Tom Lantos

Mr. LANTOS

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey), my friend and distinguished colleague.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I am delighted to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald), my good friend and good neighbor.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher).

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I am very pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega).

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I am delighted to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney).

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment. Madam Chairman, I first want to commend my good friend, the chairman of the committee, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), for his amendment. As the gentleman from Illinois knows, our staffs have worked closely together on the text of this amendment, which I believe addresses all of the various concerns expressed by the administration on H.R. 3994; and it conforms this legislation to recent developments. I do not believe there are any objections on our side to the Hyde amendment, and I urge all of my colleagues to support it.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, my amendment declares that it should be the policy of the United States to support measures to meet the immediate security needs of Afghanistan and requires the President to submit a strategy for meeting the immediate security needs in Afghanistan. I want to put my amendment in its proper context, Madam Chairman. There has been no one on either side of the aisle more in support of the President's global war on terrorism than this Member, and that support continues. But I think it is important that while we support the President in this major global bipartisan effort we do not suspend our critical qualities. Our amendment deals with one such issue. The United States and its coalition partners have freed Afghanistan from the chokehold of all the al Qaeda terrorists and the repressive regime of the Taliban. With the support of the international community, a new interim authority is now in place and the country is now on a path uncertainly towards peace and stability. That very peace and stability is being threatened as the new government of Afghanistan under Chairman Karzai is being undermined by lawlessness and insecurity. Afghanistan is in grave danger of relapsing to the very conditions of violence and warlordism that created the Taliban and attracted al Qaeda to operate in Afghanistan. Virtually the only safe place in Afghanistan where people can move freely, where humanitarian organizations and government ministries can deliver much-needed relief assistance and services, is Kabul, the capital, which is under the protection of the International Security Assistance Force known as ISAF. ISAF, soon to be under the leadership of the government of Turkey, has demonstrated how effectively an international security presence contributes to stability and safety. But Kabul itself is in danger of being overrun as refugees and displaced people continue to flood the capital in search of security. Nearly half of all the returning refugees are going to Kabul, and the city is already struggling to cope with this horrendous influx. Outside of Kabul, Madam Chairman, Afghanistan continues to be a land of lawlessness, a land where every thug with a rifle can set up an illegal checkpoint to extort money from travelers, while the unarmed and outnumbered police cower in their makeshift headquarters. It is a land where women are still too fearful to remove their burqas and where relief workers risk their lives or have to offer hefty bribes to warlords and drug barons just to provide food and medicine to those in desperate need of assistance. This is not the vision we had for Afghanistan as we sought to help to liberate it from the grasp of the terrorists and the Taliban. President Bush has pledged to help restore security and rebuild Afghanistan, and Secretary Rumsfeld himself noted on numerous occasions that security is fundamental to all other issues and objectives in Afghanistan. This is certainly not the Afghanistan that Chairman Karzai promised to his people when he asked them to rally behind him and behind the international war on terrorism. In fact, Chairman Karzai has repeatedly pleaded with the United States and the international community to expand the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force beyond Kabul, and to help address the security situation. Madam Chair, the purpose of the Afghanistan Freedom and Reconstruction Act is to help transform Afghanistan from a land of repression and chaos into a safe and secure environment where freedom, human rights and democracy can grow and terrorism and opium production will disappear.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, none of this can be accomplished without security. The United States is providing critical assistance to create a new professional, multi-ethnic Afghan army that will address Afghanistan's long-term security needs. I support this assistance, and the bill before the House today authorizes military assistance to contribute to this effort. However, building Afghan security forces to the point where they can meet the security needs of Afghanistan will take at least a year-and-a- half and probably considerably longer. The period between now and the time that the Afghan military force can assume its duties is the critical period to assure the future of a secure Afghanistan. Something must be done now, Madam Chairman, whether it is the expansion of a multinational force or through some other mechanism to stabilize the countryside. Neither we nor our Afghan friends have the luxury to wait until a future security force, as yet only dreamed of, becomes fully trained and deployed. My amendment requires the administration to address this issue in a constructive manner. It requires the administration to formulate a strategy to increase security in the country during the transition to a fully functioning national army and police force. I fear that a failure to do so may lead to a failed Afghanistan. It will reduce international assistance. It will delay the accomplishment of our military objectives far longer. It will compel our military to stay in the region. Madam Chairman, it is for all of these reasons that I offer my amendment, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting it, in supporting the people of Afghanistan. Without security, our courageous military's effort will be in vain. We must provide security throughout the whole of the country, not just in the capital city of Kabul. This makes common sense. It makes military sense. It will advance and promote U.S. national security.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding and I thank him for his thoughtful remarks and for his very genuine and sincere interest in this matter. Clearly there have been unintended innocent victims during our military operations, and I fully agree with my friend, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), that U.S. assistance should be provided to such victims and their families. I also strongly endorse the commitment of our chairman to bring forward appropriate legislation on this issue, and I look forward to working with him and with my friend from Oregon on this matter and I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, on the Democratic side, we strongly support the amendments, and I want to commend our friend from Texas.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. I want to thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) for her interest and concern on this issue and for her tireless efforts on behalf of the poor and disenfranchised not only in Afghanistan but around the world, and on our side we strongly support her modified amendment.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I move to strike the last word. I want to take this opportunity to highlight one of the most important aspects of this legislation, which is that it creates a separate account and authorizes additional funds for Afghanistan. Until now, Madam Chairman, funding for Afghanistan has been carved out of existing programs with cuts in important programs in other parts of the world. What this legislation has done, and I want to commend our distinguished chairman for his idea, is to establish a new account with new money to fund the relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction of Afghanistan. So we do not have to dip into child survival funds or other accounts to fund health or education or reconstruction programs in Afghanistan. With Chairman Hyde's bill, we no longer have to rob Peter to pay Paul; or more appropriately, we do not have to take funds from health programs in India or elsewhere in the world to provide health services for women in Afghanistan. We do not have to choose between HIV/AIDS in Honduras or education in Afghanistan. I want to commend my friend, Chairman Hyde, for his foresight and his leadership in bringing new ideas and new resources to this important undertaking. I will work closely with him and with the other body to ensure that this additional provision is included in their version of the legislation.

Mr. LANTOS. I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.

Mr. LANTOS. I thank my good friend for his very generous statement. Madam Chairman, I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to thank all of the staff who have worked on the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act. Their efforts have been truly bipartisan in the best tradition of this body. I want to acknowledge the work of Peter Smith, Hillel Weinberg, Steve Rademaker, and Walker Roberts on the staff of Chairman Hyde. On the Democratic staff of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, David Adams has made many contributions to this legislation. In particular, I want to thank the members of my own staff who have worked so tirelessly on this important bill. Nisha Desai has been creatively and actively engaged on this legislation from the very beginning. I want to pay special tribute to her efforts. Our Democratic chief counsel, David Abramowitz, has shown his usual careful attention to detail and made important contributions to the quality of our legislation. I also want to acknowledge the efforts of Peter Yeo, David Fite, Carol Doherty, Keith O'Neil, and Matt Gobush of the Democratic staff. I want to express my personal appreciation to our extraordinary chief of staff, Dr. Bob King. It is not often that a piece of legislation involves so many staff on both sides, but I think in this instance it is an indication of the importance of this issue and it is reflected in the quality of the legislation we have produced which would not have been possible without Chairman Hyde's leadership. Sequential Votes Postponed in Committee of the Whole

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. LANTOS. I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words, and on behalf of the Democratic side I want to accept the gentlewoman's amendment, and I want to commend her for her indefatigable support for children everywhere.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley), our good friend and distinguished colleague. (Mr. CROWLEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to my good friend and distinguished colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff).

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to thank my good friend and distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the chairman of our committee, for his leadership in bringing this bill to the floor. I also want to commend the bipartisan manner in which he and his staff have worked with us to draft this legislation. Our legislation includes many of the ideas and issues put forward in legislation which was introduced last December by myself and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Ackerman), my friend and colleague, and some 15 members of the Committee on International Relations of both political parties. I thank the chairman for working with us in including these provisions. Madam Chairman, the legislation we are considering today is essential for America's national security. We have a strong interest in ensuring the reconstruction of Afghanistan and the establishment of democratic governmental institutions. An economically viable and democratic Afghanistan will no longer serve as an incubator for home-grown extremists such as the Taliban. It will no longer be a base of operations for foreign terrorists such as al Qaeda. It will no longer be the source of a huge proportion of the heroin that destroys lives around the world. The United States, Madam Chairman, made a grave foreign policy mistake in 1991. After the implosion of the Soviet Union, the United States simply withdrew from Afghanistan. With the Soviet Union no longer a threat, the first Bush administration mistakenly assumed that there was no longer a threat to America. On September 11, our Nation suffered a horrendous blow for that misguided assumption. Madam Chairman, as we move into the next phase in the war against terrorism, we must finish the job that our military forces have begun in Afghanistan. The legislation we are considering today is a critical element in that effort. Our bill authorizes funding and makes statutory changes necessary for us to assist in establishing an economically viable, stable, and democratic Afghanistan. Our legislation authorizes $1.3 billion over a 4-year period, a modest sum in relation to the amounts we are spending currently every single month for our military forces to continue this vital struggle. These funds and programs are essential to assure that our young men and women will not have to remain in Afghanistan to protect the security of Americans in New York and Washington and San Francisco, and everywhere throughout our Nation. Madam Chairman, this bill comes before the U.S. House of Representatives at a critical time. As soon as this week, our House will consider supplemental appropriations for the current fiscal year. The President has requested $250 million for Afghanistan in this supplemental. However, only $40 million of these funds are requested for USAID to fund the humanitarian and development needs in Afghanistan. It is my understanding that the Committee on Appropriations will increase the amount of money for USAID in Afghanistan, and I strongly support such a move. Our bill emphasizes the development of Afghanistan's agricultural sector by promoting land mine removal, quick-impact public works programs to divert labor from narcotics production, and the development of water and sanitation systems in rural areas. We expect that this aid will help stem further poppy cultivation. Our legislation also contains strong language on the provision of assistance to meet the educational, health, and vocational needs of Afghanistan's long-abused and discriminated-against women, and it will promote the participation of women in government and civil society. Finally, Madam Chairman, our bill underscores the need for security in Afghanistan, and provides military assistance to help establish a modern Aghan military and police force. It also provides support for those countries that are participating in the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, and it authorizes military assistance to other countries helping in the war effort against al Qaeda. Madam Chairman, the lack of security is perhaps the single biggest challenge facing the government and people of Afghanistan as they try to rebuild their lives and reclaim their country from the grasp of terrorists. It is vital to the United States that we work for a security environment in Afghanistan in order to prevent the return to power of al Qaeda and the Taliban. Our bill makes a contribution to providing security in Afghanistan, but since the markup of this legislation in the Committee on International Relations, it has become clear that we must do more. Later in this debate, I will be offering an amendment to address this critical issue; and I hope all of my colleagues will support it. As the situation evolves, the needs in Afghanistan will change. Our legislation gives the administration the flexibility to adapt our assistance to the changing needs and priorities. Madam Chairman, I believe this legislation will help ensure that the United States remains engaged to provide a secure future for Afghanistan. We can and we must play a critical role in Afghanistan's transformation into a stable, prosperous, and pluralistic nation. Madam Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LANTOS. Madam Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. I want to commend my friend from California for his powerful and thoughtful statement. The Congress is always at its best when it speaks in a bipartisan fashion. We have done so today. I again want to commend Chairman Hyde for his leadership on this issue. I want to commend my colleagues across the political spectrum who have spoken on behalf of this legislation. It embodies the finest values of the United States and it represents hardheaded, rational, farsighted foreign policy. I urge all of my colleagues to support the legislation.

Mr. LANTOS

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am honored today to mark a special occasion, the screening of the film documentary ``Desperate Hours,'' the story of Turkish assistance to European Jews seeking to flee the Holocaust. Produced and directed by Victoria Barrett, the film will be shown at 7:15 p.m. in room HC-7 in the Capitol. I am proud to be a co- sponsor of this event. Mr. Speaker, I first visited Turkey as a young man in 1956. My wife Annette and I have returned to enjoy Turkish hospitality many times since. When I first visited Turkey, it was just a few short years after Turkey had made the crucial decision to join NATO, where it has always been a loyal Western ally, first against Soviet tyranny, later against ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, and now against global terrorism. But what most ennobles Turkey for me is Its role as a savior of so many Jews during the two greatest Jewish tragedies of the past millennium, the Inquisition and the Holocaust. During the Inquisition of the late fifteenth century, the Ottoman Sultan Bayezit invited the fleeing Jews of Spain and Portugal to find comfort in his realm. The 500th anniversary of this episode--both sad and redemptive--was marked by Turkish Jews and non-Jews alike in 1992. The documentary ``Desperate Hours'' commemorates Turkey's rarely cited role in that other Jewish tragedy--the greatest crime of the bloody twentieth century--the Holocaust. Turkey's efforts were as important and dramatic as they are little known. Turkey offered refuge to hundreds of Germans--non-Jews as well as Jews--during the 1930s. Its diplomats in France, often without waiting for instructions from the capital, conferred Turkish citizenship on thousands of desperate Jews trapped in Nazi-occupied and Vichy France. In some cases Turkish diplomats, at great personal risk, stared down Gestapo officers to protect their new fellowcitizens, as was the case with the saintly Necdet Kent. All this, while Nazi troops stood poised on Turkey's borders. My wife and I were saved by Raul Wallenberg. I am pleased that the Turkish versions of Wallenberg are at last receiving their due. The intimate links between Turks and Jews continue, of course, to this day. A community of some 25,000 Jews thrives in contemporary Turkey. Tens of thousands of Turkish Jews living nearby in Israel cherish their links to Turkey. All of this is a testament to the Muslim-Jewish friendship that has been a hallmark of the Turkish historical experience. In recent times, Turkish-Jewish friendship has been enriched and deepened by the close relations Israel and Turkey have forged in recent years. Journalists have focused on the security relationship--and that indeed is important--but the non-security aspects of this relationship are growing even more rapidly: burgeoning commercial trade now worth over a billion dollars a year, Israeli tourists by the hundreds of thousands flocking annually to Turkey, and a vibrant intellectual exchange between Turkish and Israeli universities. No other Muslim society rivals Turkey's record regarding the Jews; in fact, few societies of any type anywhere in the world do. I congratulate my dear friend former Ambassador Baki Ilkin, who so strongly supported this documentary project, and my dear friend the current Turkish ambassador Faruk Logoglu. I strongly commend all those associated with the film ``Desperate Hours'' for helping to elucidate and publicize one of the most important chapters in the long, dramatic, and mutually rewarding history shared by the Jewish and Turkish peoples.

Mr. LANTOS

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I recently received an insightful essay entitled ``Letter From the Balcony'' from my dear friend Gabriel Erem, the editor and publisher of Lifestyles magazine and a prominent journalist. In this document, Mr. Erem discusses the current situation facing Jews in Israel and in Europe and their treatment by their Arab neighbors in the Middle East and their treatment by their fellow citizens in western Europe. The American people have watched in horror and dismay as the people of Israel have suffered terrorist attack after terrorist attack. We have voiced our outrage at the increasing number and violence of the racist atrocities that have been perpetrated against Jews by our allies in western Europe. As Americans, we have a responsibility to support those who uphold the institutions and the principles of democracy--and, as we have repeatedly emphasized, Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. There is a commonality of values that binds us inextricably with the people of Israel. As Americans, we have a firm commitment to tolerance and understanding, and for us the brutal intolerance we have seen from our European allies toward their own citizens is truly sickening. Mr. Speaker, the tone of Mr. Erem's essay is sorrow, not anger. He brings to this discussion a personal feeling that I understand at the most fundamental level. Gabriel Erem lost 186 relatives in the notorious Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz. He has suffered first- hand the horrendous consequences of intolerance and hate. Sadly, our world has not seen the end of such intolerance and violence. As we continue the struggle against the forces of chaos, prejudice and terrorism thrust upon us by the tragic events of September 11th, we have seen the blind and vicious hatred against Israel increase. We have seen anti-Semitism in Europe erupt. We have watched in amazement as the governments of our European allies have supported the perpetrators, not the victims, as blood and horror are unleashed against our democratic ally, Israel. We have watched as these same European governments have stood silent while their own Jewish citizens have been targeted and abused and as Jewish institutions and businesses are attacked by mobs. Mr. Speaker, Gabriel Erem's essay, ``Letter From the Balcony'' is of great significance, and I would like to share it with my colleagues in the House. I ask that it be placed in The Record. I urge all of my colleagues in the House to read and carefully consider his valuable words.> ``Letter from the Balcony'' by Gabriel Erem I can't sleep tonight. It is a rainy, gloomy night in Basel, Switzerland. I have just seen heart-breaking news photos of the funeral of the 18-year-old niece of Israel's soft-spoken United Nations Ambassador Yehuda Lancry, victim of the recent suicide bombing in Haifa. She was a pretty girl. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now she is one of 466 victims of Arab terror murdered in cold blood since former Prime Minister Barak offered Arafat a deal for a Palestinian State. The response from Arafat and his ilk has also been 3,827 innocent Israelis maimed for life while they were in cafes, supermarkets, pizzerias and buses. I step out to take a deep breath. I am standing on the balcony of the 976-year old Drei Konige Hotel, on the exact same spot where Theodor Herzl once stood back in 1896. At the time, as a journalist, he was covering the infamous Dreyfus trial and was so revolted by the rabid anti-Semitism of 19th century Europe that he wrote Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), the book that became the blueprint for the creation of the modern State of Israel. Who would have thought that in 2002 Jews living in the former Soviet Union and Poland and Germany are safer than those living in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa? I am looking at the murky waters of the Rhine, thinking of how little the world has changed. Behind me in my hotel room a strange Arabic language music video is blaring on my TV set. I return to the room to watch how Egypt's Nile TV (one of at least eight Arabic language channels offered via satellite in Switzerland) is repeatedly running a strange video clip backed by a hundred-piece orchestra, with a singer in a wailing voice extolling the struggle of Palestinian ``freedom fighters.'' In a masterfully edited video montage, Israeli soldiers are firing at innocent Palestinian children as if they were target practicing. A Palestinian child is hit by a hail of bullets and in grainy, documentary-like slow motion falls to the ground to the wailing sounds of the orchestra in the background. The lead singer weeps and a new ``martyr'' is born. I flip the channel. There is an Arabic language documentary, showing a Palestinian suicide-kindergarten, where the curriculum focuses mainly on marching to patriotic war songs and preparing children for ``martyrdom operations'' against the Jewish enemy. The classroom walls are wallpapered with posters of young Palestinian youngsters who blew themselves up as human bombs. In one shot there is a placard next to the blackboard, depicting a swastika and the Star of David dripping in blood side by side. On the next channel, the master media manipulator Saeb Erakat is shouting at the camera, with a wall-size poster of Jerusalem behind him, declaring Yasser Arafat the ``democratically elected leader of his people.'' And the world believes him! The kaffiyeh-clad commentator on the Kuwaiti channel is shedding crocodile tears for their suffering Palestinian brothers, conveniently forgetting the fact that his country promptly cleansed itself of nearly all of its Palestinians in the wake of the Gulf War in which Yasser Arafat characteristically took the side of Saddam Hussein. The next news item is more cheerful however; it speaks of the upcoming opening of Villa Moda, a super-luxury shopping mall, one of the most opulent in the Middle East, owned by the Majed al Sabah, the nephew of the Emir of Kuwait, where those believers--who no longer want to mingle with the riff-raff and travel to increasingly dangerous places like London, Paris and New York--can spend their American petro dollars to buy the latest Chanel bags. Then there is a commentary on why the Kuwaitis and their Saudi brothers should not allow the American ``infidels'' to use Arab soil to attack their Iraqi brethren. It would upset the peace of their own fiefdoms. CNN's commentator laments Iraqi children dying of hunger due to food shortages. On the next Arabic channel Saddam Hussein's recently increased premium payments to suicide bombers' families and his announcement to give $25,000 to each homeless Palestinian are praised with admiration. I can't fall asleep, so I keep changing the channels. The European television stations are showing news footage of French synagogues being burned at the hands of unseen perpetrators and the unbelievable news that the French convict Jean Marie Le Pen, who called the gas chambers of Auschwitz a ``detail of history,'' came in second in the first round of the French presidential election. ``Austrians remember the times when the mass media of Paris fell all over themselves calling Austria a hopeless Nazi-land,'' remarks the Austrian journalist Ernst Trost in a rapid-fire commentary aimed at the French. There is an item on German TV about a young Hasidic man beaten savagely by ``persons unknown.'' British commentators on the BBC are giving lessons in morality to Israeli Jews who ``militarily conquered other peoples' land.'' I wonder, ``What a blatant double standard! What was Great Britain doing two decades ago sending its fleet half a world away to fight a war in defense of its claims of conquest on the Falklands?'' I turn off the TV set and try to make sense of it all. How little has changed in more than a century, since the days of Herzl and Dreyfus. Firebombs hurled at Jewish schools and synagogues in France. A school bus carrying Jewish students in Paris bombarded with stones. Protestors at a Rome demonstration dressed as suicide bombers. Orthodox Jews assaulted on the streets of north London. In France police reported nearly 360 crimes against Jews and Jewish institutions in the first two weeks of April alone. A kosher butcher's shop was shot at. Teenagers on an amateur Jewish soccer team were assaulted with sticks and metal bars. Attackers broke into the Finsbury Park District Synagogue in north London, smashing windows, painting a swastika on a lectern and throwing holy books, skullcaps and prayer shawls on the floor. A British flag was left on the altar, prompting speculation that right-wing nationalists were responsible. German Jews appeal to authorities to stop a spiral of violence against Jewish targets. An assailant threw a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue, a homemade bomb exploded at a Jewish cemetery and two Jewish women were assaulted at a Berlin subway station. A Berlin police official suggests that Jews should stop wearing religious symbols to avoid attacks. Vandals throw red paint at a Holocaust memorial in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, in the second attack on Jewish monuments in Greece. In Canada, the land of tolerance, synagogues are burning, Jews are being beaten. The German and British governments are imposing a quiet boycott of Israel. The Swiss are talking of putting punitive tariffs on Israeli goods in public. Arafat and Kofi Annan are speaking of moral equivalency. And while 21 Arab states sit on their hands and their petrol billions instead of trying to better the conditions of their Palestinian brethren, the newly freed Yasser Arafat is screaming hateful insults, calling Jews ``Nazis''. President Bush called for an all-out war on terrorism. Yet due to great pressures from America's un-democratic but oil- rich allies in the Middle East, his Secretary of State pays a visit to the arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. Along with many, Arafat regards Zionism as a way of making Palestinians pay for the Holocaust. Just a decade after he established al Fatah, the predecessor of the PLO, the ``leader of the Palestinian people'' consistently stated the purpose of his life: ``The end of Israel is the goal of our struggle, and it allows for neither compromise nor mediation.'' As he explained to Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci in 1972: ``We don't want peace. We want war, victory. Peace for us means the destruction of Israel and nothing else.'' It is dawn in Basel. A young couple are walking their dog by the Rhine. The pretty blond lady holding the leash is in about her eighth month of pregnancy. I look at her from my hotel window and suddenly I am filled with envy. That child who is about to be born into the world of this tiny nation will never see war. After all, there has been no war in this part of the world for centuries. There is no September 11th lurking in the future and their baby carriage will not likely be blown up by anyone. I think of the hundreds of Jews who were murdered and the thousands maimed by Arab terror since the peace deal that they demanded was offered to them. I think of the Six Million who died in the Holocaust. The world never learns.