"There can be no lasting peace if the Israelis, for whatever reason, feel like they must accept an agreement because it makes us [Americans] happy." --Bush, as reported in the Associated Press, September 6, 2000
"If elected president, I will begin the process of moving the U.S. ambassador to the city Israel chooses as its capital." --Bush's address to the AIPAC Policy Conference May 22, 2000
"I am sympathetic to doing whatever it takes to create the [Israel-Syria] peace so long as the peace would be a lasting peace and so long as the foundation of the peace was an agreement between Israel and Syria." --Interview with Bush, CNN, January 22, 2000
Israel
"In recent times, Washington has tried to make Israel conform to its own plans and timetables; but this is not the path to peace. A clear and bad example was the administration's attempt to take sides in the most recent Israeli election. America should not interfere in Israel's democratic process. And America will not interfere in Israeli elections when I am the president." --Bush's address to the AIPAC Policy Conference, May 22, 2000
"Israels adversaries should know that in my administration, the special relations [with Israel] will continue even if they cannot bring themselves to make true peace with the Jewish state." --Bush's address to the AIPAC Policy Conference, May 22, 2000
Oil Policies
"I would remind our friends in the Persian Gulf that our relationships are not merely commercial, but strategic…they own the oil, and America offers its protection…In the end, it is America that protects the peace, America that safeguards their independence." --Bush's address to the United Auto Workers Union in Michigan, September 30, 2000
Iraq
"He [Saddam Hussein] doesn't need to be building them [weapons of mass destruction] . . . He just needs to know I'll take them out. It's important for a future commander in chief to state our intentions and the means will be evident to him." --Bush, cited in the Boston Globe, December 4, 1999
AL GORE
Middle East Peace
"The negotiations cannot be a one-way street. The Palestinians, too, must recognize that they will not get all that they want. It is the responsibility of Yasser Arafat to prevent those who resort to violence from disrupting the peace process at this time." --Gore's address to the AIPAC Policy Conference, May 23, 2000
"Syria may not choose to pursue peace for now. It is Syria's choice. But make no mistake, Syria has no right to pursue a course of conflict that denies peace to others." --Gore's address to the AIPAC Policy Conference, May 23, 2000
"We should all lift up our eyes and recognize that, as triumphant as this would be, peace will take hold only after all of us prove together that peace is not just a noble sentiment of saints and songwriters, but a way of life that is better and safer and fuller for all the families of the Middle East." --Gore's address to The Washington Institute, October 22, 1999
Israel
"We are strongly committed to the future of Israel, because that land is deeply connected to the American promise of freedom and self-determination;I am for an unshakable bond to strengthen the U.S.-Israeli friendship and I always will be." --Gore's address to Anti-Defamation League, May 9, 2000
"I will never, ever let people forget that the relationship between the United States and Israel rests on granite, on the rock of our common values, our common heritage and our common dedication to freedom." --Gore's speech to the AIPAC Policy Conference, May 23, 2000
Iraq-Iran
"The United States is committed to getting rid of Saddam [Husayn] and, in the interim, to blocking his efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction…we support the Iraqi opposition and will work with them toward the day when Iraq has a government that is worth of its people and trusted by its neighbors." --Gore's address to The Washington Institute, October 22, 1999
"Iran is not only a conventional threat to our national interests, the security of Israel, and the stability of the region; it also stands at the crossroads where the classic and new security agendas meet, for it is still a major sponsor of terrorism and seeker of weapons of mass destruction. That is a deadly and unacceptable combination." --Gore's address to the AIPAC Policy Conference, May 24, 2000
Oil Policies
"[Americans] are being taken advantage of in an unfair way by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)… The basic question is whether or not you're going to have a president who is willing to fight for the people as against big oil and foreign oil, whether you have someone who's willing to stand up to them or not and I've never hesitated to do that." --Interview with Gore, CNN, September 20, 2000
Compiled by Niyazi Gunay
Policy #490
