[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 68 (Friday, May 26, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E995-E996]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      PRESIDENT CARTER'S THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 25, 2006

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I would like to encourage my colleagues to 
consider the thoughts of former President Jimmy Carter on achieving a 
lasting peace in the Middle East.

                    [From the Nation, May 25, 2006]

                House Vote Harms Palestine, Israel, U.S.

                           (By John Nichols)

       Jimmy Carter has been blunt: Despite the fact of a 
     Palestinian election result that was not to their liking, the 
     former president says, ``it is unconscionable for Israel, the 
     United States and others under their influence to continue 
     punishing the innocent and already persecuted people of 
     Palestine.''
       Since the political wing of the militant group Hamas swept 
     parliamentary elections in Palestine, the U.S. and Israel 
     have been trying to use economic pressure to force a change 
     of course. Disregarding the democracy that President Bush 
     says he wants to promote in the Middle East, the U.S. has 
     sanctioned policies that have fostered chaos on the Gaza 
     Strip and the West Bank and created increasingly harsh 
     conditions for people who have known more than their share of 
     suffering.
       ``Innocent Palestinian people are being treated like 
     animals, with the presumption that they are guilty of some 
     crime,'' argues Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose 
     involvement in the Middle East peace process has extended 
     across three decades. ``Because they voted for candidates who 
     are members of Hamas, the United States government has become 
     the driving force behind an apparently effective scheme of 
     depriving the general public of income, access to the outside 
     world and the necessities of life.''
       Instead of checking and balancing the president's misguided 
     approach to an election result that displeased him, Congress 
     has added fuel to the fire.
       By a lopsided vote of 361 to 37, the House voted Tuesday 
     for the so-called ``Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act,'' a 
     measure so draconian that even the Bush administration has 
     opposed it.
       The legislation, which still must be reconciled with a 
     similar measure passed by the Senate, would cut off all 
     assistance to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, and place 
     conditions on humanitarian assistance delivered directly to 
     the Palestinians by non-government organizations. 
     Presidential spokesman Tony Snow, in restating the White 
     House's opposition to the measure says that it 
     ``unnecessarily constrains'' the flow of essential 
     assistance--food, fresh water, medicine--in a manner that 
     does, indeed, ``tie the president's hand'' when it comes to 
     providing humanitarian aid.
       It also has the potential to encourage, rather than 
     restrain, violence.
       Representative Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat who was 
     one of the few members of the House to argue against the 
     legislation, correctly explained that the approach endorsed 
     by most of his colleagues will strengthen the hand of 
     Palestinian extremists.
       ``It does little to prioritize on the basis of our 
     strategic interests, and provides no prospect for Palestinian 
     reform coming through the process of negotiations,'' 
     Blumenauer said of the legislation. ``In so doing, it weakens 
     the hands of those who advocate for peace negotiations, and 
     supports those extremists who believe in violence.''
       Debra DeLee, President and CEO of Americans for Peace Now, 
     which works closely with Israeli groups seeking a peaceful 
     settlement of tensions with the Palestinians, calls the bill 
     ``an exercise in overreaching that will undercut American 
     national security needs, Israeli interests, and hope for the 
     Palestinian people, if it's ever signed into law.'' ``We 
     urged the House to craft legislation that was focused and 
     flexible enough to allow the U.S. to respond to Hamas' 
     election victory in a firm, yet responsible, manner,'' 
     explained a frustrated DeLee. ``But by failing

[[Page E996]]

     to provide the president with a real national security 
     waiver, by failing to include a sunset clause for draconian 
     performance requirements that will stay on the books 
     regardless of who is running the Palestinian Authority, and 
     by failing to distinguish between Hamas and Palestinians 
     who support a two-state solution, the supporters of this 
     bill have missed that opportunity for now.''
       Despite its dramatic flaws, the bill drew bipartisan 
     support, with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, and 
     Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Minority Leader 
     Nancy Pelosi, D-California, lining up their respective 
     caucuses behind it.
       Of the 37 ``no'' votes, 31 came from Democrats, including 
     senior members such as Michigan's John Conyers and John 
     Dingell, Californians George Miller and Pete Stark and 
     Wisconsin's David Obey. Ohio's Dennis Kucinich, a contender 
     for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, also opposed 
     the measure, as did California's Barbara Lee, a co-chair of 
     the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
       The six Republican ``no'' votes came from Maryland's Wayne 
     Gilchrest, North Carolina's Walter Jones, Arizona's Jim 
     Kolbe, Illinois' Ray LaHood and Texans Ron Paul and Mac 
     Thornberry.
       As is frequently the case on votes involving Israel and 
     Palestine, dozens of members did not participate. Nine House 
     members, all of them Democrats, voted ``present'' Tuesday. 
     Twenty-five members, eleven of them Democrats, fourteen of 
     them Republicans, registered no vote.
       Americans for Peace Now's DeLee says that, as the House and 
     Senate seek to reconcile differing bills, her group will 
     continue to work to alter the legislation so that it will not 
     encourage extremism or worsen a humanitarian crisis. But 
     there is no question that the task has been made more 
     difficult by the overwhelming House vote in favor of this 
     misguided measure.

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