[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 62 (Wednesday, May 15, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4424-S4425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 ISRAEL

  Mr. TORRICELLI. Mr. President, throughout all of my adult life, I 
have traveled frequently to Israel. I have had the honor of knowing 
almost all of Israel's principal leaders. As many Americans though I am 
of the Christian faith, I have always felt a strong identity with the 
struggle of the Jewish people and the survival of the Jewish State.
  I believe the American relationship with Israel is complex: Our sense 
that Israel represents the edges of Western civilization; the identity 
of a struggling people simply desiring to survive; the sense of 
humanity's obligation to the Jewish people who have survived the 
Holocaust; and, of course, an inevitable American identity with a 
democracy, a pluralist state that shares our most basic value.
  Through this association, I have witnessed Israel in many struggles. 
Years ago, all Americans marveled at Israel's ability to overcome 
extraordinary military adversity in the 1967 war facing overwhelming 
conventional arms against them. In 1973, a similar array of armed 
forces having entered the very heart of Israel and being turned back 
was a demonstration of remarkable courage and sacrifice by the Israeli 
people. In the years that followed, there was the conventional conflict 
in which Israel's triumph was matched by her ability to stand down 
mounting strategic armaments from the Syrians, the launching of limited 
missiles from Lebanon.
  In each of these conflicts, courage, determination, guile, and skill 
allowed Israel to survive. None of these things, however, would have 
prepared any of us for the conflict in which Israel is now engaged. 
Previous generations overcoming strategic weapons and conventional 
weapons and the guerrilla warfare of the war of independence are in 
some ways little preparation for what the current generation of 
Israelis are experiencing. It is the ultimate test of any Western 
society. It goes to the heart of the ability of any country to be able 
to endure when terrorism strikes the center of our cities, destroys our 
families, interrupts our means of transportation, denies the ability of 
our economies to function, our democracies to vibrantly engage in 
debate in the prospect of such terror.

  It is a conflict not simply between two sides but two centuries, two 
concepts of life, two abilities to organize society.
  I felt confident in Israel's previous wars, despite the odds, the 
overwhelming weapons, or the disparity of manpower because courage and 
intellect would dictate the result. There is no amount of courage, no 
amount of intellect that can face down a terrorist bombing. This is a 
different war. It is dangerous.
  My concern is amplified by the voices in Asia and Europe that were 
once so sympathetic to the struggling Jewish State that are now at best 
silent and often giving comfort to Israel's enemies. Those Europeans 
which shared American responsibility for the children of the Holocaust 
somehow have forgotten. Those in Europe who admired the courage of the 
Israelis in building a democracy are silent. Those Europeans who in 
every case would reach out to another democratic society with an 
identification, a brotherhood of pluralist democracies, now seem to 
fail to find any identity in Israel.
  There are so many emotions that this brings forward for Americans. It 
should thus be said at the outset, if in this struggle Israel and 
America must stand alone, then Israel and America never stood in better 
company.
  In this struggle, victory will not be by the numbers. We will not be 
intimidated by the coalitions or silenced by the critics. This is a 
fight about principle. And the strength of the Jewish cause in Israel 
may best be defined by its objectives. Jews want to survive in their 
own homeland. This is not a struggle about conquest or wealth or 
national pride; it is survival. Jews stay in Israel or they die with 
their backs to the sea. That is what the struggle is about.
  I recognize that many of our European friends, for their own economic 
or political reasons, may no longer identify with Israel. They may have 
made their arrangements elsewhere.
  History has a short memory. To them, the obligations of the Holocaust 
or the promise to the Jewish people of their homeland may be a distant 
memory. Maybe Israel and America will fight alone, but it should not be 
forgotten that we may fight alone, but this is not our fight alone.
  If terrorism succeeds in Israel, who among us would doubt that its 
next battlefield will be Europe? Certainly no

[[Page S4425]]

one in my State of New Jersey doubts that it will be America. We have 
seen terrorism.
  Woodrow Wilson once said that America's two best friends were the 
Atlantic and the Pacific. They have become very little friends. 
Terrorism in another part of the world, halfway around the globe, 
offers no comfort to any American by its distance; it can be here 
tomorrow.
  The fight for Israel's security is the fight for the security of 
every free nation, whether they are aligned with Israel, whether they 
wish Israel well. She fights our fight, and her fate is our fate.
  There are many obstacles to a peaceful resolution in the Middle East. 
I believe profoundly that there will never be a military answer to the 
conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis. These are two 
people of some common ancestry who live in a shared land. Both will 
learn to live together.
  As profoundly as I believe in a peace process, I am also convinced 
that unless the Palestinian Authority understands that terrorism will 
not succeed, that there is no military answer, and that at all costs 
Israel will survive, no negotiated settlement is possible.

  There are those who may think that their military operations at the 
moment give them advantage in negotiations. There are others who 
believe their military operations hold not the promise of the West Bank 
and Gaza as a Palestinian State, but the destruction of the Jewish 
State in its entirety. To them, there is not a Palestinian State 
envisioned in the West Bank and Gaza, but in Haifa and Tel Aviv and 
Jerusalem.
  I have never represented any cause in the Middle East other than a 
negotiated settlement. I believe profoundly in the peace process as 
essential to the survival of Israel and in the interest of the 
Palestinian people, but I refuse to counsel Israel that it should 
negotiate with people bent on its destruction, or that it is of any 
value to engage in peace negotiations as long as their adversaries 
believe that a military victory is possible and Israel's entire 
destruction conceivable.
  It is almost axiomatic to declare that peace negotiations and peace 
settlements are historically nothing but a reflection of the realities 
on the battlefield. The reality that Americans and Israelis see is two 
people in a common land who need their own homelands. That makes peace 
negotiations by Americans or Israelis not only possible but inevitable. 
But no nation can negotiate with itself, nor can peace be unilaterally 
declared.
  Unless the Palestinians, and not simply the Palestinian Authority but 
important elements of the society, recognize that such military 
outcomes are impossible, only then will peace negotiations be 
meaningful.
  There are those in America who genuinely believe that by pressuring 
Israel not to respond militarily, not to seek terrorists in their own 
territory, we are giving good advice to the Israeli Government.
  It is a difficult argument to understand in an American context. Who 
in this Senate would be counseling the U.S. Government, after a 
terrorist attack, to exercise restraint? Which Member of the Senate 
would suggest to our own military, if Chicago or Miami or Los Angeles 
were to fall victim to a terrorist attack, that we should not respond? 
Which part of the American arsenal would you withhold if it were 
American cities experiencing bombings, American buses being destroyed, 
American children losing their limbs?
  I dare to say there is not a Member of this Senate who would urge 
restraint or withhold a single weapon in our arsenal. The Palestinians 
may believe there is little for them to be grateful for today. Their 
cities are being destroyed. The Israeli Army has occupied parts of the 
West Bank. Gaza awaits an invasion. There is something, however, for 
which they should be grateful. If it were the United States of America 
that endured these attacks and not Israel, the response they have 
experienced from the Israeli Army would be a small shadow of the 
problems that would be visited upon them.
  Finally, there are those in the Senate who wonder, with Israelis 
having to respond with their lives, the Israeli economy in shambles, 
what is it any American can do? How is it that in this moment of crisis 
we can exercise true fidelity with Israel in its fight for survival? 
Our words are important. So is our presence in Israel.
  Nothing would demonstrate more our commitment to Israel than Members 
of Congress, like the American people themselves, being present, 
exhibiting courage, showing our commitment.
  In this Senate, we 100 have a different opportunity. The fight for 
Israel's survival is not only militarily decided, it is also 
economically decided. The Clinton administration 18 months ago, after 
the withdrawal from Lebanon, pledged Israel $450 million for 
supplemental assistance. It was to compensate for the withdrawal, to 
help recreate a security zone in the north of Israel, and for missile 
defense.
  That money was never provided. Regrettably, the Bush administration 
never even included it in its recommendations for the Congress this 
year. At a time when Israelis look across the sea to America for 
confidence of their own survival, broken American promises are not 
helpful. Indeed, they are troubling. The first thing this Congress can 
do is ensure that every commitment is kept, all resources are given. In 
the current stage of this fight against terrorism, despite all the 
sacrifices of September 11 and the courage of our soldiers in 
Afghanistan, at this moment most Americans are not asked to sacrifice 
with their lives. We have experienced that before. It may come again. 
At this moment, the sacrifice is Israeli. The least we can do is help 
them with the means to win this war.
  All of us look for the words telegraphed around the world to those 
who believe that the Jewish state was both created and will die in a 
single generation, words to put at rest those who are committing their 
energy and their resources to this war on terrorism against Israel. 
Here are mine: Israel is forever. As long as there is a United States 
of America, there will be an Israel. It took 2,000 years for the Jewish 
people to get home. They have been there for a single generation. They 
are not leaving. Those in Europe who would counsel or comfort her 
enemies, those in the Middle East who are bent on her destruction, 
would do best to accept that reality.
  There is land enough for all peoples to decide their own governments 
and design their own futures. Let there be no question, for those who 
respect the will and the power of the United States of America, one of 
those peoples will be Jewish and one of those countries will be Israel.
  I yield the floor.

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