http://www.debates.org/transcripts/textfiles/CPD_Debate_3_Final_Transcript_(English).txt
Transcriber: Commission on Presidential Debates
<http://www.debates.org/>
Debate Participants: George W. Bush and Al Gore
Debate Moderator: Jim Lehrer
<http://www.pbs.org/newshour/ww/jim_lehrer.html>
Debate Venue: Wake Forest University
Debate Date: 11 October 2000

MODERATOR:

Let's go through some of the specifics now.  New question.  Vice
President Gore, the governor mentioned the Middle East.  Here we're
talking at this stage in the game about diplomatic power that we have.
What do you think the United States should do right now to resolve that
conflict over there?

GORE:

The first priority has to be on ending the violence, dampening down the
tensions that have arisen there.  We need to call upon Syria to release
the three Israeli soldiers who have been captured.  We need to insist
that Arafat send out instructions to halt some of the provocative acts
of violence that have been going on.  I think that we also have to keep
a weather eye toward Saddam Hussein because he is taking advantage of
this
situation to once again make threats, and he needs to understand that
he's not only dealing with Israel, he is dealing -- he's dealing with us
if he is making the kind of threats that he's talking about there.  The
use of diplomacy in this situation has already, well, it goes
hour-by-hour and day-by-day now.  It's a very tense situation there.  But in the
last 24 hours there has been some subsiding of the violence there.
It's too much to hope that this is going to continue, but I do hope that
it will continue.  Our country has been very active with regular
conversations with the leaders there.  And we just have to take
it day-to-day right now.  But one thing I would say where diplomacy is
concerned, Israel should feel absolutely secure about one thing.  Our
bonds with Israel are larger than agreements or disagreements on some
details of diplomatic initiatives.  They are historic, they are strong,
and they are enduring.  And our ability to serve as an honest broker is
something that we need to shepherd.

MODERATOR:

Governor?

BUSH:

Well, I think during the campaign, particularly now during this
difficult period, we ought to be speaking with one voice, and I
appreciate the way the administration has worked hard to calm the
tensions.  Like the vice president, I call on Chairman Arafat to have his
people pull back to make the peace.  I think credibility is going to be
very important in the future in the Middle East.  I want everybody to
know should I be the president Israel's going to be our friend.  I'm
going to stand by Israel.  Secondly, that I think it's important to reach
out to moderate Arab nations, like Jordan and Egypt, Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait.  It's important to be friends with people when you don't need
each other so that when you do there's a strong bond of friendship.
And that's going to be particularly important in dealing not only with
situations such as now occurring in Israel, but with Saddam Hussein.  The
coalition against Saddam has fallen apart or it's unraveling, let's put
it that way.  The sanctions are being violated.  We don't know whether
he's developing weapons of mass destruction.  He better not be or
there's going to be a consequence should I be the president.  But it's
important to have credibility and credibility is formed by being strong with
your friends and resoluting your determination.  One of the reasons why
I think it's important for this nation to develop an anti-ballistic
missile system that we can share with our allies in the Middle East if
need be to
keep the peace is to be able to say to the Saddam Husseins of the world
or the Iranians, don't dare threaten our friends.  It's also important
to keep strong ties in the Middle East, credible ties, because of the
energy crisis we're now in.  After all, a lot of the energy is produced
from the Middle East, and so I appreciate what the administration is
doing.  I hope to get a sense of should I be fortunate to be the
president how my
administration will react to the Middle East.

*****************************************************************

MODERATOR:

People watching here tonight are very interested in Middle East policy,
and they are so interested they want to base their vote on differences
between the two of you as president how you would handle Middle East
policy.  Is there any difference?

GORE:

I haven't heard a big difference in the last few exchanges.

BUSH:

That's hard to tell.  I think that, you know, I would hope to be able
to convince people I could handle the Iraqi situation better.

MODERATOR:

Saddam Hussein, you mean, get him out of there?

BUSH:

I would like to, of course, and I presume this administration would as
well.  We don't know -- there are no inspectors now in Iraq, the
coalition that was in place isn't as strong as it used to be.  He is a
danger.  We don't want him fishing in troubled waters in the Middle East.
And it's going to be hard, it's going to be important to rebuild that
coalition to keep the pressure on him.

MODERATOR:

You feel that is a failure of the Clinton administration?

BUSH:

I do.

GORE:

Well, when I got to be a part of the current administration, it was
right after -- I was one of the few members of my political party to
support former President Bush in the Persian Gulf War resolution, and at the
end of that war, for whatever reason, it was not finished in a way that
removed Saddam Hussein from power.  I know there are all kinds of
circumstances and explanations.  But the fact is that that's the situation
that was left when I got there.  And we have maintained the sanctions.
Now I want to go further.  I want to give robust support to the groups
that are trying to overthrow Saddam Hussein, and I know there are
allegations that they're too weak to do it, but that's what they said about
the forces that were opposing Milosevic in Serbia, and you know, the
policy of enforcing sanctions against Serbia has just resulted in a
spectacular victory for democracy just in the past week, and it seems
to me that having taken so long to see the sanctions work there,
building upon the policy of containment that was successful over a much longer
period of time against the former Soviet Union in the communist block,
seems a little early to declare that we should give up on the
sanctions.  I know the governor's not necessarily saying that but, you know, all
of
these flights that have come in, all of them have been in accordance
with the sanctions regime, I'm told, except for three where they
notified, and they're trying to break out of the box, there's no question about
it.  I don't think they should be allowed to.

MODERATOR:

Did he state your position correctly, you're not calling for
eliminating the sanctions, are you?

BUSH:

No, of course not, absolutely not, I want them to be tougher.