[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17420]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE MIDDLE EAST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gerlach). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Hoeffel) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mr. HOEFFEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to address the situation in 
the Middle East. Our government has embarked on a journey promoting the 
so-called roadmap to peace, and I sincerely hope that the road we are 
taking is straight and wide and safe, but I am deeply worried.
  I support the concept of the roadmap, and I support the idea of a 
two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but I do not 
believe the timing is right. Neither the Bush administration nor the 
Israeli Government, under pressure from the Bush administration, has 
required enough of the Palestinians for us to continue successfully on 
the road at this time.
  Simply put, we need the Palestinians to crack down on terror, and 
they have not done it. In today's Washington Post it was reported that 
the administration has reversed years of American policy and decided to 
provide $20 million directly to the Palestinian Authority. The amount 
of money is not huge, but the symbolism is.
  The theory behind the policy change has some merit, as it hopefully 
would strengthen the hand of Prime Minister Abbas. But I believe we 
must demand and see a much greater commitment toward peace and the end 
of terrorism from the Palestinians before we reward them with money or 
support that could, in fact, be used against the Israeli people.
  In my opinion, before we seriously pursue the roadmap and before we 
send $20 million to the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian 
Authority should take concrete action to arrest terrorist leaders, to 
confiscate terrorist weapons, to dismantle terrorist organizations, to 
change the cultural bias that allows anti-Semitism to be taught in the 
schools and broadcast on radio and TV, and to stop honoring suicide 
terrorists with public posters and street names.
  Until the Palestinian Authority cracks down on terror, the 
Palestinian cause should not be rewarded with a Palestinian state. We 
can make progress in the Middle East, we must make progress in the 
Middle East, but with this progress we must demand effective action 
from the Palestinians to stop terror. This will protect the innocent as 
we move down that road to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

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