[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 127 (Thursday, October 12, 2000)] [House] [Page H9867] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] TERRORISM AND VIOLENCE The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, the news in the Middle East today is unfortunately not very good news. The attack on the U.S.S. Cole reminds us as Americans once again how terrorism can rear its ugly head at any time at any place. The events during the past several days in the Middle East and in Israel and the West Bank show us again that terrorism and violence is just right around the corner. Only a few months ago, Mr. Speaker, the Israeli government demonstrated the willingness to make sweeping concessions at Camp David. Unfortunately, Mr. Arafat rejected it. When we talk about the peace process and we talk about partners for peace, we have to understand that it takes two to tango. We cannot have peace if only one side is making concessions and the other side continues to hang on to its strident demands. In fact, during the entire process at Camp David, which lasted many, many days, Mr. Barak, the prime minister of Israel, made concessions that no one would have dreamed that any Israeli government or prime minister could have made even a year ago, 6 months ago. He made those concessions; but Mr. Arafat, particularly with Jerusalem but other things as well, stuck to his hard demands. {time} 1730 The Palestinian leadership rejected compromise. They showed that they are only interested in peace on their terms. Again, a peace can only be achieved if both parties are willing to negotiate and both parties are willing to compromise. The violent Palestinian riots we are witnessing today and for the past several days, in my opinion, result directly from the fact that Yasir Arafat did not prepare his people for peace. In fact, Arafat tries to skillfully use the pale of terrorism as a negotiating tool, playing the classic good guy-bad guy routine. As Mr. Barak was restraining the expectations of his people, preparing the Israeli people for compromise, Arafat was pumping up the Palestinian demands and preparing them for conflict. If one does not prepare one's people by telling them that they will have to compromise to get a peace, then expectations are raised and a compromise is not able to be gotten. So today, unfortunately, we must say that Yasir Arafat has not been and is not a partner for peace. Mr. Speaker, I just watched Prime Minister Barak speak live on CNN. Once again, he declared his willingness to make peace, but he rightfully said that his nation, Israel, will do everything in its power to protect its people. Israel needs a partner for peace, a partner that does not engage and incite into violence; one that does not look the other way when there are people that are destroying ancient religious shrines in Nablus; one that does not allow their people to beat innocent Israelis to death, as happened this morning in Ramallah; and one that does everything in its power to set the conditions for peace. The underlying basis for negotiations was the recognition of the PLO by Israel in exchange for the renunciation of violence by the PLO and Chairman Arafat. In his September 9, 1993 letter for the late Prime Minister Rabin, Chairman Arafat ``renounced the use of terrorism and other acts of violence'' and pledged to ``prevent violence and discipline violators.'' Unfortunately, 7 years later, this has not happened. Unless the Palestinian leader calls on his people to halt their fanatical, hostile public violence and directs the security services to maintain order, as he promised, the Palestinians will be in violation of, not only the text of the peace agreements, but the basic understanding which underlay the process. Furthermore, as the Palestinian rock and molotov cocktail throwers and gunmen continue to rage, Israel will be within its rights as a sovereign nation to take whatever actions it needs to protect its people and frontiers. Now, there is a moral imperative to stand our ground. Israel is not only our closest friend and ally in the Middle East, they are in the right. Israel has demonstrated its willingness to make peace and is now under attack by thousands of violent rioters. It is time for Congress to express its solidarity with the people of Israel and stand with them at this crucial time. We must condemn the Palestinian leadership for its cowardly encouragement of mass riots and for doing so little to halt the hysterical rampagers. We must demand that Arafat and his lieutenants use their security services to restrain unnecessary acts of violence, show respect for our holy sites, and settle grievances only through negotiations. In the days to come, I expect new challenges to our U.S. policy; and I suspect we will arise to the occasion. ____________________