[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 4135-4136]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    WE MUST STAND BY OUR ALLY ISRAEL

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. STEVE ISRAEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 9, 2002

  Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, over the past few weeks, columnists and 
pundits have taken to the airwaves to proclaim the Middle East crisis 
as complex and complicated. Analysts have discussed the difficulties 
our government has in balancing conflicting interests and equities that 
have polarized a historic conflict between two peoples.
  Mr. Speaker, I couldn't disagree more.
  Indeed, I view this controversy in basic terms.
  On September 11, a line was drawn in the sand.
  In the sands of the Middle East and in the rubble of the World Trade 
Center and the Pentagon.
  The line does not divide religious groups. It does not divide 
cultures.
  It does divide values. It divides extremists and fanatics from the 
civilized world.
  On one side are those who deliberately and carefully target innocent 
civilians for death--whether they were reading memos at their desks in 
the World Trade Center in Manhattan; or reading from the Hagaddah at a 
Passover table in Netanya, Israel.

[[Page 4136]]

  When terrorists crossed that line on September 11 and attacked our 
people, the full military might of the United States government was 
dispatched to retaliate against those attacks and prevent future 
attacks. We routed out terrorists in caves and tunnels. Similarly, when 
terrorists crossed that line on seven different days in seven different 
places in Israel, the same standard applied. There simply is no moral 
difference. Targeting innocent men, women, children and elderly for a 
savage attack is terrorism pure and simple. It doesn't matter where it 
occurs, when it occurs, or under what circumstances it occurs. It has 
no ethical defense. It has no other definition. In the interests of our 
own place in the world, in the interests of our own security, in the 
interest of our own defense, we must combat and work with others to 
combat terrorism without equivocation.
  On one side of the line are those who teach their children to hate. 
Who feed their children a steady diet of intolerance. Who use 
classrooms to poison minds, to reject compromise, to fuel extremism. 
Only on that side of the line do mothers celebrate the suicides of 
their children. Only on that side of the line did men and women cheer 
in jubilation when the World Trade Center towers collapsed.
  On that side of the line, Mr. Speaker, are governments who embrace 
tyranny. On our side, are governments that cherish democracy. On one 
side are those who invest power in bombings, on our side are 
governments who invest power in voting. On one side are those who leave 
their people behind in squalor and despair; on our side of the lines 
are governments, comprised of all religions, who promote literacy, job 
expansion, economic development, education, technology, and an ability 
for their citizens to compete in a global economy.
  On one side of the line are those who violently reject religious 
freedom, diversity, pluralism, a respect for different opinions, or 
room for different faiths. On the other side are those who believe that 
a diversity of ideas and beliefs makes us a better civilization. 
Indeed, America's great gift to the world was the revolutionary notion 
that freedom and liberty prohibits religious tests.
  Earlier today, I gathered in the Capitol Rotunda with members of the 
President's Cabinet and our colleagues in the House and Senate, to 
commemorate and remember those who perished in the Holocaust. During 
the ceremony, Elie Wiesel said: ``Those who kill in the name of their 
god make God a killer.'' He is right.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time to return to basics. Through thick and 
through thin, we only have one truly democratic ally in the Middle 
East. Only one nation there shares our fundamental values of elections, 
education, economic opportunity, women's rights, and religious freedom.
  At a critical time, our role should be to stand firmly with our ally 
while encouraging Arab and Palestinian leaders to resume negotiations 
rather than bombings to reach the ultimate goal of stability, autonomy, 
peace, and a place on the civilized side of the line that was drawn in 
the sand on September 11.

                          ____________________