    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [June 1, 1996]
    [Pages 847-849]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address and an Exchange With Reporters
    June 1, 1996

        The President. Good morning. This week the people of Israel, in a
    vigorous, very close election, voted to elect a new Prime Minister.
    Yesterday I called Prime Minister-elect Netanyahu to congratulate him on
    his victory and to discuss America's enduring friendship with Israel,
    our commitment to its strength and security and to a lasting peace in
    the Middle East. I also spoke with outgoing Prime Minister Peres. I told
    him to take comfort in history's judgment. Decades from now people will
    look back and see in Shimon Peres one of the great peacemakers of our
    time. Now the partnership between Israel and the United States will be
    the foundation from which our two countries together continue to build a
    comprehensive, lasting, and secure peace in the Middle East.
        Now I'd like to turn to the homefront and to some of our most
    important citizens, our children. Some of them have joined with me today
    along with their parents here in the Oval Office. And later today
    they'll join tens of thousands of people to show their support for
    America's young people at the Stand for Children at the Lincoln
    Memorial.
        This is an important time for America's children. They're growing up
    in a world that is changing rapidly. They need our help more than any
    generation before them. As Hillary says, children are not rugged
    individualists; they depend upon us--their parents and others in the
    community who love them--to give them love and guidance and discipline,
    to provide for them, and to defend them. That's as it should be. Their
    future and ours depends upon how well we do our job.
        If our society sends our children the wrong signals, we should work
    together to change that. That's why I have proposed strict limits on
    tobacco advertising directed toward children. That's why we're giving
    parents the V-chip and why we worked to persuade the TV networks to
    develop a rating system so parents can control the shows their children
    watch. That's why I

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    support parents and communities who want to cut crime and improve
    discipline by adopting things like school uniforms and community
    curfews.
        We are also working in other ways to strengthen our families and
    childrearing. We've enacted the family and medical leave law so parents
    can now take time away from their jobs to be with a newborn or an ill
    child without losing those jobs. We're immunizing our children more than
    ever. We've increased Head Start funding. We're making sure that teen
    mothers stay in school and turn their lives around. We've preserved the
    Federal school lunch program, which this week turns 50 years old and
    every schoolday helps 25 million of our children get the nutrition they
    need.
        All of this makes a difference, but none of it matters as much as
    the most basic protection of all for our young people, their health
    care. Without medical care, a child who needs it cannot have a full
    life. That's why I deeply oppose the Republican plan to repeal the
    guarantee of quality health care for our children.
        For three decades through the Medicaid program, we have had a
    national commitment that poor children, pregnant women, people with
    disabilities, and older Americans will not be denied health care simply
    because they can't afford it. That means today that working parents know
    in the awful event their child is disabled and their insurance and
    income won't cover the care, they'll get some help to keep their
    children at home. They know if their child becomes seriously ill and
    their savings are gone, they'll get some help so that they can hold the
    family together and keep working and going on.
        Now, under the Republican congressional plan, hundreds of thousands
    of our children with disabilities could lose help for their home care.
    Children that are seriously ill could lose some of their coverage from
    what is now available. In effect, this plan says to millions of our
    children, if you can't afford care, well, it's an option whether your
    State gives it or not, and they don't have to contribute as much as they
    used to. It says to people with disabilities, if you don't have
    insurance, I'm sorry if you don't happen to be able to get care from
    your State anymore. This could amount to child neglect for a whole
    generation.
        Now, I vetoed this plan last year when the Republican Congress shut
    down the Government in an effort to force me to sign it. If they send it
    to me again, I will veto it again. In an attempt to force me to sign it,
    the Republicans are threatening to attach this proposal to welfare
    reform.
        For nearly two decades, I've worked to end welfare as we know it. I
    want us to require more work, impose strict time limits, to crack down
    on child support enforcement. In the last 3\1/2\ years, without any
    congressional action, we have worked with 38 States to change old
    Federal rules so that we can move people from welfare to work. The rolls
    are down 1.3 million people, and child support collections are up nearly
    40 percent.
        Of course, we should do more. And we can reach agreement on sweeping
    bipartisan welfare reform legislation. But I will never accept the
    repeal of guaranteed health care for poor children or people with
    disabilities or older Americans or pregnant women. I don't care what
    bill they attach that to, I will not accept it.
        These young people with me today and their families will take part
    in the stand for all our children that is unprecedented. Where our
    children are concerned, we should all stand together, and we should not
    be small. Our children are counting on us.
        Thanks for listening.

    [At this point, the radio address ended, and the President took
    questions from reporters.]

    Middle East Peace Process

        Q. Mr. President, following the Israeli election, is there a message
    you'd like to send to the Arab world?
        The President. Yes. Our policy hasn't changed. We still want an
    honorable peace in the Middle East. And we want all peace-loving people,
    especially those who have been our friends and allies in the Arab world,
    to continue to work for that. I was very encouraged by what King Hussein
    said in his most recent reported remarks. And I hope that the friends of
    peace in the Arab world and the Middle East will continue to support it,
    and we will continue to work with them.
        Q. Do you think there's undue concern in some of the Arab world? You
    know, this election, which was decided by less than 30,000 votes is out
    of--was at 3 million. It's being viewed as some kind of massive mandate
    and message. I mean, do you think there's a rush to judgment?

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        The President. I think we ought to give the new Prime Minister a
    chance to put his government together and develop a policy. We have--
    we've been pushing all over the world for democracy. And democracy means
    the people who vote get to determine who governs. That's what democracy
    means. Now, he said some very encouraging things to me on the phone and
    indeed in the election--in the 2 weeks leading up to the election.
        I think it's obvious--if you look how closely divided the people of
    Israel are, I think that you could say an enormous number of the
    supporters of Prime Minister Peres wanted security as well as peace, and
    an enormous number of the supporters of Prime Minister-elect Netanyahu
    wanted peace as well as security. I think that that's what that close
    election means. It's a difficult environment, a tough neighborhood.
    There's a lot of history there. But he says he wants to continue the
    process. And I think that--I hope that the friends of peace in the Arab
    world will continue to be committed to that.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the
    White House. In his remarks, he referred to Binyamin Netanyahu, Prime
    Minister-elect of Israel, and King Hussein I of Jordan.