[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 37 (Monday, March 15, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1497-S1499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         U.S.-ISRAELI RELATIONS

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I say to my friend, I know he has been 
observing in the last few days the events that have transpired in 
regard to the situation in Israel and the reaction of the United States 
to the announcement that there would be additional housing construction 
in areas the Israelis believe are within the boundaries that will exist 
once peace is settled, and that the Palestinians are of the view that 
it is their area--as there are many territorial disputes between the 
Palestinians and the Israelis, which is one of the reasons there is a 
compelling argument for a peace process.
  I know my friend from Connecticut is disturbed, as I am, about the 
level of tension in the public discourse that has been going on, which 
cannot only not be helpful to Israeli-U.S. relations but also to the 
ability of Israel to deal with other tensions in the region and the 
existential threats they face from their neighbors who have threatened 
their extinction.
  So I have had the great pleasure and honor of travelling to Israel on 
numerous occasions with my friend from Connecticut. I would state for 
the record that no one has a closer relationship and a better 
understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian situation and the urgency of 
the peace process.
  I would just ask my friend, doesn't he think if we want the Israeli 
Government to act in a way that would be more in keeping with our 
objectives, that it does not help them to have public disparagement by 
the Secretary of State, by the President's political adviser on the 
Sunday shows? On the contrary, shouldn't we lower the dialog, talk 
quietly among friends, and work together toward the mutual goals we 
share?
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Arizona for the 
question and for the opportunity to engage in this dialog on the 
important and troubling course of relations at this moment between the 
United States and Israel.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this colloquy be 
conducted as in morning business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. I thank the Chair.
  I say to my friend from Arizona what not only he knows, but what he 
has helped to bring about throughout his career, are two things: that 
the American relationship with Israel is one of the strongest, most 
important, most steadfast bilateral alliances we have in the world 
because it is not based on temporal matters--that is, matters that come 
and go and politics or diplomacy--it is based on shared values, shared 
strategic interests in the world, and, unfortunately, now on the fact 
that we in the United States and the Israelis are also targets of the 
Islamist extremists, the terrorists who threaten the security of so 
much of the world. So we have a strong bilateral relationship.
  The second thing to say, in answering my friend's question, is that 
the Israelis depend, to a very large degree, on America's friendship as 
they approach the world. The Senator is absolutely right, without a 
confidence--not that everything Israel does America will support, but 
that underlying we are heading in the same direction, we are allies, we 
are friends, it is as if we are part of the same family. Without that 
confidence in the U.S.-Israel relationship, the Israelis will not have 
the confidence to take the risks necessary for peace. So the uproar 
over the last several days is very troubling in that regard.
  Vice President Biden, as my friend knows, went to Israel to reset the 
relationship. Unfortunately, at that time, from all the Israeli 
Government says--I have no reason to doubt them--a bureaucratic 
decision was made within one department of the government, the Ministry 
of the Interior, to issue a permit--I gather one of seven permits 
necessary within the next few years for this building project to take 
place. It has become not just a bureaucratic mistake but a major, for 
the moment, source of division between our ally, Israel, and ourselves, 
and it does not help anyone to continue this.
  I just want to say briefly to my friend because he said something 
most people do not know--and this is my understanding of the 
situation--the permits for this housing are in an area of Jerusalem 
that is today mostly Jewish. The Israeli Government has taken the 
position, however, since 1967 that anybody ought to be able to buy 
property and build and live in any section of Jerusalem they choose to 
regardless of their religion or nationality or anything else. That is a 
very American concept.
  Secondly, this particular part of Jerusalem is, in most anybody's 
vision of a possible peace settlement, going to be part of Israel. A 
lot of Israelis believe all of Jerusalem should remain the eternal 
unified capital of Israel. But going to the negotiations that occurred 
between President Clinton, Prime Minister Barak, Chairman Arafat in 
2000, which were about as detailed as any recent negotiations, this

[[Page S1498]]

particular neighborhood of Jerusalem, in the document that was almost 
accepted by Arafat, was part of Israel.
  So it is not a violation of that. It is not a violation of the 
moratorium on new settlements that Prime Minister Netanyahu adopted, 
and it ought not to be--I tell you, that first wave of reaction, when 
Vice President Biden was there, I understood. He was upset. It was 
embarrassing. Maybe some of the words--``condemn'' was a little strong 
for a bureaucratic mistake. But why this continues now, including on 
the Sunday talk shows, with Mr. Axelrod saying it was an affront and an 
insult by Israel to the United States, serves nobody's good. It does 
not serve our interests; it does not serve Israel's interests. It helps 
those like the people in Tehran who want to cause difficulty throughout 
the region.
  Mr. McCAIN. Could I ask my colleague, shouldn't we be emphasizing 
what I very much appreciated? Vice President Biden--and I quote him--
said:

       In my experience one necessary precondition for progress 
     [toward peace in the Middle East] is that every time progress 
     is made, it's made when the rest of the world knows there is 
     absolutely no space between the United States and Israel when 
     it comes to security, none.

  I thought the Vice President had it exactly right, and as the Senator 
says: Look, mistakes are made. It is a government in Israel which is 
sometimes interesting to watch, particularly when you watch the 
proceedings in the Knesset, the parliamentary proceedings.
  But somehow it seems that the rhetoric has escalated and maybe given 
the impression to the wrong people--the neighbors of Israel who have 
stated time after time they are bent on Israel's extinction; the 
statements by Ahmadinejad that he wants to ``wipe Israel off the 
map''--and that perhaps there may be sufficient space, as the Vice 
President pointed out, that they could exploit that in a way that would 
be harmful to the State of Israel. I know that was not the intention of 
the President's political adviser on Sunday, and it is not the 
intention of the Secretary of State. But the Secretary of State knows 
the Israelis very well. She has had dealings with all of the countries 
in the region. She is very knowledgeable and experienced.
  I hope all of us would realize, let's lower the rhetoric. Let's try 
and fix the problems that exist amongst the close friends we are rather 
than escalate the tensions that exist in a very dangerous time.
  The Senator from Connecticut and I were recently briefed about 
perhaps increased tensions in southern Lebanon, the possibility of 
attacks from southern Lebanon into Israel, the continued nuclear 
buildup on the part of the Iranians, the continued statements of 
assertiveness by the President of Syria, al-Assad.
  There are increased tensions in the region, and this is not the 
time--certainly, most importantly, not the time--that we give the 
impression that there is such differences between ourselves and Israel 
that it could be exploited by Israel's enemies.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Arizona. I agree 
totally with what he said. I think it is very important the Senator 
from Arizona has gone to the speech that Vice President Biden made. I 
believe it was on Wednesday of last week in Tel Aviv at Tel Aviv 
University.
  What is interesting is, that speech came after the first date he was 
there. When this bureaucratic announcement of housing permits being 
issued in Jerusalem was made, Vice President Biden put out a statement 
condemning that action. I understand why he was upset by it, that it 
had been happening when he came. Prime Minister Netanyahu outright 
apologized in public for it. He said he is appointing a review 
committee to look at how it happened so they could set up a mechanism 
within the Israeli Government so a decision such as that would not be 
made, if I understood what their intention is, without the Prime 
Minister's office being notified. Then Vice President Biden made quite 
an important speech at Tel Aviv University.
  The Senator from Arizona is absolutely right. The Vice President said 
the relationship between the United States and Israel is unbreakable, 
and there is no space between us. When there is space between us, it 
only helps our shared enemies, not the two of us, the two great 
democracies.
  Vice President Biden also made clear that while we are committed to 
the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, it is very important for both--
and Prime Minister Netanyahu has too. He has taken his Likud Party to a 
place it has never been before. In a speech he gave at Bar-Ilan 
University, he said for the first time, very clearly, as the Likud 
Prime Minister, that he supports the two-state solution: two countries, 
two peoples side by side. Then he issued that moratorium on settlement 
expansion in a whole series of areas which Secretary Clinton, in an 
earlier visit, described as unprecedented.
  Then we go to the Vice President's speech. There, he focuses on Iran 
and the threat of a nuclear Iran, the threat of an Iran that suppresses 
the rights of its people, and he says not only is Iran explicitly a 
threat to Israel--as Ahmadinejad has said, threatening Israel's 
existence--Vice President Biden made very clear our concern about an 
Iranian nuclear weapon is not because of what Ahmadinejad said about 
Israel, although, obviously, that concerns us; it is because a nuclear, 
autocratic, tyrannical, totalitarian Iran threatens the short-, medium-
, and long-term security of the United States of America.
  After that speech, I thought this whole business about the permits 
for housing was over. Yet then the State Department spokesman comes out 
on Friday with very strong language about the phone conversation with 
the Secretary of State whom, of course, the Senator from Arizona and I 
not only respect but like very much. She is our friend, our colleague. 
She has a long record of support for the United States-Israel 
relationship. But Friday afternoon's press statement seemed to be 
dredging up again something that seemed to have been calmed and ought 
to be calmed.
  The Senator from Arizona is absolutely right. I take it that is the 
point the Senator is making: There is too much that ties us together 
with Israel, too much on the line for both countries, to continue to 
make a mistake, for which the Prime Minister of Israel has apologized, 
into a division between two great allies.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, wouldn't my colleague agree that the 
original purpose of the Vice President's trip, as I understand it, was 
a precursor or even an announcement of indirect talks between the 
Palestinians and the Israelis, using the good auspices of Senator 
George Mitchell? So the trip was a signal to the world that the process 
of peace between Israelis and the Palestinians was on track, and a 
beginning, albeit a modest one, was taking place.
  So it might be good if our friends in the administration--and other 
places in the United States--could start refocusing our efforts on the 
peace process, which came very close to the beginning--again, modest, 
indirect but still beginning--of peace talks and emphasize the need to 
commence those, assure our Arab friends in the region of our commitment 
to the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, and move forward in that 
direction. We need to understand that the Prime Minister of Israel has 
apologized and is trying, as the Senator from Connecticut pointed out, 
to put a mechanism in place to make sure that an incident of this 
nature would not arise again.
  So we could go back--I will not--and be very critical of the Obama 
administration's initial demand of a complete freeze of settlements 
which was, in my view, an unnecessary precondition and an impediment, 
but that is done also. So now we have had our spat, we have had our 
family fight, and it is time for us to now stop. We have to get our eye 
back on the goal, which is the commencement of Israeli-Palestinian 
peace talks, and move forward with that--and I know the Senator from 
Connecticut shares my view--particularly with the leadership we are 
seeing on the Palestinian side. The chances for fruitful negotiations 
are better than they have been since the time the Senator from 
Connecticut cited back when President Clinton had Arafat and Ehud Barak 
to Camp David.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I agree totally with my friend. Let's 
cut the family fighting, the family feud. It is unnecessary, and it is 
destructive of our shared national interests, the

[[Page S1499]]

United States and Israel, and it takes our eye off the two balls we 
have to focus on. One is the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the 
other is the threat of a nuclear Iran, which is not only a threat to us 
and Israel, it is a threat to Palestinian leadership because Iran is 
the No. 1 supporter of Hamas, which is the foremost antagonist to the 
leadership of the Palestinian Authority.
  The Senator from Arizona is absolutely right. Peace between the 
Israelis and the Palestinians requires very difficult, delicate 
negotiations. But we are at a moment--and my friend and I were together 
in Israel and the Palestinian areas in January of this year and we met 
with the leadership. It is an interesting moment, because in both 
countries the economy is doing pretty well. The Palestinians have seen 
a real surge in economic growth. Security is better on both sides. We 
have leadership on both sides: Netanyahu in Israel and the President of 
the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen, and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. 
We have three leaders there committed to the two-state solution, 
renouncing terrorism, a peaceful process. If, for some reason, people 
in the American Government continue this dispute, frankly, it makes it 
hard for not just the Israelis but the Palestinians to get into the 
peace process because we can't be more demanding than they are, if you 
will. I think Abu Mazen and Salam Fayyad want to move the peace process 
forward, I am convinced, as Prime Minister Netanyahu said.
  So it is time to lower voices and get over the family feud between 
the United States and Israel. It doesn't serve anybody's interests but 
our enemies: George Mitchell--I will say it here--is a saint. Whoever 
the saint of patience is, George works under that saint's aegis. 
Through his patience and persistence, the proximity talks between 
Israel and the Palestinian leadership are about to begin, and they have 
the prospect of making some real progress.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Connecticut.
  I rise today to address the very concerning, and unfortunately very 
public, tensions that have broken out recently between the governments 
of the United States and Israel. I am not here to take sides or to call 
out one party at the expense of the other. There have been enough 
accusations, recriminations, and bad blood.
  I certainly understand the anger felt by members of the U.S. 
administration that the announcement of new settlement construction in 
East Jerusalem by Israel's Interior Ministry simply seemed intended to 
embarrass Vice President Biden in the middle of his visit. I can also 
understand the anger felt by Israelis that the U.S. reaction to this 
announcement has been out of step with the announcement itself. At this 
point, there is little to be gained by either side by focusing on their 
anger, however justified they feel it is. It is now time to focus on 
what matters most: the common interests we share, the urgent need for 
cooperation between us, and the large capacity within our alliance to 
move beyond differences and work together.
  Vice President Biden spoke to exactly these themes in his excellent 
speech in Tel Aviv during his recent visit to Israel--a speech, I would 
add, that was delivered 2 days after the Interior Ministry's 
announcement. Perhaps the most correct and important thing the Vice 
President said was this: ``In my experience one necessary precondition 
for progress toward peace in the Middle East is that every time 
progress is made, it's made when the rest of the world knows there is 
absolutely no space between the United States and Israel when it comes 
to security, none.'' This is absolutely correct, and we all need to 
remember it right now.
  We now have a conservative Israeli leader who is committed to the 
goal of two States for two peoples, living side by side in peace and 
security. We have a leadership in the Palestinian Authority that is 
committed to beginning negotiations while also building the 
institutions of a democratic Palestinian state, including effective 
security forces that can enforce the rule of law and fight terrorism. 
We have a U.S. administration, and U.S. Congress, that is committed to 
being engaged in and supportive of the pursuit of peace in the Middle 
East.
  So let us focus on the opportunity we have, the United States and 
Israel together, as historic allies, to achieve goals that serve both 
our interests. The United States is completely committed to Israel's 
security, so Israel can feel totally confident in taking on the large 
and difficult decisions that peace requires. As the Vice President 
said, there should be no space between these allies--none.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 
the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kaufman). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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