Israelis have lost confidence in the Palestinian commitment to prevent terror and violence, she said. The Palestinians, in return, believe Israel s construction of new housing in contested areas has preempted future negotiations. It should be obvious that there is no moral equivalency between bulldozers and bombs, and no justification for terror under any circumstances. Albright told the editors there were many other international issues demanding the attention of the Clinton administration and the American people. As President Clinton would do the next day, she urged Senate approval of the chemical weapons treaty scheduled to go into effect the following week, with or without U.S. ratification.
Chemical weapons are inhumane.
She argued, in support of Senate ratification, that the treaty had many benefits. It will enhance American leadership, protect American soldiers and make all of us safer than we would be in a world where chemical weapons remain as legal as lawn chairs. The secretary urged the editors to support funding of international affairs programs, pointing out that a vast range of programs ranging from aid to partners in the Middle East, the peace-building effort in Bosnia and other programs equals about 1 percent of the total federal budget. The greatest danger to America, she said, lies in the possibility that it could succumb to the temptation of isolation and forget the fundamental lesson that problems left unattended elsewhere in the world will come home. We have a responsibility in our time, as others have had in theirs, not to be prisoners of history, but to shape history.