ZGram - 5/8/2002 - "Ron Paul asks the right questions"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGRAM - Where Truth is Destiny

May 8, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Remember that today, fifty seven years ago, Germany finally lost the 
war because America chose to side with Stalin against Hitler.  If you 
read Congressman Ron Paul's brief address, you must ask yourself what 
it was really all about - and what that unfortunate war, in the end, 
really netted the American people. 

[START]

Stop the Middle-East Bias

by <http://www.house.gov/paul>Congressman Ron Paul, MD

US House of Representatives, May 2, 2002

Mr. Speaker, this legislation could not have come at a worse time in 
the ongoing Middle East crisis. Just when we have seen some positive 
signs that the two sides may return to negotiations toward a peaceful 
settlement, Congress has jumped into the fray on one side of the 
conflict. I do not believe that this body wishes to de-rail the 
slight progress that seems to have come from the Administration's 
more even-handed approach over the past several days. So why is it 
that we are here today ready to pass legislation that clearly and 
openly favors one side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

There are many troubling aspects to this legislation. The legislation 
says that "the number of Israelis killed during that time [since 
September 2000] by suicide terrorist attacks alone, on a basis 
proportional to the United States population, is approximately 9,000, 
three times the number killed in the terrorist attacks on New York 
and Washington on September 11, 2001." This kind of numbers game with 
the innocent dead strikes me as terribly disrespectful and completely 
unhelpful.

It is, when speaking of the dead, the one-sidedness of this bill that 
is so unfortunate. How is it that the side that loses seven people to 
every one on the other side is portrayed as the sole aggressor and 
condemned as terrorist? This is only made worse by the fact that 
Palestinian deaths are seen in the Arab world as being 
American-inspired, as it is our weapons that are being used against 
them. This bill just reinforces negative perceptions of the United 
States in that part of the world. What might be the consequences of 
this? I think we need to stop and think about that for a while. We in 
this body have a Constitutional responsibility to protect the 
national security of the United States. This one-sided intervention 
in a far-off war has the potential to do great harm to our national 
security.

Perhaps this is why the Administration views this legislation as "not 
a very helpful approach" to the situation in the Middle East. In my 
view, it is bad enough that we are intervening at all in this 
conflict, but this legislation strips any lingering notion that the 
United States intends to be an honest broker. It states clearly that 
the leadership of one side - the Palestinians - is bad and supports 
terrorism just at a time when this Administration negotiates with 
both sides in an attempt to bring peace to the region. Talk about 
undermining the difficult efforts of the president and the State 
Department. What incentive does Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat or 
his organization have to return to the negotiating table if we as 
"honest broker" make it clear that in Congress's eyes, the 
Palestinians are illegitimate terrorists? Must we become so involved 
in this far-off conflict that we are forced to choose between Arafat 
and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon? The United States Congress 
should not, Constitutionally, be in the business of choosing who gets 
to lead which foreign people.

Many people of various religious backgrounds seem determined to 
portray what is happening in the Middle East as some kind of 
historic/religious struggle, where one side is pre-ordained to 
triumph and destroy the other. Even some in this body have embraced 
this notion. Surely the religious component that some interject into 
the conflict rouses emotions and adds fuel to the fire. But this is 
dangerous thinking. Far from a great holy war, the Middle East 
conflict is largely about what most wars are about: a struggle for 
land and resources in a part of the world where both are scarce. We 
must think and act rationally, with this fact clearly in mind.

Just as with our interventionism in other similar struggles around 
the world, our meddling in the Middle East has unforeseen 
consequences. Our favoritism of one side has led to the hatred of 
America and Americans by the other side. We are placing our country 
in harm's way with this approach. It is time to step back and look at 
our policy in the Middle East. After 24 years of the "peace process" 
and some 300 billion of our dollars, we are no closer to peace than 
when President Carter concluded the Camp David talks.

  Mr. Speaker, any other policy that had so utterly failed over such a 
long period of time would likely come under close scrutiny here. Why 
is it that when it comes to interventionism in the Middle East 
conflict we continue down this unproductive and very expensive road?

[END]

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.

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Thought for the Day:

"People are scared in this country [the US], to say wrong is wrong because
the Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful. Well, so what? For goodness
sake, this is God's world! We live in a moral universe."

(Bishop Desmond Tutu)