[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[July 30, 1996]
[Pages 1221-1222]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With President
Hosni Mubarak of Egypt
July 30, 1996

    The President. Good morning.
    Q. Mr. President, what do you think of the Israeli plan now to build 
new highways and bridges into the occupied territories, the West Bank 
and Golan Heights, consolidating their control?
    The President. The President just walked in the door, and we're 
going to start talking, and I think that I'd rather wait to answer those 
questions until the press conference. We're going to have a press 
conference after lunch, and we'll--I'll be glad to answer your 
questions.

Welfare Reform

    Q. [Inaudible]--the welfare reform bill that's coming out of 
conference, is it something you can sign, Mr. President?
    The President. I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen in 
the conference yet. They're working on the conference now, and I'm going 
to wait and see what happens, what comes out.
    Q. I think you're going to sign it because you have used all the 
language of the opponents: failed system, broken system.
    The President. We have actually done something about it. Keep in 
mind that 75 percent of the people on welfare today are under welfare-
to-work experiments. There are 1.3 million fewer people on welfare today 
than there were the day I took office. Child support is up 40 percent. 
There are a lot of things in the bill I'd like to sign. I like the child 
care money. I like the increased child support enforcement.

[[Page 1222]]

I like the fact that we get out of the waiver business on a State-by-
State basis. But I don't want to see harm come to the children of this 
country. And so we'll just wait and see.
    Q. Mr. President, the Democrats really want to know, they want some 
guidance from you about whether you'd accept this from this conference.
    The President. Well, we're talking to them all. But I don't want to 
make comments about a bill I haven't seen yet. Let's see what comes out 
of the conference. We're working with them, and obviously I hope I can 
sign a bill. We're working hard, but it depends on what that bill does.
    The Vice President. Did you get Helen's [Helen Thomas, United Press 
International] comments down? Did you get those down? [Laughter] You'll 
have to go with her analysis. She's going from questions to making 
comments now that she's got a microphone.
    Ms. Thomas. It's my day in the sun. Where's my crew? [Laughter] 
Anonymity is better.
    The President. Oh, I don't know. I think you lost your anonymity a 
long time ago, Helen.
    Ms. Thomas. Hell. [Laughter]

[At this point, one group of reporters left the room, and another group 
entered.]

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Mr. President Clinton, when will see the photo number six of a 
Middle East treaty signing hang on the wall of the Oval Office, probably 
the Syrian track?
    The President. The next one out there? I hope it won't be too long. 
We are--the President just arrived, and we're looking forward to a 
conversation. And of course, we're going to have a press conference 
afterward, and we'll try to answer all your questions.
    Q. What is the agenda of the meeting today, Mr. President?
    The President. Excuse me?
    Q. What is the agenda of the meeting?
    The President. We're going to discuss a whole range of things, our 
bilateral relationship, issues in the Middle East. I've been very 
impressed with the leadership that President Mubarak has continued to 
show in the last several months. And I'm looking forward to listening, 
asking him a lot of questions and listening, and then having a chance to 
share some ideas. And then we'll have the press conference and do our 
best to answer your questions.
    Q. I have only one question, please, President Clinton. Will the 
United States try to convince Prime Minister Netanyahu to respect 
agreements that the Israel Government--not the Labor Party, but the 
Israel Government--have signed and redeploy the Israel troops from 
Hebron. The second point, also, to negotiate about Jerusalem and also to 
try to stop sealing off every time, and every now and then, the Gaza 
Strip.
    The President. Well, let me say, first of all, he reaffirmed to me 
when he was here, and he has met with President Mubarak as well, that he 
would honor the Oslo accords in every way. So I think we have to give 
him a chance to do that and work on that assumption. I believe that 
the--I think that the government is bound to honor commitments that it 
has made, and I believe that it will and I certainly believe it should. 
And so we'll just have to--we'll see. But we're going to discuss that 
today, and again, we'll be able to answer more questions at the press 
conference, after we have our meeting.

Note: The exchange began at 11:15 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, the President referred to Prime Minister Binyamin 
Netanyahu of Israel. A tape was not available for verification of the 
content of this exchange.