It is also increasingly evident that the surrender of additional land will have the effect of significantly increasing Israel's vulnerability and making the prospects of a real and more durable peace with its Arab neighbors even more problematic. Mr. President, I very recently traveled to Israel. It had been several years since my last visit, and I expected this year we would bring some important measures to the Senate floor. The timeline on the Oslo accords expires in May, and Arafat has threatened to unilaterally declare an independent state. The supplemental appropriations for the Wye River accords will soon be before us, and the timetable on the Jerusalem Embassy Act requires that the President report to the Congress why the United States Embassy has not been set up in Israel's capital city, Jerusalem.
Peace is a matter of the heart.
I believe in the depths of every person's heart is a desire to live in peace. But what I saw, which was the outcome of the Palestinian Authority rule, convinced me that their hearts and minds are set on other goals. The Palestinian leadership does not want peace. They want, first, their own state which they can control with total power. Then they want to use that state to eliminate the State of Israel.