Political Quotes

“Egypt also has a vital interest in maintaining stability in Gaza. They are going to do so, move in to help deal with stability there, not because we bribe them, but because it is in their national interests. They cannot afford for it to fall apart. I appreciate what the ranking member of the Committee on International Relations has done bringing forward this amendment. We have a long and productive relationship with Egypt, and it is not going to change if we change the emphasis. We have already invested in Egypt as the number two recipient of our aid, over $30 billion, much of it in military assistance. We bought interoperability. The question, I think, is after 25 years, how do we make adjustments, 6 years after the most recent alignment. The gentleman from California (Mr. Berman) asks, 'is this the wrong time?' I think the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) is saying now is the time, even if it does not pass, to signal that the way that we are going to have peace in Egypt, in the Middle East, is to stabilize the economy, shift away from massive military buildup, which they do not need, and feed that positive public opinion.”