Political Quotes

“I would like to change gears a little bit and talk about another subject that is very distressing. Throughout this break I would turn the television on to the evening news, and invariably there would be a story about yet more violence in the Middle East. It really got me thinking about the fundamental issue that I think a lot of Americans have ignored. We wring our hands. We wish that the parties could get together, that there could be peace in the Middle East, and that they could put their problems behind them and live in harmony. So we ask--and I see newspeople basically asking different versions of this question--why can't they just go back to the peace process? Of course, Secretary Powell urged both parties to agree to a cease-fire, which temporarily they did, yet every single day there has been a bombing or other terrorist attack or attempt in the State of Israel. The Israeli people have said: Peace is a two-way street. If Yasser Arafat and the PLO are not willing to enforce the multiple cease-fire agreements and the peace process that we thought we had agreed to before, then we will have to enforce the law, and that includes going after those terrorists who threaten our people. No nation can do otherwise. I rise to comment briefly on this notion of 'returning to the peace process.' The problem is that the 1993 Oslo accords, which were the genesis of this thing we call 'the peace process,' we now learn were fundamentally flawed.”