[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 57 (Wednesday, April 9, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5054-S5055]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          THE UNITED STATES AND ISRAEL: UNITED AGAINST TERROR

  Mr. BUNNING. Mr. President, I would like to take a few minutes to 
talk to my colleagues in the Senate about the important relationship 
America has with our friends in Israel, and the crucial role that this 
relationship plays in the ongoing War on Terror.
  As American and Coalition troops continue military operations to 
liberate the people of Iraq, it is important to recall that amidst all 
of the criticism in the world community for American actions, there has 
been at least one nation that has steadfastly stood by our side since 
September 11 and even before.
  That nation is the State of Israel.
  Americans awoke fully to the realities of terrorism on that fateful 
morning in September, 2001. But for the children of Israel, acts of 
terrorism are an all too common occurrence. Israel long ago learned all 
too well about the true nature of the threat we face, and their 
assistance in combating that threat has been invaluable to the American 
people.
  American support for Israel was strong even before September 11, but 
I believe it is even stronger now. It is strong in the Congress, in the 
White House, and throughout America.
  Israel is our greatest friend in a very troubled region. This is as 
it should be; Israel has suffered greatly, in blood and treasure, and 
deserves strong American support. Israel has been an island of 
stability in a turbulent Middle Eastern sea.
  That is why I have strongly supported economic and military aid to 
Israel, including the $9 billion in loan guarantees and $1 billion in 
FMF funds now pending before Congress as part of the supplemental 
spending bill to pay for the War on Terror. And that is why I have 
signed a letter to President Bush urging him to remain true to his 
vision for peace between Israel and the Palestinians as stated in his 
historic June 24, 2002, Rose Garden speech.
  Since September 2000, when Yasser Arafat rejected the Camp David 
offer put forth by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak--and the 
subsequent, even more generous Taba offer backed by President Clinton 
that would have granted the Palestinians a sovereign state on 97 
percent of the West Bank and Gaza, removed the majority of Israeli 
settlements, and allowed for Palestinian control over the Temple 
Mount--Israel has faced an onslaught of organized terrorism against its 
men, women and children.
  The Dolphinarium disco, a Sbarro pizzeria, the Moment Cafe, a 
Passover seder--all were targets of homicide bombers sent by 
Palestinian terror groups who have been permitted to operate freely 
within Palestinian society by Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
  I actually ate once at that pizzeria. In 1999, I visited Israel and 
spent a week there so I could better understand its history and events. 
On one of our last nights, my wife, Mary and I, along with our friends 
decided to eat out at that restaurant. To later then actually see a 
place with which you are familiar destroyed in a senseless act of 
violence really helps to put these chillingly serious matters in 
perspective.
  It is a perspective that Israelis live with every day, and it is a 
perspective more and more Americans are coming to understand.
  On the surface, these acts of terrorism are barbaric. But, on a 
deeper level, they also represent the utter failure of Arafat to live 
up to his commitment to Israel and the United States,

[[Page S5055]]

made as part of the 1993 Oslo peace accords, and for which Arafat was 
ironically given the Nobel Peace Prize, to renounce violence and crack 
down on terrorism.
  Let me be perfectly clear: there is no moral equivalence between 
those who send teenagers to blow themselves up in crowded Israeli cafes 
and a government that must utilize its armed forces in order to defend 
its citizens.
  Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has no choice but to fight a war 
against the terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian territories so 
long as Arafat's police forces are doing nothing to stop terrorism, and 
worse, aiding it.
  President Bush was exactly right when in his June 24 Rose Garden 
speech he called on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders 
untainted by terror, to build a democracy, and to end the scourge of 
terror, if they truly wanted the United States to recognize a 
Palestinian state. And it is vital that any ``roadmap'' toward the 
establishment of a Palestinian state be based on Palestinian 
performance, not timetables. Further, this performance should be judged 
by the party most trusted by Israelis--the United States--and not the 
United Nations, France, Russia or others.
  On September 11, 2001, Israelis spontaneously gathered on the streets 
to mourn for the victims of that day's brutal attacks. Israel 
immediately offered the United States whatever assistance it might 
need. Israelis know terrorism, but they will never become inured to it.
  At a time when Israel is treated as a pariah by the U.N. and much of 
Europe, when American academics seek to have universities divest from 
Israel, when anti-Semitic language reminiscent of the worst days of 
Nazism are considered fair game, it is imperative that the United 
States stand in solidarity with its true friend and ally, the State of 
Israel.

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