American diplomats, military personnel, businessmen, and tourists have all been the victims of Middle East-originated terrorism throughout the World -- aboard airliners, at airports, on cruise ships, and even in discotheques.

Hundreds of U.S. military personnel in non-combat assignments have been the victims of terrorist attacks, including 241 U.S. Marines who were killed in 1983 in a Hezbollah attack on the Marine barracks in Lebanon, and U.S. Navy diver Robert Stetham, who was murdered by Hezbollah and his body was dumped onto the tarmac at the Beirut airport in 1985 during the hijacking of TWA 847.

There is a lengthy list of American civilian victims of Middle East terrorism, including 88 people killed in 1974 when a TWA airliner was blown up; 259 people killed in the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland; and 6 Americans killed and over a thousand injured in the World Trade Center bombing in New York.

In addition to killing Americans, Middle East-based terrorists have engaged in massive campaigns of terrorism designed to undermine America's regional allies.

Israel -- America's closest and most reliable ally in the Middle East -- has borne the brunt of Arab terrorism. Thousands of Israelis -- including many women and children -- have been killed and many more wounded in countless terrorist attacks in Israel and abroad since Israel's creation in 1948. Nearly 200 Israelis were murdered during the last two years alone.

Another major Mideast U.S. ally -- Egypt -- has been terrorized by Islamic radicals for nearly two decades. President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981, and numerous Egyptian government officials, security personnel, and civilians as well as foreign tourists (including 18 Greek tourists in

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a terrorist attack in Cairo earlier this month) -- have been murdered. In 1995, Egyptian Islamic radicals tried to assassinate President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia.

During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Jordan suffered major Palestinian terrorist campaigns. King Abdallah was assassinated in 1951, and numerous attempts on King Hussein's life were made. Senior government officials -- including a prime minister -- as well as security personnel, were murdered.

Terrorism has become a way of life in the Middle East. There is a broad consensus among observers that terrorism will continue for the foreseeable future.

U.S. experts are becoming increasingly alarmed by the possibility of Iraqi- or Iranian-backed terrorist attacks using biological or chemical weapons against U.S. targets. Such attacks could kill hundreds of thousands of people. Meanwhile, training camps in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, and Libya for Middle Eastern and Western terrorists are producing the perpetrators of future terrorist attacks.

U.S. troops in Bosnia already are threatened by Islamic radicals, led by the hundreds of Iranian Revolutionary Guards still present in the country. Today, the possibility that further Middle Eastoriginated terrorist attacks will occur in America is taken seriously by U.S. authorities.

Containing the Threat of Islamic Radicalism

Since the 1979 takeover of Iran by Khomeini and his supporters, Islamic radicalism has emerged as the most dangerous threat to pro-Western nations in the region. Islamic extremists have taken over Sudan and turned it into a terrorism center, instituting the most vicious oppression of Christians and animists anywhere in the world; they have murdered thousands of civilians in Algeria and are threatening to take over the country; and they have assassinated foreign tourists in Egypt and terrorized Israelis. Additionally, several other pro-Western countries in the region have active radical Islamic movements, including Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait.

It is of particular concern that Islamic radicalism has reached America's shores. Islamic extremists perpetrated the World Trade Center bombing, and the radical Islamic Sheik Abdel-Rahman was convicted of participating in a conspiracy to blow up additional landmark targets in New York. The current leader of the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad came from the University of Florida.

The forces of Islamic radicalism will doubtless continue their relentless campaign to undermine the Middle East's pro-Western governments, thus destabilizing the entire region and endangering the free flow of Persian Gulf oil.

The replacement of the Shah by the anti-American fundamentalist regime of Ayatollah Khomeini replaced a pro-Western bastion and force for stability in the Gulf with an anti-Western -- anti-American (the "Great Satan") in particular -- force for revolutionary change. The 1979 Iranian taking of American hostages epitomized this change.

Similarly, the 1989 military coup in Sudan brought to power Islamic radicals who have supported terrorism against Americans and American allies, placing Sudan on the U.S. terrorism list. In 1996, the danger to American personnel compelled the United States to close its embassy and urge all Americans to leave Sudan.

Radical Islamic forces continue to threaten an Algerian takeover. Should they succeed, the continued existence of pro-Western regimes in northern Africa -- particularly Tunisia and Egypt -- would be seriously threatened. And even if the Islamic radicals fail to take over Algeria, the threat to Egypt will continue. Islamic terrorists earlier this month massacred 18 tourists in Cairo, and they are active in the south. Furthermore, the government's failure to deal effectively with Egypt's crushing social and economic problems virtually ensures the perseverance of radical Islamic forces in the country.

Finally, the terrorist acts perpetrated by Islamic radicals have seriously disrupted the Arab-Israeli peace process. Unless these radicals are contained, their attacks may bring the process to a halt.

Promoting the Arab-Israeli Peace Process

Although the Soviet Union is no more, the Gulf war has demonstrated that regional wars can entangle the United States even if there is no superpower confrontation. Another Arab-Israeli war -which the forces of Islamic radicalism might precipitate -- is particularly dangerous. It could risk:

♦ disrupting the stability of the entire region, thus creating internal and external threats to important allies and trading partners of the United States;

♦ escalating to a point that forces direct American involvement, thereby putting U.S. lives at risk -- especially at a time when rogue states are acquiring unconventional weapons and generating billions of dollars in direct costs to the United States;

disrupting the supply and/or driving up the price of Middle East oil, with potential costs to

the United States of tens of billions of dollars;

♦ disrupting and destabilizing the global economy.

Middle East peace not only would avert these threats, but would also hold major benefits for the United States. It would: bring stability to the Middle East and help to reduce the threat of terrorism against Americans inside and outside the United States; isolate and decrease the influence of radical Middle Eastern countries such as Iran, Iraq, and Libya, thus reducing one of the biggest post-Cold War threats to American security; expand Middle Eastern markets for U.S. exports, providing new opportunities for U.S. investments, and reduce the chance of international crises disruptive to markets and commerce; encourage Arab governments to reallocate resources from military to civilian needs -such reallocations would help improve the Arab economies, thus undercutting extremists who feed on poverty and threaten U.S. regional allies; and facilitate the emergence of a bloc of moderate Middle Eastern states, including Israel along with Egypt, Turkey, Jordan and others, which could advance American interest in the long-term stability of the region.

Helping the Democratic State of Israel To Survive and Thrive

Since the Declaration of Independence, Americans have viewed the right of all people to democratic government as one of their most cherished values. Americans, moreover, have discovered that fellow democracies are reliable allies capable of making vital contributions to U.S. national security. Another core American value is the right of all persecuted people to a safe haven.

In the Middle East, Americans have looked with admiration at Israel's five-decade-old struggle to maintain itself as a Western democracy and as a haven for persecuted Jews from around the world in the face of repeated attempts by its authoritarian adversaries to defeat it. As the sole democracy in the region, Israel has also proved to be a vital and reliable U.S. ally, helping advance American interests at a relatively small cost.

Since 1948, Arab states have threatened Israel's very existence by waging three major wars and amassing huge arsenals of conventional and unconventional weapons.

The immense military buildup of Arab armies since the 1970s has posed a grave threat to Israel. It is only thanks to U.S. military aid that Israel has been able to match Arab military power.

Israel continues to be threatened by the massive Arab and Iranian efforts to develop unconventional weapons, and missiles capable of hitting Israel with unconventional warheads. In particular, Israel's survival continues to be threatened by Iraq and Iran's nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons program. The 1991 Scud attacks on Israel demonstrated that Iraqi missiles are already capable of reaching Israel.

Expanding Economic Opportunities in the Region

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With a rapidly-growing population of over 250 million, the Middle East could become a huge market for U.S. goods, creating millions of new American jobs. Today, the economy of Canada (population 30 million) is far larger than that of all Middle Eastern countries combined and U.S. exports to Canada greatly exceed U.S. exports to the entire region. Clearly, the potential for growth in U.S. exports to the Middle East is enormous.

U.S. economic opportunities are hampered by widespread poverty in much of the region. But other factors are at work as well. More than a third of the Middle East's population is ruled by antiAmerican rogue regimes -- Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and Libya -- where a U.S. economic presence is virtually non-existent. The need to defend themselves against the rogue regimes has squeezed the economies of conservative Arab nations, preventing them from fully developing their economies. The Arab-Israeli conflict also has drained the resources of important Arab countries. Islamic radicalism continues to threaten conservative Arab countries; should they come under its control, U.S. economic opportunities would further diminish.

II. AID TO ISRAEL: A COST-EFFECTIVE INVESTMENT IN U.S. SECURITY

ISRAEL PROMOTES VITAL AMERICAN INTERESTS

The U.S.-Israel relationship has been cooperative in the truest, bipartisan sense of the word. Just after the Gulf war, then-Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney said that the crisis "has been a demonstration of the value of maintaining Israel's strength, and her ability to defend herself, and also the value of the strategic cooperation between our two countries." In 1994, Secretary of Defense William Perry stated that the U.S. strategic relationship with Israel is "as strong as it has ever been" and "is going to deepen...in the future." Just a few days ago here in Washington, Secretary Perry said that "we must not lose sight of the reality that it is only because of Israel's strength, and the strength of the U.S.-Israeli security partnership, that the Middle East has any prospects of a comprehensive peace." He added that as long as he was Defense Secretary, Israel's qualitative edge would be upheld. Finally, Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-KS) declared in November, 1995, that it was time for the United States to establish a "newly-invigorated defense relationship" with Israel in order to deal with the mutual threats faced by the two allies.

The U.S.-Israel relationship is at the heart of realizing key U.S. objectives in the Middle East: Protecting the Flow of Middle East Oil

During the Cold War, the vital American interest in the free flow of Middle East oil was repeatedly threatened by Soviet-backed Arab nationalist regimes seeking to undermine the Persian Gulf conservative Arab monarchies in whose countries the oil is found. The crushing military defeats Israel inflicted on these regimes stemmed the nationalist surge and helped curb its threat.