[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: GEORGE W. BUSH (2001, Book I)]
[May 3, 2001]
[Pages 486-489]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the American Jewish Committee
May 3, 2001

    Well, Bruce, thank you very much for that 
kind invitation. I'm glad I came, and I'm proud to call you friend.
    I appreciate, David Harris, your 
eloquence. I want to say welcome to the foreign dignitaries who are 
here, Members of the Congress, Justice O'Connor, my friend Mayor Williams. 
And I'm proud to be here tonight with such close friends of America: Mi 
amigo, un hombre muy fuerte, muy inteligente, el Presidente de Mexico, 
Vicente Fox; Foreign Minister Fischer; and Foreign Minister Peres.
    I had the honor of meeting with Foreign Minister Peres today in the 
Oval Office. It is not the first time we have met. He had a sparkle in 
his eye some 12 years ago when we met; he still has this marvelous 
sparkle in his eye. I love his optimism. As Bruce mentioned, he said, ``When you talk to Shimon Peres, you 
feel like you're talking to a poet; you know you're talking to a 
leader.'' He's been a good friend of the United States throughout his 
many years of public service, and I look forward to showing him my 
friendship for the state of Israel over the coming years.
    And Mr. Fischer, welcome to Washington. 
Please take back my best regards to your Chancellor; I had a great visit with him, as well, in the Oval 
Office.
    And Mr. President, thank you for coming by. 
He also was in the Oval Office. I had a pretty busy day. [Laughter] This 
is the third time I've met with President Fox, and it's right that it be 
that way because relations with Mexico and the United States are 
incredibly important for our future. We want our friend to the south to 
be strong and vibrant. A strong Mexico, a healthy Mexico is good for the 
United States of America.
    The four of us don't always agree; we occasionally have our 
differences. But one thing, obviously, we all agree on is when Bruce 
Ramer invites us somewhere, we go. [Laughter]
    I took a look at this weekend's program before coming here. I was 
flattered to read that ``understanding the new administration'' is 
called a ``central feature'' of this year's meeting. Well, I may be able 
to save you some time. [Laughter]
    I believe in equal opportunity for all without discrimination or 
prejudice of any kind. I believe that tolerance and respect must be 
taught to all our children because too many young minds and souls are 
lost to hate. I believe that our Government should support the works of 
charity that are motivated by faith, but our Government should never 
fund the teaching of faith itself.
    I am a Christian, but I believe with the Psalmist that the Lord God 
of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. Understanding my administration 
should not be difficult. We will speak up for our principles. We will 
stand up for our friends in the world, and one of the most important 
friends is the state of Israel.
    Incredibly enough, when I visited Israel 2 years ago, I had the 
honor of touring many parts of that land in a helicopter with

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Ariel Sharon. I'm pretty confident he didn't 
think I was going to be the President. [Laughter] The truth is, I wasn't 
sure he was going to be the Prime Minister. [Laughter] But nevertheless, 
here we are. I look forward to working with the Prime Minister. As 
Foreign Minister Peres told me today--and I 
agree--he's a man who knows how to keep his word, and that's important 
when it comes to foreign diplomacy.
    For a Texan, a first visit to Israel is an eye opener. At the 
narrowest point, it's only 8 miles from the Mediterranean to the old 
armistice line. That's less than from the top to the bottom of Dallas-
Fort Worth Airport. [Laughter] The whole of pre-1967 Israel is only 
about 6 times the size of the King Ranch. It's a small country that has 
lived under the threat throughout its existence.
    At my first meeting of my National Security Council, I told them 
that a top foreign policy priority of my administration is the safety 
and security of Israel. My administration will be steadfast in 
supporting Israel against terrorism and violence and in seeking the 
peace for which all Israelis pray.
    The Middle East is the birthplace of three great religions, Judaism, 
Christianity, and Islam. Lasting peace in the region must respect the 
rights of believers in all these faiths. That's common sense. But it is 
also something more: It is moral sense, based upon the deep American 
commitment to freedom of religion.
    That commitment was expressed early and eloquently by our first 
President, George Washington, in his famous letter to the Touro 
Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. He argued for an attitude beyond 
mere tolerance, a respect for the inherent and equal right of everyone 
to worship God as they think best. ``The Government of the United 
States,'' he said, ``which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution 
no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection 
should demean themselves as good citizens.'' Over the years, 
Washington's rejection of religious bigotry has matured from a 
foundation of our domestic politics into a guiding doctrine of our 
foreign policy.
    The American Jewish Committee deserves special credit for this 
progress. You were among the very first groups to support the 
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. Formed to resist anti-
Semitic persecution in czarist Russia, the American Jewish Committee has 
emerged as a great champion of religious liberty worldwide.
    I am proud to say that it was a fellow Texan, Leo Napoleon Levi, who 
was responsible for one of the earliest American protests against anti-
Semitic violence. Levi, a Galveston, Texas, lawyer and the president of 
the national B'nai B'rith, drafted President Theodore Roosevelt a 
telegram denouncing a Russian pogrom in 1903. The czar of Russia was so 
stung by Roosevelt's message that he formally refused to accept it. Some 
Americans complained that Roosevelt had gone too far. He replied that 
there were no crimes so monstrous--that there were crimes so monstrous 
that the American conscience had to assert itself.
    And there still are. Such crimes are being committed today by the 
Government of Sudan, which is waging war against that country's 
traditionalist and Christian peoples. Some 2 million Sudanese have lost 
their lives; 4 million more have lost their homes. Hospitals, schools, 
churches, and international relief stations have often been bombed by 
Government warplanes over the 18 years of Sudan's civil war. The 
Government claims to have halted air attacks, but they continue. Women 
and children have been abducted and sold into slavery. UNICEF estimates 
that some 12,000 to 15,000 people are now held in bondage in Sudan.
    The story of the Exodus still speaks across the millennium: No 
society in all of history can be justly built on the backs of slaves. 
Sudan is a disaster area for human rights. The right of conscience has 
been singled out for special abuse by the

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Sudanese authorities. Aid agencies report that food assistance is 
sometimes distributed only to those willing to undergo conversion to 
Islam. We must turn the eyes of the world upon the atrocities in the 
Sudan.
    Today I have appointed a special humanitarian coordinator, USAID 
Administrator Andrew Natsios. He will 
provide the leadership necessary to ensure that our aid goes to the 
needy without manipulation by those ravaging that troubled land. This is 
the first step. More will follow.
    Our actions begin today, and my administration will continue to 
speak and act for as long as the persecution and atrocities in the Sudan 
last.
    I'm pleased to say that many countries in the region show 
considerable and improving respect for religious liberty--Morocco, 
Tunisia, Jordan, and Bahrain among them. But there are other regimes, 
not only in north Africa and the Middle East, whose disrespect for 
freedom of worship is seriously disturbing. Iraq murders dissident 
religious figures. Iran systematically maltreats Jews, Christians, and 
adherents of the Baha'i faith. The Burmese junta tortures adherents of 
Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity. Cuba monitors and harasses 
independent priests and ministers. Afghanistan's Taliban government has 
horrified the world with its disdain for fundamental human freedoms, 
epitomized by its destruction of ancient Buddhist works of art. And the 
newly independent republics of central Asia impose troubling limits on 
religious expression and missionary work. We view with special concern 
the intensifying attacks on religious freedom in China.
    In many respects, China has made great strides toward freedom in 
recent decades. China's economy has opened. Chinese people enjoy greater 
personal mobility, more secure property rights, and enlarged access to 
information. These are not small achievements, and they do promise even 
greater change.
    But the Chinese Government continues to display an unreasonable and 
unworthy suspicion of freedom of conscience. The Chinese Government 
restricts independent religious expression. We hear alarming reports of 
the detention of worshipers and religious leaders. Churches, mosques 
have been vandalized or demolished. Traditional religious practices in 
Tibet have long been the target of especially harsh and unjust 
persecution. And most recently, adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual 
movement have been singled out for arrest and abuse.
    China aspires to national strength and greatness. But these acts of 
persecution are acts of fear and, therefore, of weakness. This 
persecution is unworthy of all that China has been, a civilization with 
a history of tolerance. And this persecution is unworthy of all that 
China should become, an open society that respects the spiritual dignity 
of its people.
    No one is a better witness to the transience of tyranny than the 
children of Abraham. Forty centuries ago, the Jewish people were 
entrusted with a truth more enduring than any power of man. In the words 
of the prophet Isaiah, ``This shall be My covenant with them, said the 
Lord: My spirit which is upon you, and the words which I have placed in 
your mouth, shall not be absent from your mouth, nor from the mouth of 
your children, nor from the mouth of your children's children, said the 
Lord, from now, for all time.''
    It is not an accident that freedom of religion is one of the central 
freedoms in our Bill of Rights. It is the first freedom of the human 
soul, the right to speak the words that God places in our mouths. We 
must stand for that freedom in our country. We must speak for that 
freedom in the world. And I thank the American Jewish Committee for your 
willingness to do both.
    God bless.

[[Page 489]]

Note: The President spoke at 8:22 p.m. at the National Building Museum. 
In his remarks, he referred to Bruce M. Ramer, president, and David A. 
Harris, executive director, American Jewish Committee; Mayor Anthony A. 
Williams of Washington, DC; President Vicente Fox of Mexico; Foreign 
Minister Joschka Fischer and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany; 
and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of 
Israel.