From: pnmideast@igc.apc.org
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Subject: Bush to Send $10 Bil to Congress
Date: 12 Sep 92 07:28:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1296500349:000:4689
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!pnmideast    Sep 12 00:28:00 1992


From: <pnmideast>
Subject: Bush to Send $10 Bil to Congress

Subject: Bush to send $10 billion Israeli loan guarantees to Congress this week
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 92 9:51:19 PDT

	WASHINGTON (UPI) -- President Bush told a Jewish gathering Tuesday
that he plans to send a request to Congress this week of up to $10
billion in loan guarantees to aid Israel's immigration program as a sign
of the U.S.-Israeli partnership at work.
	In an address to the B'nai B'rith International Convention, the
president laced his remarks with campaign overtones, charging that if
his Democratic opponent had been president at the time of Iraq's
invasion of Kuwait ``we'd be facing a nuclear-armed Iraq, dominant in
the Middle East, with a choke-hold on the world's oil supplies...an Iraq
threatening Israel's very existence.''
	``Ask yourself where we would be if we had someone in the Oval Office
who would have waffled, who would have wavered and wanted to have it
both ways,'' said Bush, in a familiar attack on Democrat Bill Clinton.
	``Ask yourself where the Middle East would be today, where Israel's
security would be today, if we had followed the counsel of my critics,''
he said, declaring that America and Israel are ``safer today'' because
of Operation Desert Storm, the Gulf War coalition's military effort
against Iraq.
	The president also spoke of his initiative in bringing about Arab-
Israeli peace talks as a ``breakthrough'' and said that there has been
progress, with meaningful dialogue and written proposals.
	``Of course, major hurdles remain,'' he said. ``It will take time and
effort and courage and trust. But there is clearly a way, and
increasingly a will.''
	The president said that the goal is ``real peace'' not a truce under
the terms of the U.N. Security Council resolutions 242 and 338
exchanging land for peace.
	Bush had previously announced his approval of the loan guarantees
when he met in August at his Kennebunkport, Maine, summer estate with
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who promised to halt the building
of new settlements in Arab-occupied land.
	``I know I can count on the support of every one in this room to make
sure that this proposal becomes law,'' Bush said. ``And don't let any
member of Congress tell you we can't afford to do this. We can, and we
must.''
	Bush also reaffirmed the United States' support of Israel, saying 
``its security is not simply a policy. It is a principle.''
	He pledged a ``solid commitment to Israel's security, including its
qualitative military edge,'' and added, ``This is a special
relationship, one specially built to endure.''
	Responding to a question after his formal remarks, Bush said he had
not made a final decision on the sale of some 170 F-15 fighter planes to
Saudi Arabia and after consideration of the overall U.S. security
interests would ``call it as I see it.''
	He also said he would continue to oppose the creation of a
Palestinian state.
	In his prepared speech, Bush pledged to work for the elimination of
anti-Semitism.
	``I wish that I could stand before you today and say that anti-
Semitism is history, but it is not,'' he said, adding, ``I will continue
to do my utmost, here and abroad, so that prejudice is finally, finally,
finally, banished from the human heart.''
	``There will be times when we disagree. Even friends disagree.
America will have disagreements with Israel,'' Bush said.
	``There may even be issues where you and I will take opposing sides,''
he said. ``And things may get hot and words may be exchanged.
	``In the past, some remarks of mine were misinterpreted,'' he said. 
``I have gone on the record expressing my regret for any pain this may
have caused.''
	White House aides said Bush apparently referred to the fall out after
he had lashed out against the Israeli lobby last year.
	``Again I want to make it clear, I support, I endorse, and I deeply
believe in the God-given right of every American to promote what they
believe,'' he said. ``It is your right as an individual. It's more than
a right. It's your duty as an American citizen.
	``But let me also say that it is important that we learn how to
disagree,'' he added. ``The way democracies engage in debate is not
without consequence, it is a mark of civility and freedom. I hardly need
to tell anyone in this room what anti-Semitism is. As my friend, Abe
Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League has pointed out, to accuse those
who may come to different conclusions on one or another public issue of
harboring anti-Semitism is to cheapen the term. ''
	``That is dangerous,'' he said. ``That is deeply wrong. And when
those words, without justice, have been aimed at me, I can tell you:
They cut to the heart.''
Newsgroups: alt.activism