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Congressmen support { May 6 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.jpost.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/Full&cid=1020337092750http://www.jpost.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/Full&cid=1020337092750
May. 6, 2002
Visiting congressmen advise Israel to resist US administration pressure
By Arie O'sullivan
A visiting delegation of US congressmen believes that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon should rebuff attempts by the Bush administration for him to deal with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
“Yasser Arafat is a terrorist. He is a leader of the terrorists. As a matter of fact he is a motivator of terrorism,” said Jim Saxton (R-NJ). “If I were in [Sharon’s] position, I would find someone else to talk to.”
Another member of the bipartisan team, Joe Hoeffel (D-PA) said America needed to seek another leader of the Palestinian people.
“It is time for the United States to indicate that it would look for a different leadership in the Pales-tinian Authority and that we would welcome a leadership of the PA that would recognize Israel’s fundamental right to exist as a Jewish state,” Hoeffel said.
They were speaking during a tour yesterday at an army base in the center of the country where the IDF has assembled of a collection of some of the hundreds of weapons and mortars confiscated during the recent incursions into the West Bank. Some of the weapons were also from the ship Karine A. The congressmen also were briefed by security officials and examine confiscated suicide bomb belts.
The four-member congressional delegation is here for a three-day fact-finding mission, and they wanted facts. They first demanded to be shown the legal weapons the Palestinians had been allowed to hold according to the Oslo peace accord, and were shown a collection of AK-47 assault rifles.
But most of their interest was in the vast array of rifles, homemade guns, commando knives, mortars, and night vision equipment all held by the Palestinians in violation of the peace agreement.
Saxton, a member of the Armed Services Committee, peered through one of the sniper scopes and recognized that part of it was made in his home state of New Jersey. Jack Kingston (R-GA) was keenly interested in the sniper rifles and shotguns.
“I am a sportsman. There are weapons here that I would use to shoot dove or quail. Some you might go deer hunting with, but 90 percent of these guns, which are in violation of the Oslo Accords, are used for the destruction of human beings,” Kingston said.
“This is a weapon of war. This is not a weapon of sportsmanship,” he said grasping a Stirling submachine gun. “There are thousands and thousands of others like it sitting on these premises and there may be even tenfold more that are not confiscated. Our message to the people of Israel is we stand behind you and behind your action. You need to defend yourselves and do
what it takes.”
A member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Foreign Operation Sub-Committee which deals with foreign aid for Israel, Kingston said very many Americans don’t understand how badly the Palestinians are violating the Oslo Accords.
Hoeffel, who is a member of the House International Relations Committee, said seeing the weapons made him feel as if Israel was engaged in a “second war of independence.” “There should be no Yasser Arafat exception to that zero tolerance to terrorism rule,” he said.
The four congressmen embarked to Israel after successfully working to push through a resolution pushing through a strongly worded resolution of solidarity for the Israeli government in Congress by a vote of 352-21 with 29 abstentions.
Hoeffel said that when he got back to Washington he would seek out those 21 representatives who voted against the resolution, tell them about what he saw here, and try to win them over.
Saxton displayed a copy of the resolution to reporters which he said they wanted to “hand deliver” to the Israeli people.
“All four of us were motivating factors in getting this passed. We are very proud,” Saxton said. “It was a huge victory for those of us who advocated solidarity with the Israeli government and the
Israeli people.”
Congressman Peter Deutsch (D-FL) seemed particularly moved by what he called the “sick collection of weapons.” He said it made them understand why Operation Defensive Shield was successful.
“We are totally supportive of the war against terrorism …and there should not be a Yasser Arafat exception. He is a terrorist. He was a terrorist and he remains a terrorist,” said Deutsch.
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