2002 Ron Paul 34:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the
gentleman for yielding me this time,
and I rise to express some concerns
about the process that we are going
through today.
2002 Ron Paul 34:2
I am on the Committee on International
Relations, and we have not
yet had a chance to really debate this.
This was brought up rather rapidly last
night. We had to not break the rules
but bend the rules a little bit to get
this resolution to the floor. It seems
like it would have been reasonable to
bring this up next week, but there may
have been some other reasons why this
is being pushed through today.
2002 Ron Paul 34:3
Certainly this would not have been
the State Department’s first choice. In
talking with the State Department,
matter of fact, they expressed some
real reservations about this. They said
it is not a very helpful approach, and
they said we need to work with the situation
as it is to be an honest broker.
2002 Ron Paul 34:4
This legislation is one-sided and,
therefore, not very helpful. So here we
are, as a Congress, in a desire to please
certain people, moving quickly, even
though it may affect what is going on
in the State Department. And the
State Department goes on to say that
this one-sided legislation just comes
when in the past 48 hours or so we have
been making some progress.
2002 Ron Paul 34:5
Even our chairman of the committee
was quoted in the paper this morning
of saying, well, if he had his way, he
would prefer a more balanced resolution.
And he is a very, very strong supporter
of Israel. Of course, I would like
to see a more balanced resolution, too.
I would like to see one where we balance
America’s interests as well as others.
2002 Ron Paul 34:6
There is a lot of talk about democracy
and peace. I take a position of
nonintervention in the affairs of other
people. I believe very sincerely that it
is consistent with the Constitution and
very sincerely that it works to our best
interest for national security and for
defense; and that even though this is
intended very sincerely to help Israel,
motions like this, resolutions like this,
can very well backfire and actually
hurt Israel more so than they will help.
