    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [March 17, 1996]
    [Pages 465-470]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the United Jewish Appeal Young Leadership Conference
    March 17, 1996

        The President. Thank you very much. Thank you.
        Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
        The President. You know, I've been trying to convince everyone else
    in Washington to delay the onset of this year's campaign, and you aren't
    helping very much. [Laughter] But you have my permission to vary from
    the official line. [Laughter]
        I thank you so much. I want to thank my friend David Hermelin for
    his wonderful remarks and his remarkable service. I don't know that I've
    ever known anybody that had such a remarkable combination of energy and
    commitment to the common good. He is indefatigable, and all of his
    energies seem to me to be directed toward good causes, including my own.
    [Laughter] And I thank him for that.
        To Ambassador Yaacobi, Mrs. Rabinovich--Efrat--members of the Young
    Leadership cabinet, and all of you, thank you for giving me the
    opportunity to come by tonight. And let me begin by saying that a lot of
    people speak about trying to advance the cause of humanity, but you
    actually do something about it. So I want to begin simply by thanking
    you for everything you do, from the hot meals for the homebound to
    wheelchairs for the disabled to shelter for refugees to comfort for
    victims of Alzheimer's and AIDS. And thank you, of course, for your many
    services to the cause of Israel.
        You know, I was trying to think of something I could say tonight,
    just one line that would capture our country's rich diversity and the
    common commitment we should all feel to the cause of peace and standing
    up against terrorism everywhere in the world. And it seems to me the
    best line I could give all of you at this great Jewish event tonight is
    ``Happy Saint Patrick's Day.'' [Laughter]
        Let me say that the 2 days and 9 hours I spent going from here to
    Sharm al-Sheikh to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and back to Tel Aviv again and
    then home were a remarkable experience for me. I am grateful that the
    United States is a friend of Israel and a friend of the cause of peace.
    I am grateful that the United States is an implacable opponent of
    terrorism. And I am grateful that at this moment I was able to go on
    behalf of all the American people to stand with the people of Israel in
    their time of pain and sorrow and challenge to express the outrage of
    our people at the latest campaign of terror and to show our solidarity.
        All of you know this, but it bears repeating that the terrorist
    attacks claimed not only Israeli lives but also those of Palestinians--
    and some of the most gripping tales I heard when I was there came from
    their family members, who also long for peace--and two young Americans,
    Sarah Duker and Matthew Eisenfeld.
        Now, it is important, quite apart from the peace process, that we
    once again say to the world, we know no country is safe from terror. We
    have seen it in the World Trade Center and in Oklahoma City in the
    United States. We know our friends in Japan have suffered it in the
    terrible attack of sarin gas in the Tokyo subway. But we know that in
    the Middle East it has too often been employed as an instrument of
    politics. And it is wrong. We stand against it now. We redouble our
    efforts against it, and we will be against it forever.

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        The symbol of our solidarity on this trip was perhaps best conveyed
    by the stone from the South Lawn of the White House that I was
    privileged to place on the grave of my friend Prime Minister Rabin,
    along with all of his family members. That is the place where the first
    accord with the Palestinians was signed. It represents our hope for
    progress, our belief in the chances of peace, and our unwavering
    solidarity.
        As you know, we have resolved to strengthen our cooperation with all
    those who will stand against terror in the Middle East. We are
    committing more than $100 million to the task. We are increasing our
    intelligence sharings, and we are developing new methods to combat
    violence there. We are convinced that ultimately fear will overcome the
    adversity of terror, because overcoming that kind of adversity is the
    genius of the Jewish people and the history of the State of Israel. No
    nation on Earth has experienced more often the painful truth that the
    path of triumph often passes through tragedy. No people knows better
    that we must deny victory to oppressors. The Jewish people have overcome
    every one of their would-be destroyers, denying them their goal, and in
    so doing reaffirming that what is good in human nature can prevail.
        It may be that until the end of time there will always be some group
    that will seek to do harm to others for their own advantage. We cannot
    rid the world of evil. It may be that until the end of time there will
    always be some group that will seek to distort the meaning of a
    religion, to demonize those who are different from them. But it should
    be heartening to you to know that today more nations than ever have
    risen up with Israel to oppose the destroyers of the present day, to
    oppose those who would kill and maim and who seek to destroy the peace
    through violence.
        That really was the message of the meeting at Sharm al-Sheikh, that
    Israel is no longer alone. The Summit of Peacemakers was the largest and
    highest level meeting of its kind ever held. At the urging of Israel's
    neighbors, 29 nations, including 13 from Arab States, came to
    demonstrate their support for peace and their opposition to terrorism.
        I believe that that summit marked the beginning of a truly unified
    regional effort to root out those responsible for the bloodshed. It
    produced concrete results. And soon there will be a followup conference
    here in Washington within the month, at which representatives of all the
    nations will be present. And we will press ahead to implement the
    commitments that all made at Sharm al-Sheikh.
        Just think about it. A meeting like this would have been unthinkable
    just a few years ago. But for the first time, Arab nations in the region
    are beginning to realize that pain in Israel is a danger to them as
    well. Large majorities of Palestinians and Jordanians and Egyptians know
    that the destruction of innocent life in Israel is a threat to the
    peaceful future they have declared as their goal for themselves and
    their own children.
        They understood that security must not lie only at the end of the
    road for peace. There must be security every step of the way, or there
    can be no peace. No one seriously believes anymore it is fair to ask
    Israel to give up its security until the peace is made. That is wrong,
    and we will not support it.
        When I read the story of the Palestinian nurse who was killed in the
    bombing and what her son said about her loss, it convinced me that what
    I see in Bosnia and what I see in Northern Ireland is also true now in
    Israel and in the Middle East. And it is a great cause for hope and a
    sobering reminder of the dimension of our challenge, and that is that
    the great division today in the Middle East is not between those of
    different religions or ethnic groups just as it is no longer between
    Croatian, Serb, and Muslim in Bosnia or between Catholic and Protestant
    in Northern Ireland. It really is between those who are reaching for a
    better tomorrow and those who have retreated into the pointless, bloody
    hostility of yesterday; those who are willing to open their arms to
    their neighbors and those who want to remain with their fist clenched;
    those who are willing to raise their children based on what kind of
    people they are inside and what they stand for and what their character
    is and those who wish to continue to raise their children based on who
    they are not and whom they can hate.
        That is the clear decision that all peoples of the world confronted
    with these kind of conflicts have to make. And even though this is a
    time of mourning it is also a time of hope, for the rest of the world is
    coming to know what America has long understood: Israel must be strong
    and secure and confident if we want peace and justice for every person
    in the Middle East. And I assure you we will continue to support

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    those who take risks for peace in the Middle East, in Bosnia, and around
    the world.
        The fight against terrorism must be a national security priority for
    the American people. Last year when I announced the stronger steps we in
    the United States were prepared to take alone against Iran because of
    their policies, many of my colleagues around the world declined to join
    in. Some of them, my friends and freedom-loving people, openly said I
    was wrong. I didn't hear that so much in Sharm al-Sheikh. People are
    beginning to see the truth. You cannot, you must not countenance people
    who believe it is legitimate to fund and arm others to kill innocent
    civilians, no matter where they are.
        Let me remind my fellow Americans that we have challenges here at
    home and that if we want to truly be effective in the transnational
    fight against terrorism, we must have the tools to deal with terrorism
    here at home. Well over a year ago I sent to Congress a bill to improve
    our ability to investigate, to prosecute, to punish terrorist activity.
    After our own tragedy in Oklahoma City I made that legislation even
    stronger and challenged the Congress to pass it.
        Last June the Senate passed the counterterrorism legislation. Until
    last week, the House of Representatives, letting more than a half-year
    go by, had not acted. Then last week when it did act, unbelievably it
    acted to destroy the bill, to gut it, indeed to mock it. The House
    voted, for example, to delete a provision of the bill that would allow
    us to tag explosive materials so that if a bomb is exploded somewhere in
    America, it will be marked and we can trace it back to its source. Now,
    if you have your car stolen in Washington, DC, tonight and somebody
    drives it to West Virginia--I hope it doesn't happen--[laughter]--but
    think about it, and you call the police and you tell them your name and
    the serial--and the license plate of your car and the car has any serial
    numbers on it, and it's found tomorrow morning in a parking lot of a
    grocery store in West Virginia, under the national computer network
    system we have, within 30 seconds it can be identified as your car. And
    you can be told that it's your car.
        We have serial numbers on guns that are sold in America, unless
    they're filed off. Now why in the world the Washington gun lobby is
    opposed to our tagging explosives which could be used to blow apart the
    bodies of innocent civilians is beyond me. If people want to use the
    explosives for appropriate construction work, they can still do it.
    Their civil liberties are not going to be impaired. But as soon as the
    objection was raised, the House says, thank you very much, we'll take it
    right out.
        We had a provision in that bill that would allow us to deport more
    quickly people who come into this country and are obviously involved in
    raising funds for terrorist organizations. They took that out. We had
    other provisions that would enable us to move more aggressively against
    organizations that clearly engage in terrorism. They took those out.
        And they imposed a commission not to study terrorism within our
    borders or beyond our borders but to study the Federal law enforcement
    officials whose primary job it is to combat this kind of terrorist
    activities. That is the wrong response, and it sends a terrible signal
    to people throughout the world who believe that if they can just get the
    right kind of extremist opposition to standing up to terrorism in
    America, it will weaken our resolve. They are wrong about that, and we
    should pass a good antiterrorism bill immediately.
        I just want to say, if I might, one more word about why you're here
    in this leadership conference and to say I admire this organization for
    many things, but not the least of it is always trying to develop a new
    generation of leaders.
        I sought this office more than 4 years ago because I believe that
    our country had to change direction if we were going to achieve the
    objectives that I feel are important for America. One is to guarantee
    the American dream for every person who is willing to work for it.
    Second, to maintain America's leadership in the cause of peace and
    freedom and security and prosperity throughout the world, we cannot
    withdraw; we must continue to lead. And third is to continue to build
    the American community, to forge a new unity amidst all of our diversity
    based on shared values and genuine honest respect for diversity. Now, if
    we can do those three things, this country is going to be just fine, and
    the world will be a better place.
        As I have said many times, in order to achieve those objectives, we
    have to grow the economy in a way that gives everybody a chance to
    participate. We have to squarely face our shared social challenges, from
    a high crime rate to abject poverty rates among our young people to teen
    pregnancy rates and other problems that make childhood more difficult.
    We have to work

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    hard to overcome the impulses that so many Americans understandably feel
    to withdraw from the world at the end of the cold war, and to try to
    chart a new course. And we have to continue to try to inspire more faith
    and trust in the American people in their Government.
        Now, in each of those areas we're better off than we were, but we
    have significant challenges ahead. We should be grateful that we have
    8.4 million more jobs than we did in 1992, because a lot of our other
    competitors have no new jobs. And we should be glad that every year for
    the last 3 years we set a record in the number of new businesses. We
    should be glad that businesses owned by women alone have hired more
    people than the Fortune 500 have laid off. We should be glad about that.
        But that should not make us insensitive to the fact that there are
    pockets in the inner cities and isolated rural areas of America that
    have felt no economic recovery. It should not make us insensitive to the
    fact that the educational divide in the new economy into which we're
    moving has become so great that about half the hourly wage earners in
    America in the bottom half are earning about the same wages as their
    counterparts were 20 years ago, once you adjust for inflation. We should
    be sensitive to the fact that even though we're creating far more high-
    tech jobs than we're losing, if you happen to be one of those 50-year-
    old people who gets downsized about the time you're trying to send your
    kids to college, there needs to be an answer for you as well. So we're
    better off than we were, but we have to build on our successes and face
    our challenges.
        If you look at the fabric of American society, we should be grateful
    for the fact that as compared with 4 years ago, the crime rate is down,
    the welfare rolls are down, the poverty rolls are down, and the teen
    pregnancy rate is dropping. But we should also say, compared to any
    appropriate standard for a civilized, disciplined, orderly hope for
    society, all these problems are still far too great. And we must keep
    going until we have literally wiped them from our concerns.
        We can be grateful for the progress that's been made in political
    reform. The rules on lobbying, for example, are much more open and much
    stricter than they were when I became President. Now Congress has to
    apply to itself the laws it imposes on the private sector. Those are
    good things; we can be glad about that.
        But we also know that there are other things that have to be done,
    not the least of which is a legitimate, genuine campaign finance reform
    bill that gives every citizen the opportunity to run for office and all
    citizens the same influence in the electoral process. Until that is done
    we will not have finished our work.
        And while the world is clearly a safer place not only for Americans
    but for virtually all other people than it was 4 years ago, we know that
    we have to keep going. We have to keep going not only in the Middle East
    and in Northern Ireland and in Bosnia, we have to keep going until
    children everywhere no longer fear that their legs will be blown off by
    landmines when they're walking in fields. We have to keep going until we
    know that we have done everything that can be humanly done to remove
    from people everywhere the threat of biological or chemical or small-
    scale nuclear weapons. We have to keep going until we have concluded all
    possible agreements to ban nuclear testing, so that that will be the
    beginning of the end of any nuclear threat for the people of the world.
        And we have to remember that nations are like children. You can't
    just say that they should say no to bad things; you have to give them
    some good things to say yes to. And therefore, it is right and decent
    and in our self-interest to keep expanding the frontiers of economic
    opportunity and not to forget that all those people in Latin America
    that still worry about whether their children will even grow to be
    adults deserve to be part of a new economy, and if we do it right,
    they'll be our best customers; that all those people in Africa we long
    to see free of the kind of carnage we see in Rwanda and Burundi deserve
    to have some hope for a better future if they work hard and do the right
    thing; that the people who live in India and Pakistan that we long to
    see walk away from their old, bitter conflicts have to also be able to
    walk toward a future of brighter hope; and that for America to do well
    we have to continue to be committed to creating that kind of future.
    It's in our people's interest to do what is right in the world.
        And so that brings me to you. For except for those of us who are, in
    effect, hired by you to tend for a little while to the public interest,
    all other Americans necessarily have to be preoccupied with their own
    interests, with the work they must do and the children they're trying to
    raise and the things within their imme-

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    diate reach. But we must--we must--reassert in this country a commitment
    to citizen leadership among the younger generation of Americans.
        You know, when I was in Israel I spoke in Tel Aviv to a large number
    of young people. And afterward the Prime Minister asked me if I would
    take questions. And I was fairly apprehensive, but I said okay.
    [Laughter] And a young person said, ``Well, what advice would you give
    to someone my age who wanted to be involved in a position of leadership
    and responsibility? What would you tell me if I wanted to go into public
    life; what should I do?''
        And I said, ``Well, in my country when young people ask me that
    question I tell them to do three things: One, to get the best education
    you can, so that you'll be able to learn for a lifetime. Because the
    world is growing more complex, there is more to know, there is more to
    understand, and more importantly, there are more connections to be made.
    You can't just isolate one body of knowledge or one experience from
    another.''
        The second thing you have to do is to develop a genuine interest in
    people. You know, I hear a lot of people in my line of work talking, and
    it's hard to imagine from the anger in their voices that they like
    people very much. You don't have to give up on your own heritage to try
    to stand in another person's shoes.
        In one county in America alone there are over 150 different racial
    and ethnic groups. And that is a great gift for our country in a global
    society. It is a gift, one we should cherish and treasure and nourish.
    But unless we realize that curious blend of human reality that gives
    something common to human nature across all the racial and ethnic
    divides and still demands of us to respect each other's honestly held
    differences, we will not meet the challenges of the future. And our
    inability to do that and our tendency here in America to use elections
    as an excuse to divide one another, so that we choose up sides based on
    the belief that our opponents are aliens--and we learn that they're
    aliens from 30-second ads that tell us how evil and bad they are--that
    is a very dangerous tendency in a global society when we need to be
    pulling together and when we can only solve our problems by pulling
    together. There is no other way to solve the people problems that human
    societies everywhere face and that the United States has in abundance
    except by working together, by reaching across the divides.
        And the third thing I tell young people is that they should figure
    out what they believe, stand up for it, and work for it and not be
    deterred.
        To be perfectly honest, the thing I like best about your cheering
    tonight is that you were cheering for me. [Laughter] The thing I like
    second best about it was your energy, your belief, your conviction, your
    passion.
        You know, I see all these surveys that say Americans are cynical. My
    friends, that's a great luxury. If you worried about whether every bus
    you boarded was loaded with a bomb, you wouldn't have the time to be
    cynical. If you lived in a tiny village in the Andes where you didn't
    know where your child's next meal was coming from, you wouldn't have the
    time to be cynical. If you lived in a country in Africa where you were
    trying to save your wife's life because she belonged to a different
    tribe than you do and your tribe had the army and they were going
    through one little village after another with machetes, you wouldn't
    have the option of being cynical.
        You live in a country with the strongest economy, the greatest
    potential, the widest diversity, the largest amount of opportunities on
    Earth. And you are not cynical or you wouldn't be here at this
    conference and you wouldn't have stood up and you wouldn't have
    exhibited all that energy. But a lot of the people that you work and
    live with back in your communities are. And they say, ``Aw, it doesn't
    matter who wins, all the politicians''--you've heard all that stuff. I'm
    telling you, it's a bunch of bull. [Laughter] It's a bunch of bull. It's
    not true.
        You know, before we had to stop them for the election season of the
    other party--[laughter]--they have to hold their elections; I'm not
    complaining. But before we had to stop them for the election season of
    the other party, the Vice President and I spent over 50 hours with the
    leaders of the Republicans and Democrats in Congress. And we spent the
    time in private. And most of what we said I don't think I should talk
    about in any great detail; it wasn't all that different from what you've
    already heard in public. But after you spend 50 hours with other people
    and you talk through and you express your really--what you think and
    what you feel, you develop a certain relationship to people even if
    they're very different from you.

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        And the point I want to make to you is that the leaders of the
    majority in Congress and I really do view the world in different ways.
    But that is not a cynical statement. And it has nothing to do with
    campaign tactics, about which I spoke earlier. It is a plain fact. And
    that's why I say to young people, you have to decide what you believe
    and take sides and stand up. But there's nothing to be cynical about.
    These differences are real and deep and profound and they matter. And
    they're honestly held by all the parties.
        And I just want to say to you that this is a very great country, but
    if you want your country--when those of you who are younger are my age,
    and I'm nearly eligible to join AARP--[laughter]--I hate it, but it's
    true--[laughter]--if you want this country when you're 50, when you're
    60, when you're 65 to be the beacon of hope for the world, to be
    Israel's best friend, to stand up for freedom and against terrorism, if
    that's what you want, if you want every child who grows up in this
    country to believe that he or she can live out their dreams if they'll
    work for it, then cynicism and inaction and passivity have no place in
    your future or the future of your friends and neighbors back home where
    you live. You have to lead. And that's what I want you to do.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:12 p.m. in the ballroom of the Washington
    Hilton and Towers Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to David Hermelin,
    national vice chair, United Jewish Appeal; Gad Yaacobi, Israeli
    Ambassador to the United Nations; Efrat Rabinovich, wife of Itamar
    Rabinovich, Israeli Ambassador to the United States; and Prime Minister
    Shimon Peres of Israel. A portion of these remarks could not be verified
    because the tape was incomplete.