[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14219-14220]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, normally I try not to use written text 
on the floor of the Senate, but I want to make sure that I say what I 
say in the Senate in a careful and hopefully the right way.
  Tuesday's missile strike against the home of Sheik Salah Shehaded was 
an unsettling departure from the more careful methods Israel has 
typically used against its terrorist enemies. The sheik, who was killed 
in the operation, was the Gaza terrorism chief of Hamas, a group that 
has slaughtered hundreds of innocent Israelis and who seeks the 
destruction of Israel. Unfortunately, the attack killed not only the 
sheik but also 14 of his family members and neighbors, including nine 
children--terrible, terrible, toll.
  It is true that these deaths were not the purpose of the operation. 
Unlike suicide bombers, the Israeli military does not target civilians. 
And perhaps, given the sheik's role in killing civilians, maybe you 
could argue that more innocent lives were saved than would ultimately 
have been lost if he had continued to live.
  But military planners should have known that this operation, taking 
place in a densely populated residential complex, might result in the 
death of many civilians. Surely other military options could have been 
considered.
  The rising toll on innocent civilians in this conflict is 
heartbreaking. There must be a greater effort by all--the Government of 
Israel, the Palestinians, the Arab States, and the United States--to 
break this cycle of revenge and spiraling violence.
  Four weeks ago Monday, President Bush outlined his latest ideas for 
resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

[[Page 14220]]

He laid out a vision of the future for the Middle East, declaring that 
he wanted to see two democratic states living side by side with secure 
borders, and he believed this goal could be achieved within 3 years. He 
called for movement on three tracks. First, aggressive action to end 
terrorist attacks on innocent Israeli citizens; second, reform of 
Palestinian legal and security structures; and third, substantial 
assistance to relieve the suffering of ordinary Palestinians who now 
are on the brink of humanitarian disaster.
  The Bush speech, with its important elements, now needs to be recast 
into a concrete work plan where there is movement on all three tracks. 
Behind the scenes, Secretary Powell and members of the Quartet have 
been seeking to flesh out plans for overhauling the Palestinian 
Authority, yet movement there has been slow. The bottom line is that 
the political roadmap that was missing from the President's speech has 
yet to appear. The United States must lead a diplomatic process to end 
the endless cycle of violence and get to the end game--an independent 
Palestinian state and security for Israel. There must be action on all 
fronts, or what little hope is left will vanish.
  I wish I had a clear answer, but thought as a Senator from Minnesota 
I should at least speak out in the Senate. I am absolutely convinced 
that there is no hope in the present course, that we have to figure out 
how to get from where we are back on a political track. As tiring and 
tiresome as it might sound to some, we have to continue to call for 
political negotiation. What is the alternative? There is no 
alternative. There is no alternative.

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