[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 69 (Wednesday, May 6, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H5275-H5276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           TWO-STATE SOLUTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about the events in the Middle 
East, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
  We all know what the end game should be: two states, two states 
living side by side in peace and security, a Palestinian Arab state and 
an Israeli Jewish state. But there is a problem. There is a problem 
because the Palestinians have a divided government. And in the West 
Bank, Mahmoud Abbas and his party runs the government. But in Gaza, the 
government is run by the terrorist group Hamas.
  Hamas believes that terrorism will get them where they want to be. 
Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist. Now we are 
apparently going to appropriate $900 million in funding for the West 
Bank in Gaza. I am glad that Secretary of State Clinton has confirmed 
that the United States will not provide funds to any Palestinian 
government that includes Hamas members who do not accept the three 
internationally backed principles of recognizing Israel's right to 
exist, number one; renouncing terrorism, number two; and committing to 
all of the agreements, previous agreements, signed by Palestinian 
leadership, number three.
  Our chairwoman of the Foreign Ops Subcommittee, Congresswoman Lowey, 
has said that in the future potential coalition government between Gaza 
and the West Bank, that any Hamas ministers would have to pledge that 
they support those three internationally recognized principles. But 
until that happens, Mr. Speaker, I have serious problems with the $300 
million we are apparently appropriating for Gaza.
  The war in Gaza, and it is very interesting that Palestinians in Gaza 
talk about occupation, but there is no Israeli occupation in Gaza. 
Israel left Gaza several years ago without any preconditions. And 
instead of the Palestinians taking the land that Israel left and 
building on it and helping their people, they have decided instead to 
turn it into a terrorist camp raining rockets upon rockets in Israel, 
particularly upon the town of Sderot in the south of Israel. I have 
been there. Israel finally retaliated, and that is how the Gaza war 
began again.
  There has been some criticism of Israel for retaliating. But imagine 
if we in the United States had terrorists launching missiles at us on 
U.S. territory from either Mexico or Canada, and then went across the 
border. Would we just sit there and take it? Israel took it

[[Page H5276]]

for years and years and years and then finally retaliated. No, we would 
go over the border and we would try to destroy the terrorist cells.
  So I am very concerned that $300 million of aid is to go to Gaza 
while Hamas, a terrorist organization, runs that place. We don't want 
the people of Gaza to think that it is Hamas that got them the aid, 
that it is Hamas that goes on its terrorist ways and that terrorism 
brings some rewards.
  So Ms. Berkley and I have written a letter to President Obama laying 
out these concerns. Hamas needs to recognize Israel's right to exist; 
and hopefully then one day we can have peace in the Middle East with 
two states side by side living in peace, a Palestinian Arab state and 
Israel, a Jewish state.

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