Barbara Boxer: “this week, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat delivered a speech to the Palestinian Legislative Council that I found…”

“this week, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat delivered a speech to the Palestinian Legislative Council that I found extremely disappointing. The speech, which was given Monday, did not outline specific steps to end terrorism against the Israeli people and did not offer any new ideas on how to achieve peace in the Middle East. As one senior European diplomat said, ``It was a very shallow speech, repeating the standard phrases he's used for years now.'' Perhaps most disturbing of all was Yasser Arafat's outright refusal to call for an end to the practice of suicide bombings, even after his own interior minister, Abdel Razak Yehiyeh, said that all Palestinians should abandon suicide attacks. The omission is especially glaring given that drafts of the speech made available to the media beforehand explicitly called for the parliament to outlaw suicide bombings against civilians. As someone who has continually worked to rally international support against this disgraceful practice, I am greatly saddened that Yasser Arafat did not have the courage to call for a complete ban on suicide bombings.”