US lawmakers defend Bush Mideast policy at Jordan summit
AFP
Date: 05-22-05
SHUNEH, Jordan (AFP) - A group of US legislators attending the World Economic Forum in Jordan defended President George W. Bush's support for Israel as a way to pave the way for an independent Palestinian state.
The lawmakers were taking part in a panel discussion to assess the political legacy Bush will leave behind in the Middle East, where US military involvement, its strategic alliance with Israel and repeated calls for reforms are rejected.
"If the United States were to give up its support of Israel this will lead to another Holocaust in the world like what happened in the last century," US Republican Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon said on Saturday.
"But this will not be at the expense of other countries," Smith said.
"The Israelis have the right to live in peace and freedom in the region," he added.
The lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, agreed during the discussion on "predicting the legacy of President Bush in the Middle East" that Washington will maintain its support for Israel and work with it to set up an independent Palestinian state.
Congressman Christopher Shays urged Bush to stay the course but also suggested that the US president must engage himself more in finding an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians to pave the way for Palestinian statehood.
Shays, a Republican from Connecticut, said US military involvement in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq is not seen by the American people as hegemony but a tool to achieve "democracy and justice" in countries where oppressive regimes prevailed.
The United States "helped a lot of countries achieve freedom and democracy", particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the chairman of the Senate's judiciary committee, Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah.
Hatch, a Republican from Connecticut, said he expected Bush's legacy to be well-rooted in the region for years beyond 2008 when he is due to end a second term in office.
Jane Harman, a Democrat congresswoman from California, admitted that US intervention in the region has its faults but she insisted that it was aimed at ensuring long-term security and well-being for the people in the region.
She stressed that the US respects all religions and freedoms of opinion within the rules of law.
US security depends on freedom and democracy in other parts of the world, Smith said, adding that this was the lesson learned from the September 11, 2001, terror attacks that targeted his country.
Regional reforms have become a necessity in the face of mounting popular demand and intensive pressure from the West, namely the United States.
But Arab countries, including Jordan, have repeatedly rejected pressure from the West and said reforms must be made at their own pace and according to each country's conditions.
At the onset of the forum Friday, Jordan's King Abdullah II urged regional leaders to accelerate the pace of reform in the Middle East ahead of a G-8 summit of the world's most industrialised nations expected to be held in less than two months.
The summit, he said, "is expected to issue a statement supporting home-grown Middle East reform, a statement that can be an important bridge between Arab and Western views".
The US lawmakers agreed that reform must come from within with support from abroad.
And they criticised Arab countries who they said use the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an "excuse not to achieve reform".
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