A total of 326 members of Congress–more than half the membership of both Senate and House of Representatives–have now signed a declaration favoring direct Arab-Israeli peace negotiations. Sixty-five of the 100 Senators have now identified with the declaration as have 261 of the 435 Representatives.
The document maintains that the United States “should oppose all pressures upon Israel to withdraw prematurely and unconditionally from any of the territories which Israel now administers.” It notes also that “the Arab states have an obligation to curb terrorism and to end their attacks on Israeli civilians and settlements.”
It declares that “we deplore one-sided United Nations resolutions which ignore Arab violations of the cease-fire and which censure Israel’s reply and counter-action. Resolutions which condemn those who want peace and which shield those who wage war are a travesty of the UN Charter and a blow at peace.”
The declaration, originally introduced last month to mark Israel’s 21st anniversary, insisted that “the UN should make it clear to all governments in the Near East that we do not condone a state of war, that we persist in the search for a negotiated and contractual peace as a major goal of American policy.”
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