Working Toward a Middle East Peace

"The risk of epidemics is very serious. . . We should allow Iraq to feed itself. If not, it will be the international community that will have to foot the bill for prolonged emergency aid."

—UN humanitarian envoy Sadruddin Aga Khan, April 23,1991

"I am uncomfortable advocating intervention in another country, but the moral balance has shifted here, and it's ludicrous to the extreme to say that we don't meddle into the affairs of another country after we have bombed the bejesus out of Iraq. . . "

—Newsweek columnist Eleanor Clift, April 7, 1991

"Internal conflicts have been raging in Iraq for many years ... We're going to continue to help these refugees. But I do not want one single soldier or airman shoved into a civil war in Iraq that's been going on for ages.

—US President George Bush, April 13, 1991

"We all hope that by some means, Saddam Hussain will be removed from power from within. And until he is, I think that a large percentage of Kurds are never going to really trust ... to move back home... [Also] there is potential long-term danger ... We cannot be in a position of having the [Kurds] use the enclaves, where we would protect them in the perimeter, as a guerrilla base to go out and attack the Iraqis. That would get us involved more than we already are. "

—Sen. James Exon (D-NE), April 29, 1991

"Saddam Hussain is not the first Iraqi leader to try to brutalize the Kurds, and he's probably not the last. If we got rid of Saddam Hussain, what guarantee is there that his successor ... is going to be any more gentle on the Kurds?

—House Armed Services Chairman Les Aspin (D-WI), April 9, 1991

"I want to live like a human being, somewhere that is safe."

—Kurdish refugee from Zakhu, quoted May 9, 1991

"When the American soldiers leave, I will follow them to Kuwait. The UN forces are small and cannot protect us fully like the American army. "

—Iraqi refugee from Diwaniya, quoted April 25, 1991

"Ozal repeatedly stated during the crisis that Turkey would receive three dividends for [every] one it invested. Yes, Ozal, you invested your share and got back 220,000 refugees."

—Turkish opposition leader Suleyman Demirel, quoted May 6, 1991

"You look today at the ecological disaster in Kuwait, the ashes already falling on Hawaii. You look at what's happened to the Kurds, the Shi'i. You look at what's happened to that so-called opening to peace, and you know that this great victory was a snare and a delusion."

—Syndicated columnist Carl Rowan, May 4, 1991

"Saudi Arabia believes it is time to put an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict and to achieve a comprehensive and just solution to the Palestinian question.

—Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal, April 23, 1991

"If you solve the Palestinian question, I am absolutely convinced that relations between Israel and the Arab world will be automatically and ipso facto solved and normalized."

—Egyptian Ambassador to the US El Sayed Abdel Raouf EI-Reedy, quoted May 9, 1991

"The Israeli government will fall before any progress is made in the peace process ...

—Manachem Shalev, Jerusalem correspondent for the Forward newspaper, April 12, 1991

"I don't see any reason for Israel to come to the negotiating table. The only way to do it is to have an Arab military power able to deter Israel or the influence of a third party that has leverage over it."

—Salwa Gomma, political science professor, University of Cairo, quoted April 8, 1991

"We should not fool ourselves or our people. Nothing has changed in American policy. "

—Dr. Zakaria AI-Agha, Palestinian delegation member meeting with Baker, quoted April 15, 1991

"The people that Mr. Baker has met with in the West Bank ... are all PLO. They have said it repeatedly. Every meeting opens with their saying 'We are here because Chairman Arafat has indicated that we can be here. We speak under the aegis of the PLO.' Baker understands this ... The person that was discredited was Arafat because of his apparent support of Saddam Hussain during the war. But the PLO is the representative of the Palestinian people. That's a given.

—Middle East analyst Rita Hauser, May 8, 1991

"As long as the Shamir government insists on choosing both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian delegation, there will be severe limitations to what can be accomplished. "

—Ken Knoppow, Chairman of the Middle East Committee for New Jewish Agenda, quoted April 12, 1991

"I do not want to go down in history as the man who sold parts of the Land of Israel.

—Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, quoted April 26, 1991

"The undermining of domestic security is the price we have to pay for Yitzhak Shamir's unwillingness to negotiate concessions in the territories.

—Haaretz columnist Yoel Marcus, quoted April 5, 1991

"...The world does owe Israel a debt, and owes the Jewish people a debt to normalize Jewish history. So we are going to approach the American government, and we can only hope and pray that the attitude of those whom we are going to approach with our request will be a humanitarian one, which will not be linked with political considerations of the moment. . . "

—Israeli Ambassador to the US Zalman Shoval, May 5, 1991

"These settlements or communities give us the feeling of security, and they will only contribute to peace."

—Israeli Housing Minister Ariel Sharon, April 14, 1991

"Why shouldn't [the Israelis] settle in the occupied territories? Because that's de facto annexation. That is changing the facts and circumstances on the ground in the absence of negotiations between the parties, which would be designed to solve this Arab-Israeli conflict in a peaceful way."

—US Secretary of State James Baker, March 17, 1991

"This is the best shot we've had [for peace], and if everybody said, 'Oh, we don't care to deal this way or [that] way,' then I think the US is going to have to take a look at our foreign-aid policies and a lot of other policies."

—Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole (R-KA), April 28,1991