On the recordJuly 6, 2011
I rise in strong support of the resolution. I come from the premise that if you want to work out a disagreement, you sit face to face at the negotiating table and negotiate. That's what happened in Ireland, and it should happen in the Middle East. But the Palestinians are playing their cute little games. They want to establish a lot of preconditions, they want to make excuses not to sit and talk with Israel, and they think they can impose this at the U.N. and impose statehood without face-to-face negotiations. So I say ``no'' to excuses, ``no'' to 1967 lines, ``no'' to all kinds of preconditions before Palestinians will even sit down and talk. The only way, if the Palestinians are truly wanting peace, they have a willing partner in Israel. As Prime Minister Netanyahu said, There is no Palestinian state not because we don't support one; it's because the Palestinians won't recognize the Jewish State. So I believe in two states side by side: a Jewish State of Israel and an Arab-Palestinian state. And, again, that can only happen with face- to-face negotiations. No preconditions. Let the parties sit down and talk.
