By Courtney Dentch
U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans), who was in Jerusalem last week when a suicide bomber attacked a bus, said the Palestinian leadership must stop terrorist attacks on Israel before the peace process can continue.
Meeks was traveling on a bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during a “unity” trip with fellow U.S. Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-Kew Gardens) and Eliot Engel (D-Bronx) when a bomber blew up a bus about 10 minutes away Aug. 19, Meeks said in a phone interview with the TimesLedger Friday hours after he landed at Kennedy Airport.
“We were headed to the Western Wall,” Meeks said of the remaining portion of one of Jerusalem's first synagogues. “We were told that there had been an explosion and we were all hopeful that it wasn't what we knew it was – a terrorist bombing.”
The suicide bomber killed more than 20 people and injured about 135 others, including a number of children, according to reports from the Associated Press.
Meeks, Weiner and Engel were in Israel on what Meeks called a “unity meeting,” sponsored by the United Jewish Association and the Jewish Community Relations Council, to gauge the progress toward peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
“We wanted to get a feel for what was going on with the 'Road Map for Peace' and meet with some of the key political figures,” said Meeks, who sits on the House International Relations Committee.
The group met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his administration the day before the bombing and had planned to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas last Thursday, but that meeting was canceled after the attack, Meeks said. The trio returned to Kennedy Airport Friday morning.
The lawmakers changed their schedule to visit a hospital where many of the victims were being treated, Meeks said.
“This is something that will last on me probably for the rest of my life,” he said. “To see 3-year-old babies whose bodies were bruised and battered by this bombing – it showed how evil and despicable this terror is.”
After seeing the devastation firsthand, Meeks believes the Bush administration's “Road Map to Peace” should be altered to be more “performance based,” meaning the leaders should adhere to the cease-fire, he said. A cease-fire was brokered to allow Israeli and Palestinian leaders to find a compromise between each group's claim to the land, but continuing violence has stalled the peace process.
“The Palestinian leadership has to stop this terrorism,” he said. “You can't talk about peace when you're blowing up children and women and innocent men.”
Meeks also said the United States must join other countries to use leverage against governments that harbor or finance terrorist organizations.
“What we have to do as a network of nations is to come together and make sure we put pressure on the governments that allow the terror networks to exist and shut down that money that finances terror,” Meeks said. “We need other nations to work with us.”
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
