In March 1992, in a speech at that year’s AIPAC conference, then-Senator Joe Biden slammed then-President George H.W. Bush for pressuring Israel.
Biden opposed steps by the Bush administration to condition loan guarantees to Israel on halting settlement construction in Yehudah and Shomron and holding peace talks with the Palestinians, even co-sponsoring a bill to force Bush to make the guarantees unconditional.
“Why is there any incentive for the Arabs to make any compromise in the peace talks, why if they know that they must only wait – for the US to do their bargaining for them,” Biden said. “Why would they compromise? Why would they be reasonable?”
“The absurd notion that publicly vilifying Israel will somehow change its policy – who do we think we’re dealing with? What makes us think that even if the administration is one hundred percent correct on the policy, what makes them think that in the midst of an election campaign, in the midst of a so-called peace talk, that we can publicly vilify a nation.”
“And think that any leader will say: ‘Now I will yield before the world and G-d because I have been told. What do we think we’re doing?”
“Now folks, think about this. Why? What is the purpose of doing what’s done? These are smart women and men who are putting together this policy. What is the purpose? Do you think that [Yitzchak] Shamir, in the middle of an election campaign, will say, ‘Mea culpa, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry. I changed my mind. Re-elect me.”
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