[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 18 (Monday, May 7, 2001)]
[Pages 699-702]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
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
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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 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
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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 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,
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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.
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 Gerhardt Schroeder of Germany;
and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of
Israel.