[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 104 (Tuesday, August 1, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8532-S8533]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CRISIS IN LEBANON

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, since July 12th we have watched with 
growing horror as hundreds of Hezbollah rockets have landed deeper and 
deeper inside Israel, indiscriminately killing and injuring civilians, 
and Israeli bombs, missiles and artillery shells have destroyed much of 
the civilian infrastructure in areas of Beirut and southern Lebanon.
  Some 550 Lebanese have died, the vast majority of them civilians, and 
an estimated 866,000 one in five Lebanese citizens have fled their 
homes and are either displaced in Lebanon, living in schools and public 
buildings, or as refugees in Syria. Fifty Israelis have died, and in 
Haifa and other towns in the north many families are living in terror 
in basements or shelters.
  Meanwhile, three Israeli soldiers remain as hostages and their 
families remain in anguish hostages held in violation of the Geneva 
Conventions and every other international norm. In another sense, 
Hezbollah and its supporters Syria and Iran are holding the entire 
population of Lebanon hostage.
  Of the 26,000 American citizens who were living in or visiting 
Lebanon when this crisis began, more than 12,000 have been evacuated, 
and the exodus continues. The cost to the U.S. Government of this air 
and sea lift is expected to be at least $46 million.
  The evacuation took too long to get started, and the delay and 
confusion caused a lot of frustration and anxiety among Americans in 
Lebanon as well as their families back home.
  As after Hurricane Katrina, I hope the administration has learned 
something from this experience. At the same time, I want to commend the 
State Department employees and U.S. military personnel who worked 
around the clock to help Americans who were trapped in Lebanon find a 
way out.
  The unprovoked, indiscriminate and utterly inexcusable kidnapping of 
Israeli soldiers and rocket attacks by Hezbollah should be universally 
condemned. Those who ordered it should be brought to justice. It has 
ignited a conflict that Hezbollah cannot win but which could engulf the 
region if a way

[[Page S8533]]

is not found to stop the spiral of violence from widening.
  It is clear that a buffer zone patrolled by an international force is 
urgently needed along the Israeli-Lebanese border to prevent these 
kinds of violent incursions against Israel and its people, and that 
Hezbollah must be disarmed in order for Lebanon to finally finally--
break free of Syria's harsh grip.
  While hundreds of Hezbollah's missiles continue to rain down on 
Israel, Israel's military response has also caused the deaths of 
hundreds of civilians in Lebanon, including four United Nations 
observers. One of the latest tragedies is the destruction by an Israeli 
missile of an apartment building in Qana that resulted in 57 Lebanese 
deaths including 34 children, children who were not terrorists.
  Secretary Rice's whirlwind visits to the region have been welcome but 
they have produced few tangible results. This type of crisis diplomacy 
rarely achieves lasting solutions. She is also occupied with a widening 
civil war in Iraq, resurgent Taliban violence in Afghanistan, an 
increasingly recalcitrant and aggressive regime in North Korea, a 
worsening humanitarian crisis in Darfur with no end in sight, the 
specter of a nuclear-weapons-capable Iran in the world's future, and 
other pressing problems. She is simply unable to focus the sustained, 
high-level attention on the Middle East crisis that is needed.
  I and others like my friend from Nebraska, Senator Hagel, have urged 
President Bush to appoint a special envoy with the stature and the 
authority to work on a continual basis to help broker an immediate 
cease-fire and long term solutions to Israel's conflicts with Hamas and 
Hezbollah someone who wakes up every single day with the challenge, the 
portfolio and especially the authority to help resolve this conflict. I 
renew this call for such an envoy again today.
  Some U.S. officials have questioned the possibility of a cease-fire 
with a terrorist organization like Hezbollah. That is a valid question, 
but cease-fires have been achieved with other terrorist groups, and 
while imperfect the results have been sharp reductions in violence.
  A cease-fire is needed immediately in Lebanon, to be followed with 
similar urgency by the deployment of an international peacekeeping 
force on the border. Too many innocent people are dying innocent 
people--in both countries. A peacekeeping force is necessary to prevent 
further loss of Lebanese and Israeli lives.
  The United States is committed to protecting Israel's security and we 
support Israel's right of self defense, including going after Hezbollah 
fighters who often launch their attacks from civilian areas.
  But for Israel's sake, for ours and especially especially--for the 
sake of innocent lives on both sides of these battle lines, it is 
vitally important to ask whether destroying Lebanon--not Hezbollah, but 
destroying Lebanon--will make Israel more secure or instead rally 
Muslims behind Hezbollah and give rise to further hatred and 
insecurity. I believe that continued bombing of civilian areas in 
Lebanon will not destroy Hezbollah, but in a perverse way, it may 
strengthen it.
  The fact that these attacks are being carried out with such intensity 
and are yielding so much death and destruction, with weapons supplied 
by the United States, and at a time when we are trying to repair our 
already frayed relations with Muslims around the world, is all the more 
reason for the United States and the people of Israel to consider and 
answer this question frankly and honestly. I am concerned, as others 
have also warned, that a short-term tactical victory--even if 
possible--could prove to be a hollow victory at great human cost.
  We should also reflect on the circumstances that preceded this 
crisis. For the past 5 years, the Bush administration's approach to the 
Middle East has been either to ignore it or to parachute in for just 
enough time for a few handshakes and photographs. There has never been 
an effective strategy. They have never been willing to expend any 
political capital. Their policy toward Syria and Iran has been erratic 
and ineffective. Their relations with the Palestinians have stagnated.
  It was clear since the earliest days of this administration that this 
laxity would define their approach to these tinderbox issues, and the 
terrible harm of that approach--to our ally Israel, to the 
Palestinians, and to the prospects for resuming a meaningful peace 
process in that region is all the more clear today.
  I am not among those who believe that the United States pulls all the 
strings in the Middle East. There are forces there over which we have 
only limited influence.
  But neither do I believe there can be a lasting solution to the Arab-
Israeli conflict without the active, creative and sustained engagement 
of the United States, including direct talks with those with whom we 
strongly disagree, like Syria and Iran. That has been sorely lacking 
under this administration, and we are witnessing the price of that 
neglect in Lebanon and Israel today.

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