[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 185 (Wednesday, December 5, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14763-S14764]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE MIDDLE EAST

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, last week the Middle East observed a 
historic anniversary, in fact, a historic anniversary for all of 
mankind, for the 29th of November was the 60th anniversary of the U.N. 
resolution partitioning the State of Israel and providing a homeland 
for the Israeli people. I had the opportunity to be in Israel while 
that celebration was taking place. Another event took place in 
Annapolis, MD, the home State of the Presiding Officer, last Tuesday, 
the 28th of November, when 18 Arab Nations, the Palestinian Authority, 
and Prime Minister Olmert of Israel met in Annapolis, to try to begin 
the process for the roadmap for peace in the Middle East. I think all 
of us are encouraged, happy, and rewarded that the result of that 
conference was an agreement between the Palestinian Authority and 
Israel to try, over the next 12 months, to reach an agreement by the 
end of 2008, which will in fact bring about peace in the Middle East.
  All of us have great hope, but all of us have great wonder how we get 
from the agreement to try to actually having that happen. Since I had 
the occasion to be in Israel, I thought I would share for a second the 
fact that, as complex as the Middle East is, as challenging as the 
issues are that face the nation of Israel and the Palestinian 
Authority, there are some simple steps upon which we can build to 
possibly get to a true roadmap to a lasting peace in the Middle East.
  There is no question, from having gone there, that the first step is 
security. The State of Israel deserves the security to live in peace 
and without intimidation and without threat. Not long ago, Israel took 
its settlements out of Gaza, moved those settlements out of Gaza to its 
perimeter. Within months, Hamas took over as the leading authority in 
Gaza, a Palestinian area, and instead of securing it for themselves 
began a method of intimidation and threat and terror against the people 
of Israel. Last Saturday, I stood on the last Israeli outpost 
overlooking Gaza, talking to an Israeli man and Israeli woman who lived 
in the settlement outside of Gaza, as a rocket went off and was fired 
into that very settlement, a practice that every day continues to take 
place, to intimidate, to threaten, and to terrorize.

  As long as elements of terror such as Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon 
continue to disrupt, we will never be able to reach a platform upon 
which we can have a roadmap to peace. But security could possibly take 
place. I want to commend the Palestinian Authority on its initial steps 
in the West Bank, one village at a time, to attempt to bring about 
peace and security on that side of Israel and in that area of the 
dilemma.
  I met with the Foreign Minister, Riyad Maliki, of the Palestinian 
Authority, who passionately convinced me that he and his leadership are 
interested in seeing to it that they deliver on that security, because 
they understand that without security there can never be any peace, 
without peace there can never be a Palestinian State.
  This President, George Bush, whom I commend for bringing about the 
Annapolis conference, was very courageous 6 years ago when as President 
of the United States he declared he would support a homeland and 
security for the Palestinian people, right after the Palestinians and 
the people of the Middle East accepted and acknowledged Israel's right 
to exist and respected its state.
  I believe the desire is in the Palestinian people to have their 
homeland. I believe the will is there to see to it that is 
accomplished. But as long as terror, through the elements of Hamas and 
Hezbollah, continue to threaten and intimidate the people of Israel, it 
will never happen.
  So the first step, following that agreement at Annapolis, is for the 
Palestinian Authority to secure Gaza and to secure the West Bank. But 
you do not go to the Middle East, as I have four times in the last 5 
years, and not realize in the end it is also all about Iran.
  As long as there are state sponsors of terrorism, whether it be 
Hezbollah or Hamas or whether it be infiltration of terrorists or IEDs 
into Iraq, you can never truly have peace and security.
  But this President deserves great credit for setting up the 
conference at Annapolis. Condoleezza Rice deserves great credit for 
five times traveling to the Middle East, from one Arab state to the 
other, encouraging those states to attend. It should not go unnoticed 
by anybody, us in America and Ahmadinejad in Iran, that when finally 
pressed, the 18 Arab states all came to Annapolis because, in the end, 
they all want peace. But in the absence of security and the presence of 
terror it cannot happen.
  I commend our President for bringing about the conference in 
Annapolis. I commend the people of Israel for making the first step in 
Gaza and acknowledge their concern now that that first step has only 
been rewarded with acts of terror against their own people and 
encourage the Palestinian Authority to continue to work in the West 
Bank, and later in Gaza, to root out terrorism, bring about security, 
so the State of Palestine and the State of Israel can live in harmony. 
And for us in the free world, one of the biggest threats to our 
security is lessened because people are living together in peace and 
not in terror and not in fear.
  In closing, I wish to acknowledge the great ally we have in Israel, 
the resilience of their people, to that young man and woman I met on 
the hill overlooking Gaza, who daily meet the threats of rockets coming 
from terrorists, and let them know that we in America are with them, 
and one day peace and security can become a reality if we begin to get 
the security in

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the areas of the West Bank and in Gaza.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.

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