[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 86 (Tuesday, June 25, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H3866]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE PRESIDENT'S MIDDLE EAST SPEECH

  (Mr. LANTOS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I commend the President's speech on the 
Middle East, and I strongly support his vision. In calling for new 
Palestinian leadership and democratic reforms, the President has 
announced the end of the Arafat era.
  Never has an end been so richly deserved. Having been handed an 
opportunity after an opportunity, Yasser Arafat has led the 
Palestinians to death, murder and destruction. Now, as President Bush 
made clear, it is time for the Palestinians to choose a new leader, a 
new type of leader, nonviolent, democratic and noncorrupt, if there is 
to be hope for peace.
  Every American agrees that the nations committed to peace must oppose 
regimes that support terror, nations such as Iraq and Iran, and that 
the dictatorship in Syria, whose foreign minister last week defended 
suicide bombers by saying ``they have a right to their opinion,'' must 
once and for all close all terrorist camps and expel all terrorist 
organizations not only from Syria but from Lebanon it illegally 
occupies.
  As for the Palestinians, Mr. Speaker, if they reject the culture of 
death and embrace the President's prerequisites for peace by electing 
new leaders, building democracy, ending anti-Israel incitement, 
committing to nonviolence, and destroying their terrorist 
infrastructure, I shall fight as hard as I can for the President's 
program, including humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people.

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