically. And I welcome people trying to understand and 
literally read the documents.
  Here is the ad that was put in a Palestinian newspaper asking for 
people because the Saudi committee for support of the Intifada was 
giving the equivalent of 5,000 American dollars per family, per suicide 
bomber. And literally an ad in the Palestinian newspaper, Alhayat Al 
Jadideh, and literally just asking them to come to a certain location 
for information and a number of beneficiaries and to come and sign up, 
prove that you are a suicide bomber and you will get $5,000 from the 
Saudis.

                              {time}  1730

  Saudi Committee for the Support of the Intifada, which the interior 
minister of the Saudi government is the head of that committee.
  Now, the Saudi government then sent a letter to that particular 
organization and the letter says, ``I remind you that the house rules 
of the Saudi Committee for the Support of the Intifada prohibits 
publication of the name of the

[[Page H2220]]

committee.'' So they are not allowed to publicize the fact that the 
Saudis are paying for it.
  Included in the documents are a list of suicide bombers, literally a 
list which people at this point is not on the Internet, but is 
available in the public domain, that the Saudi government pay the 
$5,000 American literally to people who were suicide bombers.
  So I agree with the gentleman completely. Is that moderates? Is that 
who we can expect? The one mistake I think in terms of the war on 
terrorism that the administration is making is this attempt to make 
something that is not. I think the proofs are the facts that the Saudis 
unfortunately are really not our allies in this war against global 
terrorism by their actions and by their specific deeds.
  What I would like to do quickly in the last minutes is really just 
put up on the easel again some of the extensive evidence tying Chairman 
Arafat specifically to the terrorist actions. There has been an attempt 
by the President to also make a Yasar Arafat exemption to the war on 
terrorism, and it is a sad and, I think, tragic mistake of the 
administration.
  The facts are the facts. The truth is the truth. These are one of 
several documents. At this point the Palestinian authorities are no 
longer inferring, as originally they did, that the documents are 
hoaxes. These were found by soldiers in the hard drives of Arafat's 
compound; and in fact, I spoke with the parents of a soldier who, in 
fact, was one of the soldiers that did, that was killed, and in the 
interim, the parents before, because it was in a different incursion, 
he was in Ramallah, he ended up being killed in Jenin, actually called 
his parents and explained to them what he did and by his own words told 
me what their son told him. In fact, he actually got these specific 
documents and the young man, 20-year-old young man, that died.
  This particular document, which at this point again, there is no 
question about its authenticity. It is signed by Chairman Arafat, his 
signature, and specifically, it is a request by a senior Fatah activist 
in the West Bank for $2,500 for three known terrorists, terrorists that 
were on the Israeli's most wanted list. In fact, the Israelis were 
assassinated because of specific direct involvement with terrorism, and 
Chairman Arafat signs and approves those payments.
  He does the same in this chart for a list of 12 known terrorists and 
again his signature, which at this point is no longer refuted in terms 
of his direct involvement in terms of terrorist acts.
  In some ways this is one of the most disturbing documents found. It 
is a list of expenditures by Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a martyr group, a 
list of their specific needs; and as incredible as it is, we meet every 
week five to nine, explosive targets. The squads in the various areas, 
five to nine explosive charges for suicide bombs, for murder bombers, 
written by Al Aqsa, to the Palestinian Authority, in their office was 
found and the calculation of how much they were going to pay them.
  It is just not credible that they were not involved in direct 
bombings, suicide bombings.
  Here is a copy of minutes of a meeting from March 24, 2002, of the 
Palestinian Authority. Hamas members were there at the time. So again 
it is not credible to say that Chairman Arafat obviously was at this 
meeting, but specifically talking about minutes from the meeting, 
talking about the decisions of where to bomb and why it was not a good 
time to bomb because or where outside the green line or inside the 
green line. General Zinni was there.
  I am going to close because our hour is just about up, and there are 
more things that I can mention or show, but I think that in closing 
Israel's war is America's war. Israel does not want to be in Bethlehem 
or Nablus or Jenin anymore than America wants to be in Afghanistan. 
They are there because they have to be there. They have no choice.
  I will not show a chart of it, but Israel is about \1/60\th the size 
of the United States in population. When 50 Israelis are killed, it is 
the equivalent of 9-11. So just yesterday it was almost the equivalent 
of one-third of 9-11. We know how America responded on 9-11, as we 
should and as we did and as we are doing. We cannot ask anything less 
of the Israelis.

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