[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.