Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, any measure that seeks to promote a peaceful resolution to tensions between Israelis and Palestinians--whether coming from the United Nations or from this Chamber--should provide a balanced picture of the facts on the ground and the challenges confronting both sides. The recent UN Security Resolution on Israeli settlements failed that test by blaming Israel almost solely for impeding a two-states solution for peace and by using prejudicial language that places an unfair burden on Israel in depicting the basis for future negotiations. Calling any settlement activity by Israel since 1967 a major obstacle to peace, as the UN resolution does, ignores the reality that geographical adjustments will have to be made as part of any two-states solution reached by parties through direct negotiations. However, the resolution before us today is also not balanced in that it too ignores conditions on the ground. Expressing the sense of Congress to repeal the UN Resolution does not focus on the increasingly fragile state of the two-states solution, and on conditions that make its potential achievement increasingly difficult to obtain. Prime Minister Netanyahu has called his government the most pro-settlement in history.…”