Mike Levin: “I commend him for his thoughtful comments about the Middle East. These are times of great violence in the Middle East.…”

“I commend him for his thoughtful comments about the Middle East. These are times of great violence in the Middle East. One of the most striking things to me is the silence of Chairman Arafat relative to violence. Prime Minister Barak has said to his own citizens, 'I urge our Jewish citizens to refrain from attacking Arabs and their property under any circumstances.' From Chairman Arafat, we have had silence about the actions of the Palestinians in the streets. That silence speaks volumes. I also want to expand on that one thought, about what we have not heard once from Chairman Arafat, which is a statement saying that violence--by whoever--is wrong. We have not even gotten that much from Chairman Arafat, and it is a huge and very obvious and intentional omission on his part, which speaks very loudly about what his intentions are.”