Panel I of a Hearing of the House Committee on International Relations: The Way Forward in the Middle East
HEADLINE: PANEL I OF A HEARING OF THE HOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: THE WAY FORWARD IN THE MIDDLE EAST
CHAIRED BY: REPRESENTATIVE HENRY HYDE (R-IL)
WITNESS: HENRY A. KISSINGER, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE
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Mr. SMITH FROM NEW JERSEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Dr. Kissinger, and thanks for the hope I think you give to everyone when you pronounce that this is probably the greatest opportunity for peace in decades.
I think your stature and your knowledge and wisdom gives all of us a great deal of hope and a higher expectation. I did notice in today's New York Times, and not surprisingly, that Hamas has pledged a temporary halt to its attacks.
But the spokesman for the group made the point that this is a ''break in the resistance and not a stop to the resistance.'' And my question is: How do we put sandbags around the truce to ensure that there is not an incident or a series of incidents that lead to an unraveling of this very important opportunity for peace?
It seems to me, and you mentioned the importance of significant progress in the propaganda area, because of the longstanding and extreme poverty, and the devastated infrastructure in which the Palestinians have lived, a group like Hamas, which obviously foments hate, has an opportunity to obviously begin to try to reverse this, and they are probably challenged in that they are not as much a part of this process as they would like.
My question is: What can we do to build this door of truce so that it leads to peace, but how do we get the money right from the international community; obviously from the Bush Administration, and from our Government, and any other money, into a rebuilding project right away?
I just returned back with a delegation led by Jim Leach to the tsunami areas, and one of the things that USAID has done in its aid programs that is simple, but extremely effective, is to take traumatized people and put money in their pocket, and get them working on rebuilding their livelihoods because of all of the good consequences that come from that.
And it seems to me that if you have people working, especially young people, they are less likely to listen to the hate mongering promulgated by the people from Hamas. So how do we raise the stakes so high that Hamas has less fertile ground to undermine this peace effort?
Mr. KISSINGER. I do not personally believe the proposition that all the terrorism is caused by economic conditions. I think that there is a significant element that is ideologically-based or religiously-based, and that is shown by the fact that some of the key terrorists and many of the suicide bombers are actually middle class and upper-middle-class people.
But it is certainly true that the despair in the Palestinian area is fueled and given impetus by the fact that the economy has come to a substantial standstill. Unemployment is huge, and so even if the unemployed do not join the terrorists, there is a general acceptance of their effort, and their support among the population that sustains them.
I have always favored quick impact aid programs. Those who have seen the Government operate know that the problem of accounting and of trying to avoid waste sometimes gets in the way of having an immediate, demonstrable impact.
So I favor setting aside a part of the aid funds for projects that have visible results, and that can be clearly identified with progress.
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