Sen. Lincoln Chafee (r) Rhode Island (left);<br>Condoleeza Rice - U.S. Secretary of State

This and all the inside-the-beltway action related to Israel and Middle East peace from the past week can be seen in APN's Legislative Roundup of October 21, 2005

Excerpts from an exchange on October 19th in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee between Middle East Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice:

CHAFEE: . . . you said that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and confronting it is a pillar to our success in the region. Those are your words. Now, I was at a dinner -- I think it was Gridiron or something like that -- and humor was encouraged. And the president ran a video of looking for weapons of mass destruction, looking under chairs, looking under the table, where are they, where are the WMD?And, obviously, it was a joke. There were no WMD. It was all a joke. And the laugh was on us. Now the president is talking about the road map. And he's saying, in his words, in May, "Israel must remove unauthorized outposts and stop settlement expansion. "Are we going to someday see the same movie, where's the road map? It must be under here somewhere. It's under this table. It's under this chair. Or are we really working to do what the president's saying? And that is: Remove unauthorized outposts and stop settlement expansion?

RICE: Well, interestingly, Senator, we've had the only return of territory to the Palestinians in the entire history of the conflict. The Israelis are out of the Gaza. And that. . .

CHAFEE: I'm asking about settlement expansion. I'm asking that question.

RICE: Senator, I understand, and I will answer that question. But we can't lose sight of the historic change that has taken place and that the Palestinians are actually now in control of the Gaza. We're working with them on issues of international egress and ingress and matters of that kind. But let's remember that the Israelis took an historic decision to actually leave the territory.

CHAFEE: While 8,000 settlers moved out of Gaza, while 30,000 moved into the West Bank in opposition to the president's stated objective; that's why I'm asking the question.

RICE: Actually, Senator, I don't think 30,000 have moved into disputed territories. . .

CHAFEE: Probably more.

[Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics confirms Chafee]

See the entire exchange and the other items in this week's Legislative Roundup HERE