Vice Presidential debate transcript 5 October 2004
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GWEN IFILL, HOST, PBS'S "WASHINGTON WEEK": Good evening from Case Western
Reserve University's Veale Center here in Cleveland, Ohio.

...
IFILL: Senator Edwards, as we wrap up the foreign policy part of this, I do
want to talk to you about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Today, a senior member of Islamic Jihad was killed in Gaza. There have been
suicide bombings, targeted assassinations, mortar attacks, all of this
continuing at a time when the United States seems absent in the peace-making
process.

What would your administration do?

First of all, do you agree that the United States is absent? Maybe you
don't.

But what would your administration do to try to resolve that conflict?

EDWARDS: Well, first of all, I do agree that we've been largely absent, not
entirely absent, but largely absent from the peace-making process over the
last four years.

And let me just say a couple of preliminary things and then talk about where
we are now.

First, the Israeli people not only have the right to defend themselves, they
should defend themselves. They have an obligation to defend themselves.

I mean, if I can, just for a moment, tell you a personal story. I was in
Jerusalem a couple of years ago, actually three years ago, in August of
2001, staying at the King David Hotel.

We left in the morning, headed to the airport to leave, and later in the day
I found out that that same day, not far from where we were staying, the
Sbarro Pizzeria was hit by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. Fifteen people
were killed. Six children were killed.

What are the Israeli people supposed to do? How can they continue to watch
Israeli children killed by suicide bombers, killed by terrorists?

They have not only the right to the obligation to defend themselves.

Now, we know that the prime minister has made a decision, an historic
decision, to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza. It's important for America to
participate in helping with that process.

Now, if Gaza's being used as a platform for attacking the Israeli people,
that has to be stopped. And Israel has a right to defend itself. They don't
have a partner for peace right now. They certainly don't have a partner in
Arafat, and they need a legitimate partner for peace.

And I might add, it is very important for America to crack down on the
Saudis who have not had a public prosecution for financing terrorism since
9/11.

And it's important for America to confront the situation in Iran, because
Iran is an enormous threat to Israel and to the Israeli people.

IFILL: Mr. Vice President, 90 seconds.

CHENEY: Gwen, I want to go back to the last comment, and then I'll come back
to Israel-Palestine.

The reason they keep trying to attack Halliburton is because they want to
obscure their own record.

And Senator, frankly, you have a record in the Senate that's not very
distinguished. You've missed 33 out of 36 meetings in
the Judiciary Committee, almost 70 percent of the meetings of the
Intelligence Committee.

You've missed a lot of key votes: on tax policy, on energy, on Medicare
reform.

Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you "Senator Gone." You've got
one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate.

Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the
presiding officer. I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in
session.

The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.

In respect to Israel and Palestine, Gwen, the suicide bombers, in part, were
generated by Saddam Hussein, who paid $25,000 to the families of suicide
bombers.

I personally think one of the reasons that we don't have as many suicide
attacks today in Israel as we've had in the past is because Saddam is no
longer in business.

We've been strong supporters of Israel. The president stepped forward and
put in place a policy basically that said we will support the establishment
of two states. First president ever to say we'll establish and support a
Palestinian state nextdoor to Israelis.

But first, there has to be an interlocutor you can trust and deal with. And
we won't have that, we don't have it now, in a Yasser Arafat. There has to
be reform of the Palestinian system.