Situation in the Middle East

Released by the U.S Mission to the United Nations

Mr. President,

We should not be here today, nor should we be having a discussion focused solely on Palestinians when, yet again, there have been more terrorist attacks in Israel. Events of the last week show that the focus of this Emergency Session on the Occupied Territories is out of step with the reality of events on the ground. There will not be peace in the Middle East while one side persists in its attacks on the civilians of the other side. On Sunday, nine Israelis were killed when a bomb destroyed a passenger bus in northern Israel; forty others were wounded, most seriously. The Hamas Izz al-Din al Qassam brigades conducted this attack “in response to the UN report” on Jenin, according to the communiqué the organization published after the bombing.

Here in the United States, we mourn especially for the five American citizens who were murdered in the July 31 terrorist bombing at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, among them a citizen of this city, Janice Ruth Coulter. By killing seven people, and wounding over 80 others, this attack transformed a friendly multinational cafeteria into a scene of devastation and turmoil. The target was carefully chosen. This was a crime committed not only against Israel or the Jewish people, but also against all those – Israelis, Palestinians, and foreigners – who want to live together in peace. There can be no way to describe this attack as anything other than a terrorist attack that this Assembly should condemn.

Mr. President,

We should begin this session today by explicitly condemning the terrorist organizations, like Hamas, that are clearly out to sabotage any effort to achieve Arab-Israeli peace, and, once again, to call on countries of the world to fulfill their obligations to root out all terrorist networks, wherever they are – including the Middle East.

For too long, the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council have been silent when Israelis are victims of terrorism. Member States must reject the rationales given by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and others that their terrorist bombings are somehow justified by the state of affairs in the Middle East. As the Secretary-General himself said last fall and again on Sunday: “there is need for moral clarity. There can be no acceptance of those who would seek to justify the deliberate taking of innocent civilian life, regardless of cause or grievance.”

Mr. President,

The Secretary-General’s report speaks for itself. In his report, the Secretary-General provided some context to the events in Jenin and elsewhere, including the fact that some two hundred armed men from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Tanzim, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas operated from the Jenin camp. The report puts to rest the central falsehood of a “massacre” propagated by some Palestinian officials last spring. In our view, the most important part of the Secretary-General’s report is the call for a constructive look to the future to prevent further bloodshed, address real humanitarian needs, and move toward a negotiated political settlement. That is the essential task at hand.

In contrast, the draft Palestinian resolution, purporting to reflect the Secretary-General’s report, makes no effort to provide a fair representation of the context of the current violence in the Middle East. In fact, it appears to be an attempt to write an alternative report.

Neither this Emergency Special Session nor another resolution that evades the central challenge terrorism poses to peacemaking in the Middle East will move the peace process forward or ameliorate the acknowledged dire humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza. But direct diplomatic engagement and effective response by the international community – as the Secretary-General’s report calls for and which we and many others are striving to provide – hold out the real promise of doing both.

The U.S. is working hard to assist Palestinians and Israelis in a practical manner. So are the other members of the Quartet. So are the Arab leaders. That effort should be the international community’s focus. It is our focus.

We are moving forward with President Bush’s agenda to help realize his two states’ vision, including security and civil reform and efforts to lay the basis for a resumption of political negotiations.

We are working closely with the Quartet and with our Arab friends on all of these tracks. Our goal is to find practical ways to end the violence and restore political hope.

Later this week we look forward to meeting with our Palestinian colleagues in Washington to discuss the situation on the ground, including the dire humanitarian conditions, security, the Palestinians’ own ongoing reform efforts, and how to get back to the negotiating table. We will also be discussing Israeli responsibilities for helping ease these conditions and to move the process forward. We discussed these responsibilities with Israeli Foreign Minister Peres late last week.

Mr. President,

The Secretary General’s report addressed humanitarian issues at length. I want to inform the Assembly of concrete efforts my government is undertaking to ameliorate the conditions in the West Bank and Gaza.

In the past four months, we have increased our assistance for emergency and humanitarian relief by 70 percent, and we stand ready to do more. We are providing medical equipment and pharmaceuticals; we are creating job opportunities; we are training mental health care professionals to deal with the debilitating psychological impact of the violence; we are providing food to the most vulnerable non-refugees in the West Bank and Gaza – over 250,000 people.

We recently gave $10 million for the development of grassroots Palestinian NGOs working on a broad spectrum of humanitarian relief activities. We will provide $15 million to support women’s and children’s health and nutrition. And we will provide $5 million to provide emergency sources of potable water and repair water infrastructure.

The United States also remains the largest single contributor to UNRWA. We provided $118 million in this fiscal year, including $10 million to respond to UNRWA emergency appeals. In addition, the U.S. contributed $2.3 million to the World Food Program emergency appeal.

And we are emphasizing to the Israeli government its responsibilities – the need to take very concrete steps – in particular by increasing freedom of movement of the Palestinian population – to assist not only humanitarian relief, but the restoration of economic activity within the West Bank and Gaza.

We encourage the direct Israeli-Palestinian ministerial dialogue now underway and hope they make progress that can materially improve the Palestinians’ daily lives.

Mr. President,

The draft resolution offered up to us today does not offer a way forward or provide solutions. It focuses unjustly on one side and distorts the historical record in the process. We will vote against this resolution, as we voted against its predecessor in May, because we are focused on working directly with the parties to bring results, and because we believe the condemnatory rhetoric against Israel contained in this resolution will not contribute to the efforts of the international community to urge both parties to take the decisions they need to make to end violence and return to negotiations. And for those who believe that resolutions like this one help the Palestinian people, I suggest that such rhetoric does the very opposite: It undermines the credibility of their cause and deepens the divide between the Palestinians and a neighbor with whom one day they will have to live in peace.