[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 97 (Friday, July 21, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1485-E1486]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JIM McDERMOTT

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 20, 2006

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, it was with unwavering support for 
Israel, its safety, security and right to exist, that I cast a vote 
today against House Resolution 921. Hezbollah, not Israel, started this 
conflict with an ambush, and Israel has every right to defend itself. 
There is no doubt about that.
  Nor is there any doubt anywhere about America's deep and abiding 
commitment to Israel.
  A resolution in the House of Representatives will not change what the 
world already knows, but it might encourage what the world already 
fears: a wider war with greater casualties, undermining fragile but 
crucial support for Israel among Arab nations, and further endangering 
Israelis and other innocent civilians across the region.
  I am especially troubled by the fact that H. Res. 921 goes far beyond 
reaffirming our unwavering commitment to Israel by declaring unlimited 
support for potential military action anywhere in the region. The 
resolution says we: ``support Israel's right to take appropriate action 
to defend itself, including to conduct operations both in Israel and in 
the territory of nations which pose a threat to it.''
  This raises the ominous prospect that the House has given the 
administration a pre-recorded vote to support any action, at any time. 
Could that include a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities? The 
resolution is a blank check, and we know that policy has failed in 
Iraq, and has only incubated further violence and terrorism.
  No one can for one moment accept rockets in Haifa, Nazareth, or 
anywhere in Israel. But demanding that the Lebanese government rein in 
Hezbollah while bombs rain down on a variety of targets, some civilian, 
is not the answer.
  Widening the war will inflame tensions, increase casualties and 
decrease any prospect for a permanent peace. The United States can best 
support Israel and the Arab world by vigorously pursuing an end to the 
violence, the resumption of a peace process and a commitment to unite 
the region to isolate terrorist groups and all who oppose a just and 
lasting peace for all people.

                  [From the Daily Star, July 19, 2006]

                  Back to Beirut, Ready To Defy Israel

                          (By Rami G. Khouri)

       I must be one of the few people in the world trying to get 
     into Beirut, rather than flee the city that is being 
     bombarded daily by Israel, with explicit American approval. 
     Israelis should grasp the significance of this, if they ever 
     wish to find peace and a normal life in this region.
       My wife and I were on a trip in Europe when the fighting 
     broke out last week and we could not return directly to our 
     home in Beirut. So we have returned to our previous home in 
     Amman in order to find a reasonably safe land route back into 
     Lebanon. I want to return mainly because steadfastness in the 
     face of the Israeli assault is the sincerest--perhaps the 
     only--form of resistance available to those of us who do not 
     know how to use a gun, and prefer not to do so in any case, 
     for there is no military solution to this conflict.
       Of the many dimensions of Israel's current fighting with 
     Palestinians and Lebanese, the most significant in my view is 
     the continuing, long-term evolution of Arab public attitudes 
     to Israel. The three critical aspects of this are: a steady 
     loss of fear by ordinary Arabs in the face of Israel's 
     military superiority; a determined and continuous quest for 
     more effective means of technical and military resistance 
     against Israeli occupation and subjugation of Palestinians 
     and other Arabs; and a strong political backlash against the 
     prevailing governing elites in the Arab world who have 
     quietly acquiesced in the face of Israeli-American dictates.
       The Lebanon and Palestine situations today reveal a key 
     political and psychological dynamic that defines several 
     hundred million Arabs, and a few billion other like-minded 
     people around the world. It is that peace and quiet in the 
     Middle East require three things: Arabs and Israelis must be 
     treated equally; both domestically and internationally the 
     rule of law must define the actions of governments and all 
     members of society; and the core conflict between Palestine 
     and Israel must be resolved in a fair, legal and sustainable 
     manner.
       Because these principles are ignored, we continue to suffer 
     outbreaks of military savagery by Israelis and Arabs alike, 
     for the sixth decade in a row. The flurry of international 
     diplomacy this week to calm things down was impressive for 
     its range and energy. But it will fail if it only aims to 
     place an international buffer force between Hezbollah and 
     Israel, and leave the rest of the Arab-Israeli situation as 
     it is.
       Protecting Israel has long been the primary focus of 
     Western diplomacy, which is why it has not succeeded. For 
     decades now Israel has established buffer zones, occupation 
     zones, red lines, blue lines, green lines, interdiction 
     zones, killing fields, surrogate army zones, and every other 
     conceivable kind of zone between it and Arabs who fight its 
     occupation and colonial policies--all without success. Here 
     is why: protecting Israelis while leaving Arabs to a fate of 
     humiliation, occupation, degradation and subservient 
     acquiescence to Israeli-American dictates only guarantees 
     that those Arabs will regroup, plan a resistance strategy, 
     and come back one day to fight for their land, their 
     humanity, their dignity and the prospect that their children 
     can have a normal life one day.
       In the past two decades, with every diplomatic move to 
     protect Israel's borders and drive back Arab foes, the 
     response has been a common quest to strike Israel from afar--
     because the core dispute in Palestine remains unresolved. 
     Three Arab parties to date have missiles of various sorts 
     that can strike Israel from greater and greater distances: 
     Iraq, Hamas and Hezbollah. All three have made the concept of 
     buffer zones militarily obsolete and politically irrelevant. 
     New buffer zones imposed by the international community to 
     protect Israel, while leaving Arab grievances to rot, will 
     only prompt a greater determination by the next generation of 
     young Arab men and women to develop the means to fight back, 
     some day, in some way that we cannot now predict.
       Piecemeal solutions and stopgap measures will not work any 
     more. Ending these kinds of military eruptions requires a 
     more determined effort to resolve the core conflict between 
     Israel and Palestine. This would then make it easier to 
     address equally pressing issues within Arab countries, such 
     as Hezbollah's status as an armed resistance group or militia 
     inside Lebanon, which itself is a consequence of Israeli 
     attacks against Lebanon and the unresolved Palestine 
     issue.
       In Israel's determination to protect itself and the 
     parallel Arab determination to fight back, we have the 
     makings of perpetual war. Or, for those willing to be even-
     handed for

[[Page E1486]]

     once, an opening for a diplomatic solution that responds 
     simultaneously to the legitimate rights of both sides.
       In the meantime, I keep looking for a reasonably safe route 
     back to our home in Beirut. Standing with the people of 
     Lebanon in their moment of pain is the highest form of 
     solidarity I can think of, and also the only meaningful form 
     of defiance and resistance to Israel that I--and several 
     hundred million other Arabs--can practice at the moment.

                          ____________________