[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 100 (Thursday, July 7, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1255-E1256]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




REAFFIRMING COMMITMENT TO NEGOTIATED SETTLEMENT OF ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN 
                                CONFLICT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 6, 2011

  Mrs. MALONEY. Madam Speaker, I rise to express my strong support for 
H. Res. 268, reaffirming America's support for direct Palestinian-
Israeli negotiations as the best means to settle the conflict and the 
only path to statehood for the Palestinians.
  A Palestinian state created in the middle of this conflict would be a 
state created to make war.
  Nothing would be more dangerous or more unworkable than for the 
Palestinians to gain the status of statehood without at the same time 
taking on the duties of a responsible state--namely, a commitment to 
peace with its neighbors and basic rights for all of its citizens.
  The United Nations--a body established as a place of peace--should 
not create a state that is committed to destroying its neighbor. And, 
until the Palestinians agree to recognize Israel's right to exist and 
disarm the terrorists, there is no chance that a Palestinian state 
would be committed to peaceful co-existence with its neighbor.
  This resolution is a simple, basic, common-sense restatement of the 
clear fact that the dispute between the Palestinians and the Israelis 
cannot be resolved unilaterally; it cannot be resolved by UN fiat; it 
cannot be resolved by outside forces; it cannot be resolved if the 
Palestinians refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state; it cannot be 
resolved if Palestinians refuse to forswear terrorism against Israel 
and take actions to dismantle their terrorist infrastructure; it cannot 
be resolved if the Palestinians continue to set preconditions for 
coming to the bargaining table; and, it cannot be resolved unless all 
members of the Palestinian unity government agree to abide by previous 
agreements with the United States and Israel.
  This conflict can only be resolved by both parties sitting down at a 
table and hammering out an agreement on the basic issues that divide 
them.
  The Palestinians must understand that they will only have a state 
once they make peace with Israel.
  I hope the United States would make clear its intention to veto any 
unilateral declaration of statehood at the United Nations and to 
penalize the Palestinians if they are foolhardy

[[Page E1256]]

enough to pursue a path that will only lead to more conflict and 
bloodshed.
  That's why I strongly urge my colleagues to join me in voting for H. 
Res. 268 and in opposing the Palestinians' dangerous and desperate 
effort to obtain an empty declaration of statehood without peace at the 
United Nations.

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