[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 4238-4239]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE MIDDLE EAST

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, with a suicide bomber killing eight 
innocent Israeli civilians and wounding more than a dozen in Haifa 
today, and Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers locked in battle in 
the Jenin refugee camp, the Middle East is under an intolerable siege 
of violence. The horrific practice of targeting innocent civilians must 
end. Even in this time of horrendous violence we cannot lose hope.
  I spoke at Temple Israel back in Minnesota on Sunday. I was trying to 
figure out what to say. I remembered the story of an Israeli man 
murdered at a Seder meal. ``Murdered'' is the right word. An organ of 
his was given to save the life of a Palestinian woman. His children 
said that he would have been proud.
  There is hope. We cannot lose hope, for the sake of both the Israeli 
and the Palestinian children. We have to continue to seek a pathway to 
peace. President Bush said this in a number of statements.
  Last week President Bush made the right decision to send Secretary 
Powell to seek a cease-fire and progress toward a political settlement. 
Over and over again I was saying to Tony Zinni, for some time: We 
should be there. I think this was the right decision. We can go back 
and forth about whether it should have been done earlier, but I support 
the President. I think the President is pursuing a courageous approach 
which seeks both to meet the critical need of the Israeli people to be

[[Page 4239]]

free from terrorism and violence and acknowledges the legitimate 
aspirations of the Palestinian people for their own state.
  Even in this horrific time we must not lose sight of what is the 
ultimate goal: Israel and a new Palestinian state living side by side, 
in peace, with secure borders.
  Secretary Powell is now in Madrid and he will return to the region 
later today. On Friday he will arrive in Jerusalem. He has the 
unenviable task of seeking to persuade leaders in the Middle East to 
take very painful but very necessary steps.
  He has been traveling to Arab capitals to persuade Arab leaders to 
condemn Palestinian suicide bombings and other acts of violence. This 
was a step they inexcusably refused to take last month in Beirut. 
Palestinian leaders will only be able to establish their credibility as 
legitimate diplomatic partners by condemning violence and doing all in 
their power to combat it.
  Secretary Powell is also simultaneously pressing Prime Minister 
Sharon to immediately withdraw his military from cities in the West 
Bank and to link a political solution to a cease-fire. This is all so 
complicated and hard.
  Further, I also believe he will and should urge the Prime Minister to 
respect the dignity and human rights of ordinary, innocent Palestinian 
civilians, and to address the emerging humanitarian crisis in the West 
Bank.
  Secretary Powell's mission involves great risk, and he himself has 
said he is unsure he will return to Washington with a cease-fire in 
hand. This process is not going to be easy and it is not going to be 
fast. In fact, it will require enormous patience and work by all 
parties, including a sustained effort by the Bush administration for 
many months, if not years.
  I am grateful for Secretary Powell's efforts. I said to Dick 
Armitage, in a number of conversations last week, that I support this 
effort, and I pray for the success of his mission and for a prompt end 
to the violence which has wracked this region and threatens its future, 
and I am not at all sure that I am being melodramatic when I say 
perhaps the future of the world.
  I apologize to my colleague from New Mexico. I now will speak to the 
amendment, but I really believe--as a Senator, as a first-generation 
American, as the son of a Jewish immigrant who fled persecution from 
Ukraine--that it was important to speak on this matter.
  I think when we speak, you are not going to hear any acrimonious 
debate. There are different ideas about what needs to be done. It is 
not as if we can take what is happening in the Middle East and put it 
in parentheses.
  I also will tell you that I was impressed--I hope people do not mind 
my saying this--at Israel Temple. I was relieved there was very little 
shrillness. People are feeling tremendous anguish and pain and are 
wanting to come together as a community.
  Recently, I met with an Israeli man and a Palestinian father--two 
fathers, both of whom lost children. They came here, and I want them to 
come back. Rabbi Sapperstein called the office and said: I would like 
for you to meet with them. They have formed a parent organization--
parents who have lost their loved ones and who are saying we have to 
somehow figure out how to move from where we are to some kind of a 
framework for peace. How wide of a river of blood has to be spilled 
before we do that? I believe as long as there are ``leaders'' like 
that, there is hope.

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