[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 157 (Thursday, December 8, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2489]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     SUPPORT FOR THREE RESOLUTIONS

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                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 8, 2005

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, under the assumption that 
the House would have adjourned for the year by Tuesday, December 6, I 
accepted a very important speaking engagement for that evening in 
Massachusetts. The event was the installation of a constituent, David 
Wluka, as President for the year of the Massachusetts Association of 
Realtors, an important organization with which I have worked closely on 
the issue of housing, which is one of those that is most important to 
me in my role on the Committee on Financial Services. My presence at 
this event had been advertised by the Realtors, and so when suspension 
votes were scheduled for Tuesday night, I made this one of those rare 
occasions when I missed votes in order to carry out a responsibility in 
my district. All three of the votes taken were unanimous, so my absence 
obviously had no impact on the outcome. But I did want to make sure 
that my strong support for all three of those resolutions was noted. 
This is particularly true with H. Res. 438, which urged UN member 
states to cease their one-sided and unfair condemnations of Israel. The 
lack of balance in the UN with regard to the Middle East peace process 
has in fact been an obstacle to the success of that process, by 
increasing the fears of many in Israel that they will be unfairly 
treated. As a strong supporter of the ongoing peace process in the 
Middle East, I believe this resolution was an important one and I hope 
that the members of the UN will heed it.
  Similarly, the resolution honoring the late Israeli Prime Minister 
Yitzhak Rabin is another important affirmation of the great value we 
place on the peace process. Those who murdered this great man sought to 
murder the process of peace, and it is important for us to make it 
clear that they did not succeed in that latter effort, although they 
tragically did succeed in killing one of the great leaders of our time. 
Yitzhak Rabin's courageous efforts for peace, grounded in the heroic 
efforts he made during his lifetime to advance Israel's security, 
deserve not simply this commendation, but serious efforts to bring to 
fruition what he worked so hard to achieve.
  Finally, it is entirely appropriate that our colleague, the gentleman 
from California, Mr. Lantos, lead the House in recognizing the Fiftieth 
Anniversary of the extraordinarily brave, through tragic, effort by the 
Hungarian people to win their freedom from the brutal dictatorship 
imposed on them by the Soviet Union. While this ended badly with the 
deaths of so many brave people, it was an affirmation that the human 
drive for freedom cannot easily be snuffed out, and served as an 
extraordinary example for the later, successful efforts to break the 
tyrannical Soviet empire.

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