Political Quotes

“I rise today to offer a long-overdue bill for the purpose of defunding terrorism by Yasser Arafat and his supporters, by shutting off their flow of dollars from the U.S. Treasury. It was the belief of the previous administration that Yasser Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organization would live up to their renunciation of terrorism, and the newly-formed Palestinian Authority headed by Arafat and his PLO cronies could operate as a responsible governing body to further peace. Instead, Arafat, the PLO and the PA have used the guise of their new-found political legitimacy, and agreement to the Tenet peace plan, to mask their real desires. The reality of the situation is that the Palestinian Authority is joined at the hip with the PLO and other terrorist groups, such as Tanzim, the armed wing of Fatah, the largest faction of the PLO. Tanzim is headed by a member of the PA's legislature, and is believed to have developed an alliance with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Our aid frees up other money the PA uses to pay for the bombs that are killing innocent men, women and children in Israel. The chart was compiled by my staff from a published list of each such attack last year. That list is 25 pages long. We dare not forget the level of terror visited upon Israel by Palestinian terrorists.”