    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [April 27, 1998]
    [Pages 627-630]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Reception Celebrating Israel's 50th Anniversary
    April 27, 1998

        Thank you very much. Mr. President,
    Rector, all the officials of Hebrew
    University; Mr. Vice President, members of
    the Cabinet, the administration; Members of the Congress. I'd like to
    especially thank Dr. Dunn, Dr. Nyang, Dr. Schorsch, and
    Richard Dreyfuss and Linda Lavin for their wonderful contributions to this day. To
    Ambassador and Mrs. Ben-Elissar, thank you for being here. To all of our former
    Ambassadors to the United States and other distinguished guests from
    Israel, and my fellow Americans.
        I'd also like to ask that we give a special word of appreciation to
    the people who provided all that wonderful music which got us in the
    right frame of mind, Esta band. [Applause] Thank you very much. If you
    could hang around here for a month or two, I think we might get some
    things done; you'd keep us all in a very positive frame of mind.
        I am very honored to receive this degree from Hebrew University of
    Jerusalem, honored because its founders include Chaim Weizmann,

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    Martin Buber, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein; honored because it is
    now one of the world's leading centers of learning and research.
        I must say, I never expected to be doing this here. Many American
    universities have satellite campuses where working people like me can
    obtain degrees at locations near their homes and offices. [Laughter]
    This is more than I ever could have anticipated. [Laughter]
        President Magidor, thank you for
    bringing this ceremony here so that those of us who cannot go to Israel
    in a couple of days may share in the celebration of this magnificent
    50th birthday.
        I accept this honor today on behalf of my predecessors, beginning
    with Harry Truman, nine American Presidents all devoted to Israel's
    security and freedom, all committed to peace in the Middle East. I
    accept it on behalf of the American people who have formed not just an
    alliance but a profound friendship with the people of Israel over these
    last 50 years.
        Today we celebrate that extraordinary 50 years. In 1948 Israel arose
    from the seeds of the Diaspora and the ashes of the Holocaust. The
    children of Abraham and Sarah, survivors of 2,000 years of exile and
    persecution, were home at last and free at last. For its founders, the
    Israeli State was, however, about even more than securing a haven for
    the Jewish people after centuries of suffering and wandering. Isaiah
    prophesied that Israel would become ``a light unto the nations,'' and
    David Ben-Gurion and his allies set out to make that prophecy come true
    by establishing a society of light, embracing what Ben-Gurion called the
    higher virtues of truth, justice, and compassion.
        Ben-Gurion believed Israel could lead the world to a better future
    by marrying the ethical teachings of the ancients with the discoveries
    of modern science. ``It is only by the integration of the two,'' he
    wrote, ``that the blessings of both can flourish.'' Of course, he also
    envisioned a third great achievement for Israel, that with strength and
    wisdom and skill, Israel would build a lasting peace with its Arab
    neighbors.
        As we have heard today, relations between our two nations were born
    of another leader's courage and vision. Harry Truman brushed aside the
    urgings of his advisers, as he often did, when they said go slow, wait
    and see, before offering Israel recognition. For him, supporting a
    Jewish homeland was a moral imperative rooted in his understanding of
    the suffering and dreams of the Jews from Biblical times. And as we
    learned from Richard's wonderful reading,
    it occurred just 11 minutes after Israel proclaimed independence. We, in
    becoming the first country to recognize Israel, had one of our proudest
    moments. Not only that, 50 years later, old Harry Truman looks pretty
    smart. [Laughter]
        Look what Israel has done. Under a brilliant blue sky, the Israelis
    have built prosperous farms and kibbutzes, planted forests, turned
    streets of sand into shining boulevards, raised families, and welcomed
    the arrival of brothers and sisters from Europe and North Africa, from
    Russia and Ethiopia and America. Israelis have dazzled the world with
    achievements in science and scholarship, in literature and the art. They
    have built a thriving democracy.
        And despite the passage of 50 years, Israelis seem to love and
    practice their freedom as if they had only just gained it. They never
    seem to cease challenging themselves about their history, their
    relationship with their neighbors, the hard choices for the future. If
    anyone ever wonders whether there is a place in the world where you can
    have freedom and honest, vigorous, 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week, 365-day-
    a-year argument, go to Israel. [Laughter]
        It is truly one of the most pulsating, vibrant places on Earth,
    alive with thousands of sounds: prayers in dozens of languages in the
    Old City, young people gathered on the avenues of Tel Aviv, computer
    keyboards tapping, new ventures launched on the Internet, schoolchildren
    now conversing in Hebrew--once the language only of sacred text, now the
    voice of an Israeli renaissance. And the economy has been propelled by
    all this energy and activity into being one of the most advanced and
    diversified in the world; per capita income now matching nations in
    Europe; exports last year were $32 billion dollars, 1,000 times their
    level in 1948. High-tech companies, high-tech people--you go to Israel,
    it looks as if you can't be a citizen of Israel unless you have a cell
    phone glued to your hand. [Laughter]
        Yes, Israelis have gone a very long way toward fulfilling the first
    two pieces of Ben-Gurion's vision. Surely they have built an ethical,
    democratic society and a modern science- and technology-based economy.
    It has endured against great odds by prevailing again and again in
    battle--the valor of citizen soldiers and military and political leaders
    like Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Yonni Netanyahu.

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        But in the battle for the third piece of Ben-Gurion's vision, a
    just, secure, and lasting peace, is still being waged--and still in
    blood and tears. Camp David brought peace between Israel and Egypt, but
    it cost Anwar Sadat his life. Here on this very spot, on a brilliant day
    in September of 1993, Yitzhak Rabin committed himself not only to an
    agreement with Mr. Arafat but to a
    comprehensive peace in the Middle East. How bravely he pursued it. But
    it cost him his life. Jews and Arabs who have wanted nothing more than
    to live quiet, normal lives are still denied that simple pleasure.
        Still, as the new century dawns, the world is filled with the
    promise and hope that we can overcome ancient hatreds to build a modern
    peace for our children. From Guatemala to Mozambique to Bosnia, and now
    even to the land of my ancestors in Ireland, longtime antagonists have
    left the battleground to find common ground. They are weary of war. They
    long for peace for their children. They move beyond hatred to hope.
        This is a time of reconciliation around the world. It must be a time
    to deepen freedom and raise up life in the Middle East. The 21st century
    can and must be a century of democracy, prosperity, and justice and, of
    course, of peace. But it can be only if we learn not only to respect but
    to honor our differences. The Middle East can build on the momentous
    achievements of its Nobel Prize winners, Begin and Sadat,
    Arafat, Peres, and
    Rabin, so that all its children may grow up without fear.
        In a land holy to three great religions, sacred sites for Islam,
    Judaism, and Christianity exist side by side. If there is so much
    history there, the children of all that history should be able to live
    together.
        Again and again, extremists have sought to derail peace with bullets
    and bombs. Again and again, they demonstrate the real divisions today
    are not between Jews and Arabs but between those stuck in the past and
    those who long for a better future, between those paralyzed by hatred
    and those energized by hope, those who stand with clenched fists and
    those who reach out with open hands. We cannot let the extremists
    prevail. Israel can fulfill its full promise by drawing on the courage
    and vision of its founders to achieve peace with security. Never has the
    opportunity been more real, and it must not be lost.
        You know, I was sitting here on the stage today listening to
    everything that was said and thinking of all the great gifts that Israel
    has given the United States. In 1963, 35 years ago this year, when
    Israel was still a young nation and President Kennedy was killed, your
    then-United Nations Ambassador, Mr. Eban, gave an
    enormous gift to the American people in all of our pain by putting in
    one short, terse sentence how we all felt when he said, ``Tragedy is the
    difference between what is and what might have been.'' As we look ahead
    to tomorrow, let us define triumph by turning his formula on its head.
    Triumph is when there is no difference between what might have been and
    what is.
        Let us in the United States say that we will stand by Israel, always
    foursquare for its security, always together in friendship, but we want
    this debate to continue until there is no difference between what might
    have been and what is.
        We look at Hebrew University and see all three pieces of David Ben-
    Gurion's dream coming to life. We see biologists developing techniques
    to locate a single cancer cell among millions of healthy ones; we see
    the moral commitment to keeping people's health among the scientists
    there; we see Hebrew University researchers undertaking efforts in
    cooperation with Palestinian researchers in East Jerusalem. One of the
    participants in the project said, ``It's science and peace together.''
    We know that much more is possible. We must understand that much more is
    essential.
        Fifty years from now, the 21st century will near its midpoint and
    Israel will have a 100th birthday celebration. Sure as the world, our
    grandchildren will be hanging around here on this lawn. What do you
    think they'll be able to say? And what will they be celebrating? It is
    my dream that on that 100th anniversary, people from every country in
    the Middle East will gather in the Holy Land, and all the land will be
    holy to all of them.
        As a Christian, I do not know how God, if He were to come to Earth,
    would divide the land over which there is dispute now. I suspect neither
    does anyone else in this audience. But I know that if we all pray for
    the wisdom to do God's will, chances are we will find a way to close the
    gap in the next couple of years between what might be and what is. I
    think

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    that is what we owe the founders of Israel, to finish Ben-Gurion's
    dream.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:58 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Menachem Magidor, president, and
    Menahem Ben-Sasson, rector, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Rev.
    James M. Dunn, executive director, Baptist Joint Committee on Public
    Affairs; Sulayman S. Nyang, president, Interfaith Conference of
    Washington, DC; Ismar Schorsch, chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary;
    actors Richard Dreyfuss and Linda Lavin; Israeli Ambassador to the U.S.
    Eliahu Ben-Elissar and his wife, Nitza; Chairman Yasser Arafat of the
    Palestinian Authority; and Abba Eban, former Israeli Ambassador to the
    United Nations.