    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [March 14, 1996]
    [Pages 451-456]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session With Students in Tel Aviv
    March 14, 1996

        The President. Thank you, Liad, for your introduction and for your
    fine remarks. She did a good job representing the young people of
    Israel, didn't she? You did a great job. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, thank you
    for your welcome and your vigorous and important statement. My friend
    Prime Minister Peres, thank you for your many wonderful words. I hope
    that in our common pursuit of peace I can be worthy of them.
        I want to thank all of you for making me feel so welcome here today,
    and I would like to say a special word of thanks to the people who
    provided the wonderful music, the Sheba Choir, the Moran Choir, the Tel
    Aviv-Yaffa Youth Orchestra, Danny Robas; thank you all very much.
        You have made me feel very welcome here today, in this time of pain
    and sorrow, also a time of challenge for all of Israel, and especially
    for the young people of this great nation. Only a few blocks from this
    hall, only days ago, 13 Israelis were murdered as they went about their
    daily business, the latest victims of the latest campaign of terror.
    Four bombs in 9 days in Jerusalem, Ashkelon, Tel Aviv--dozens murdered,
    scores wounded. Your neighbors, your friends, your classmates.

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        Here every death is a death in the family. But let me say to the
    mothers and fathers, the brothers and sisters, the grandparents and
    children, the friends of those who have died, we know your pain is
    unimaginable and to some extent unshareable, but America grieves with
    you and prays that you will be comforted among the mourners of Zion and
    Jerusalem. Indeed, America lost its own children in these attacks 3
    weeks ago in Jerusalem, Sarah Duker and Matthew Eisenfeld; before them,
    Joan Devenny and Alyssa Flatow and Nachshon Wachsman, a young American
    who was also a soldier and whose grave, along with those of soldiers of
    the IDF killed in recent bombings, I recently visited, just a few hours
    ago in Har Herzl. I'm glad there are many American students here today
    because we must stand together, and you must stand together.
        America knows also the wounds of terror because of experience on our
    own soil, in the tragedies of Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center
    in New York. One of terrorists' greatest consequences is the awful
    persistence of fear, fear that the bus is not safe, that a shopping
    center might be a target, that there is no haven from danger, that
    friends or family will be taken in an instant, that the fear itself will
    never end. But fear must be conquered, security must be restored, and
    peace must be pursued.
        I wanted to have this opportunity to speak with you, the young
    people of this country, because it is vital that you believe that fear
    can and will be defeated, for you are the future, and your response to
    these cowardly acts will shape your nation's future.
        I spend a lot of time at home going around America telling the young
    people of my country that they and this whole generation of young people
    all across the world are growing up in the age of greatest possibility
    ever known; a time when more people will be able to fill out their
    dreams in life than ever before; a time when the information and
    technology revolution is literally bringing things to the doorstep and
    the fingertips of young people that only a couple of years ago were
    unimaginable. Indeed, this is the greatest period of change in economics
    in society in at least 100 years, since the industrial revolution. And
    our country's great computer magnate, Bill Gates, says that the digital
    chip is bringing about the greatest revolution in world communications
    in 500 years, since Gutenberg printed the first Bible in Europe.
        If that is true, it seems especially painful that a country like
    Israel, full of people with such great intellect and energy, with such a
    great devotion to learning and hard work and to exploring all of life's
    possibilities, should still be in the grip of such ancient hatred. It
    must seem to you an enormous burden and at least a great paradox. But I
    am afraid it is part of human nature.
        It seems that there is always some war going on in the history of
    humankind between hope and fear, and that within each of us there is
    some balance scale of hope and fear that is rooted in human nature. And
    each of us has to decide whether we will live for our dreams, whether we
    will define our lives in terms of what we are and what we wish to
    become, or whether we will live by our fears and our hatred, defining
    ourselves by what we are not and what we are against.
        Those who still pursue the terror here in the face of unbelievable
    opportunities for learning, for prosperity, for growth, for living in
    harmony, for enriching their lives by living with people who are other
    than they are, they are in the grip of that ancient fear that life can
    only be lived if you're looking down on someone else, if you're hating
    someone else, if you're grateful just for the fact that you're not like
    someone else. It is the great challenge of your generation to overcome
    those fears in perhaps the hardest place in the world to do it. For you
    can live out your dreams only if you can convince others to lay down
    their fear and define themselves in terms of what they can become, not
    who they can hate.
        We are determined to stand with you in that effort. We know that
    overcoming adversity is the genius of the Jewish people and the history
    of the State of Israel. No nation on Earth knows better that the path of
    triumph often passes through tragedy. No people know better through
    millennia of exile and persecution, inquisition, and pogrom, the
    ultimate evil of the Holocaust, that you must deny victory to
    oppressors, that you must flourish--indeed flourish, not just endure--
    against all the odds.
        And Israel is proof of your extraordinary resilience. Here in modern
    times, an ancient people have performed a miracle, forged a great and
    prosperous democracy, caused the desert to bloom, and given rise to
    great cities. Tel Aviv,

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    a hill of spring and rebirth, a vibrant culture and thriving business,
    has grown up where not so very long ago there was only a hill of sand.
    Against overwhelming danger and war, through the ordeal of isolation,
    for more than four decades of bloody struggle, Israel has not only
    persisted, Israel has flourished. Your achievements in the face of this
    adversity have inspired free men and women the world over. We all draw
    strength from your example, and you teach us anew the power of the human
    spirit to build realities out of dreams.
        At this time of year we are reminded especially of the resilience of
    the Jewish people, for in only a few weeks it will be Passover, time for
    retelling the story of the Exodus, the story of the struggle for
    freedom, the story that has inspired the world for so many centuries.
    And at Seder Jews everywhere will say the words that have been repeated
    every year for ages, ``In every generation someone rises up to destroy
    us.'' Well, the Jewish people have overcome every one of these would-be
    destroyers and denied them their goal, and reaffirmed that what is good
    in human nature can prevail.
        Perhaps there will always be someone, some group, some nation that
    seeks to destroy Israel. Even if peace is made here in the Middle East,
    there will always be those who seek to take advantage of others, who
    seek to deny others their rightful place in human destiny, who even seek
    to deny the realities of human nature and the humanity we all share. It
    is not in our power to rid the world of evil. But today it is within our
    power to fight on for peace that will give your generation the age of
    possibility you so richly deserve.
        More nations than ever before have risen up with Israel to defeat
    the destroyers, those who would kill and maim, those who explode human
    bombs on buses and on busy streets, those who seek to destroy the peace
    by violence. And here more people are willing to come and share your
    faith, for along with the Israelis who died in these last round of
    bombings there were also Palestinians and Americans and others.
        The lesson of the meeting we held yesterday in Sharm al-Sheikh was
    that Israel is not alone. It was an unprecedented event in the history
    of this region. At the urging of Israel's neighbors--Egypt, Jordan, the
    Palestinians, and the United States--29 leaders, 13 of them from Arab
    States, came to demonstrate their support for peace and their opposition
    to the terrorism that is bent on wrecking peace. It was the largest such
    meeting ever. We there rededicated ourselves to the battle against
    extremism. We began to work closely together to root out those
    responsible for the bloodshed.
        A meeting like this would literally have been unthinkable just a few
    years ago. For the first time Arab nations recognized and said publicly
    that pain in Israel is a danger to them as well. They understand that
    the destruction of hopes and dreams and innocent life in Israel is a
    threat to the future they want for themselves and their children. And
    that is a cause for hope in itself.
        Today, large majorities of Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians are
    saying that they wish to raise their children in peace. They want to go
    about their work to build a better life. They too have had enough of war
    and enough of tears, as Prime Minister Rabin said. They have understood
    that for all peoples in the region security does not lie just at the end
    of the road to peace; there must be security every step of the way or
    there will be no peace. Peace and security are indivisible.
        Twenty-nine years ago, when the Straits of Turan were closed, Sharm
    al-Sheikh stood as the symbol of Israel's isolation from the world. But
    in 1996 Sharm al-Sheikh has become a symbol of Israel's acceptance in
    this region and in the world.
        The division today in the Middle East is not between Arab and Jew.
    It is between those who are reaching for a better tomorrow and those who
    have retreated into the pointless, bloody hostility of yesterday. We
    must be clear: Those who are reaching for the future will prevail.
        The bombings of recent days have been the act of desperate men who
    see that peace is coming closer, that support for peace is growing in
    the West Bank and Gaza and throughout nations of the region. They know
    that stirring these old embers of hatred is their only chance to burn
    down all that has been built. We must not let them succeed in continuing
    their violence or in breaking our will for peace.
        Just a few months ago I was here in Israel on another journey of
    great sorrow, to mourn the death of my friend Prime Minister Rabin. Just
    as the bullet that struck him down renewed our determination to press
    ahead then, if he were here standing with his partner Shimon Peres he
    would say we must have these tragedies move us forward with even greater
    conviction.

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        I know Israel will not lose resolve for peace. Just before coming
    here, I visited in Jerusalem the Bet-Haruch where a number of students
    had lost their lives in the recent bombings. I talked to their fellow
    classmates, and I was amazed at the resilience and the determination of
    these young people to press ahead for a better future. And then on the
    road to Tel Aviv, I called two young men, Tal Loel and Uri Tal, who were
    badly injured in the Tel Aviv bombing. And they wrote me from their
    hospital beds a marvelous letter in which they said, and I quote,
    ``Peace is the only true solution for this area.'' I salute those young
    men for not losing hope even while they are dealing with their own
    injuries in the hospital. Their extraordinary spirit is the spirit of
    Israel.
        Yesterday in Sharm al-Sheikh, nations from this region and around
    the world strengthened their resolve to defeat those who would destroy
    peace. Today Prime Minister Peres and I, along with our top security
    advisers, set a course to deepen our own cooperation and intensify our
    war on terror. We agreed to increase intelligence sharing, to develop
    new methods to combat terror, to enhance coordination between our
    nations and others who have agreed to join us to fight against terror. I
    committed $100 million to this effort, and last night I sent a message
    to the Congress asking them to take urgent action to fulfill our first
    installment in this endeavor.
        America stands with you in the pursuit of peace and in the war on
    terror. And we will do more. In the days of the Bible, the foreign
    prophet Balaam looked upon the children of Israel and called them ``a
    people that shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned upon the
    nation.'' Today, looking at all this nation has achieved, the acceptance
    it has won in the Middle East and around the world, we know his words
    were and are and will be wrong.
        Israel is not alone. America stands with you, and with every passing
    day so do more people here and abroad. But we will not rest until, in
    the words of the Psalm, ``There is peace within Israel's walls and
    security in her towers.'' And we know that Israel will never give her
    enemies the victory they seek, never abandon the hope of peace, never
    lose hatikvah leshalom.
        Thank you, and God bless you.
        Q. Mr. President, do you have any advice for young people that want
    to become leaders? What should young people do in order to grow up and
    become leaders?
        The President. I believe it is important to do at least three
    things. One, follow the advice of the Prime Minister. That is, it really
    matters that you develop your mind, that you develop the capacity to
    learn for a lifetime. The world in which I live and govern is changing
    very rapidly. The world in which your generation will live and govern
    will change even more rapidly. So it is important that you make the most
    of your school years. It doesn't matter so much what you learn but that
    you learn how to learn and that your mind will work for a lifetime to
    take in new changes and to grasp the ability to understand what is going
    on, first.
        Second, I think it is important to develop a genuine interest in
    people, and especially people who are different from you, not just in
    terms of religion or ethnic group, but I mean people who are genuinely
    different, people who maybe don't have as much money or have different
    ways of living or making a living. Because it is impossible to govern
    effectively in a free society unless you can understand the experiences,
    the attitude, the challenges other people face.
        And then the third thing I would say is it is important to figure
    out what you believe, and when you do, throw yourselves into election
    campaigns. [Laughter] Support people who believe as you do. Even if you
    can't vote, stand up for them, talk to them, provoke arguments and
    discussions and learn to stand up for what you believe in. But if you
    have a good mind, if you care about what happens to other people and you
    can understand them, and you're willing to fight for what you believe
    in, then you have an excellent chance of success.
        Q. How do you see the future of the--in your following the Middle
    East, its ups and downs?
        The President. Well, I think first of all, I believe that it is
    highly likely that sooner or later in the relatively near term--that is,
    sometime in the next few years, if not this year, sometime fairly soon--
    that Israel will make peace with her neighbors on terms that will
    guarantee your security and theirs. And then I believe that the region
    will begin to grow together economically and culturally, and people will
    begin to work together. That does not necessarily mean that there will
    be no more violence, because this problem of terrorism and of fanaticism
    and of extremism is a problem

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    that the world faces. Remember it wasn't so long ago that a religious
    fanatic walked into a Japanese subway and broke open a small vial of
    sarin gas and killed many people. It was only a year ago, or 2 years
    ago, I guess now, that the tragedy in Oklahoma City occurred in America.
        So the great problem for the world of the future--and when I was
    your age, the great problem was the free countries of the world against
    the communist countries of the world, both sides had nuclear weapons,
    and we all hoped they would never be used because society could be wiped
    out. Now the great challenge will be in a world that is increasingly
    interconnected, where you can literally get on a computer now and have
    conversations with young people in the United States or research an
    academic paper on volcanoes out of libraries in Australia, to do all
    kinds of things like that in an open society like that, people are
    vulnerable to the organized forces of destruction, to organized crime,
    to drug gangs, to terrorists, to people who would develop biological and
    chemical and other dangerous weapons.
        So for your lifetime, I do believe you'll have to fight these
    organized forces of destruction. But I believe you will do it within a
    framework in which the nations are at peace and are growing together
    economically and you will be more secure. That's what I believe will
    happen.
        Q. Israel gave priority to education. What is the role of education
    in America and what are the most important parts of it?
        The President. I would say that--first, let me deal with the
    conditions of education in the United States. I believe we have a system
    of higher education that is second to none in the world. And our great
    challenge there is to make sure that all of our young people have the
    opportunity to go on to get a university education, that they are not
    prohibited from doing it because of economic problems. So what I have
    tried to do largely there is just to find new ways for young people
    either to get scholarships or loans or work their way through
    universities, so everyone can go, because the income differences between
    young people in the United States who have a college education and those
    who don't are breathtaking today in America.
        In the earlier years, I would say there are basically two great
    problems. One is we have a highly decentralized system of education in
    America where children from the age of let's say 3 or 4 to 17 and 18
    until they finish high school, most of them are in public schools that
    are essentially under the legal control of each of our 50 States and
    under the operational control of school districts in all those States.
    So what we have to do is to find a way--and many of our schools are
    doing a great job and many aren't--and America has always rebelled at
    doing anything that in anyway undermines the decentralization of
    education, which is good. But what we're trying to do is to figure a way
    now to have high standards that we articulate and that we measure for
    all students in our large country, but that we don't tell the schools
    how they have to meet the standards, they decide that; but we have
    standards, and that in the continuing emphasis on those standards and in
    rewarding those that are meeting them, we bring up all the schools in
    their performance. Overall educational performance in America is
    improving, but improving slowly, and it's too uneven.
        And then, the third big problem we have is just an enormous
    percentage of our children are poor children, about 15 to 16 percent of
    them, and they're coming from homes where the parents often don't have
    the resources they need. And we don't have the same tradition in our
    country that you do, that a lot of other countries do, where, if you
    will, the community, or what my wife calls the village, works with each
    family to help each child succeed. And we've got to find a way to do
    better by our children who come from very poor backgrounds and difficult
    homes. Those are the three challenges we face, and we're working very
    hard on them.
        Now, let me just say one other thing, one other thing. The great
    opportunity we have is the same opportunity you have. We are trying to
    hook up every classroom and every library in America to the Internet by
    the year 2000, every single one. And we want them all basically in a
    worldwide network so that you can all have your common communications
    and share information and learn and grow together and hook into all the
    libraries of the world together. And if that happens, it will effect a
    revolution for all children without regard to their incomes and it will
    lift the standards everywhere. So that's the great opportunity we're
    working on, and I believe we're going to get there. I think we'll get
    there ahead of schedule. I hope we will.

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    [At this point, a question was asked in Hebrew, and a translation was
    not provided.]

        The President. Well, I intend to do two things. First of all, I
    intend to set a good example. That is, we are setting a good example. On
    the next day after we had the conference, I said that in addition to the
    things that the Prime Minister has already mentioned, we would commit
    over $100 million to working with Israel to fight terror here in the
    region and working with others who are committed to fighting the terror.
        Secondly, we intend to work to make sure the Palestinian Authority
    has the capacity and fulfills its capacity to do its part in fighting
    the terror. You cannot do this alone. They have to do their part for the
    peace to work.
        And thirdly, we intend to start immediately meeting with every other
    country that was there to work out a joint plan for what we can do. And
    keep in mind, this is not work just for the countries of the Middle
    East. There are things that the North Americans, the Europeans, and the
    Asians can do to help to defeat the terrorist networks that wreak their
    violence here in your back yard. Their reach goes beyond your back yard.
        So I did not intend for this to be a cordial meeting in which
    nothing happens. This--we will give everybody a full opportunity to put
    their actions where their words were yesterday. I assure you of that.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 5:43 p.m. in the Tel Aviv Center for the
    Performing Arts. In his remarks, he referred to Liad Modrik, student
    council representative; Mayor Ronni Milow of Tel Aviv; and singer Danny
    Robas.