[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
[September 28, 1995]
[Pages 1511-1513]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Reception for Heads of State
September 28, 1995

    Thank you very much. On behalf of the First Lady and myself, the 
Vice President and Mrs. Gore, and Secretary Christopher, we are 
delighted to welcome all of our visitors from around the world and 
especially from the Middle East, the Prime Ministers, the Foreign 
Ministers, especially Mrs. Rabin and Mrs. Arafat, Mrs. Mubarak, and Her 
Majesty Queen Noor.
    We are delighted to be here again with these four great leaders who 
have just spoken. I was

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looking at His Majesty King Hussein when he said he was almost 60, 
thinking that he has been on the throne for more than 40 years. What I 
thought to myself was, for myself, I don't object to term limits, but 
I'm awfully glad he was not subject to them--[laughter]--because the 
Middle East is a different place because of the way King Hussein has 
lived his life for peace all these decades.
    I thank President Mubarak for the power of his example, the constant 
strength of his determination. Not so very long ago, my family and I 
were, as with many Americans, praying for his safety. We are glad to see 
him strong, leading the world working toward peace.
    I agree with Prime Minister Rabin that Chairman Arafat makes a good 
speech and a passionate one. What an interesting turn of events his life 
has taken, and how fortunate we all are that he decided to take his 
risks for peace.
    Mr. Prime Minister, you give a pretty good speech yourself. I think 
you give such a good speech because it is obvious to everyone that every 
word you utter comes from your heart and your mind together, and we 
thank you.
    And to all my fellow Americans and all of you here present, we've 
heard a lot of wonderful words today. I would like to close with three 
brief points that I believe should be emphasized. First, I want to 
recognize the negotiators, Foreign Minister Peres, Mr. Abu Mazin, Mr. 
Uri Savir, and Mr. Abu Alaa and their teams. They did this, and we 
should applaud them. We should applaud them. [Applause]
    I watched today in the Cabinet Room while the Prime Minister and 
Chairman Arafat literally signed, initialed, the annex to this 
agreement, which included 26 different maps, comprising literally 
thousands and thousands of decisions that these two sides made. After 
long and arduous argument, they found common ground. It was an 
astonishing achievement, the care, the detail, the concern that they 
manifested and the effort it took to reach agreement was truly 
extraordinary. And I do not want that to escape anyone's attention.
    The second thing I want to say is that this agreement embodies, for 
those of us who are Americans, the things that we believe in the most, 
for this agreement required the acceptance of responsibility, along with 
the assertion of freedom and independence. This agreement required 
people to think about the interests of their children and the sacrifices 
of their parents. This agreement required a real effort to reach 
principled compromise, common ground, and higher ground. And make no 
mistake about it, this agreement required these decisionmakers to do 
things that may be unpopular in the short run, because they know that 
10, 20, 30 years from now, it is the only course for the future of the 
people that they love.
    And that brings me to the second point: What are our obligations, 
the rest of us? We can clap for them. But they have to go back to work 
tomorrow. When the glamour is gone and the applause has died out, they 
will be back at the hard work. There are two things we can do for them. 
The first thing we have to do is to stand with them against terrorism. 
It is the enemy of peace everywhere.
    Now we in America know what it is like to see parents grieving over 
the bodies of their children and children grieving over the bodies of 
their parents because people believe that terrorism is simply politics 
by other means. We have had our hearts ripped out, and now we know 
better. So we must stand with them against terrorism.
    The second thing we have to do is to work with them to achieve the 
benefits of peace, for the peace has to bring people the opportunity to 
work with dignity, to educate their children, to clean up their 
environment, to invest in their future. Hundreds and hundreds of Arab-
Americans and Jewish-Americans have the capacity to work with these 
people in partnership to transform the future of the Middle East. And I 
say again, let us do our part.
    Finally, let me say to all the Members of Congress here present and 
those who were there this afternoon, I thank you for your presence and 
your support of this process.
    We know that in this era where we have gone from the bipolar world 
of the cold war to a global village with all kinds of new and different 
threats to our security, only the United States can stand consistently 
throughout the world for the cause of freedom and democracy and 
opportunity. We know that, and we must continue to do that, not simply 
for the people of the Middle East but for ourselves as well. For when we 
work for peace in Northern Ireland, in Southern Africa, in Haiti, in 
Bosnia, when we work to dismantle the threat of nuclear war and fight 
terrorism, we help ourselves and our children's future.

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    But I will say again what I said today: If we can make peace in the 
Middle East, if we can help the people who live there to make their own 
peace, it will have a special meaning for ourselves and for the world in 
the 21st century for the simple reason that the world's three great 
religions who believe that one God created us, watches over us, and 
ultimately will hold us to account for what we do--we all study through 
the Koran, through the Torah, through the Holy Bible those lessons--
surely if those people can resolve all their differences, we can bring 
peace to all the world.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at approximately 8:15 p.m. at the Corcoran 
Gallery. In his remarks, he referred to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt 
and his wife, Suzanne; Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and his 
wife, Leah; PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and his wife, Suha; Queen Noor, 
wife of King Hussein; Foreign Minister Shimon Peres of Israel; and 
Director General Uri Savir, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.