    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [March 18, 1999]
    [Pages 405-406]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 405]]

    Remarks on Receiving the Peace Garden Scroll and the Shalom Chaver Award
    for International Leadership
    March 18, 1999

        Leah and Dahlia, Noa, Yuval, Tali, Rachel: Hillary and I are honored to welcome you here. We are
    honored by the Shalom Chaver Award and the Peace Garden and the power of
    your example. Thank you, Noa, for the beautiful
    song.
        I thank the members of the Cabinet who are here, the administration,
    especially Secretary Albright and Mr.
    Berger, and I want to say a special word of
    thanks to all those who have been on our peace team, now and for the
    last 6 years: Mr. Ross, Mr. Indyk; before them, Secretary Christopher, Mr. Lake, and others.
        I welcome the members of the diplomatic corps who are here. I think
    it would be worth noting, as a particular tribute to Prime Minister
    Rabin, that the members of the diplomatic corps who are here are the
    Ambassadors of Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia,
    Morocco, Qatar, Oman,
    and the PLO. Welcome.
        I thank Congressmen Lantos, Lewis, and Lowey for being here. We
    have many distinguished guests from Israel, including General and Mrs. Mordechai and
    Mrs. Barak. We thank you for being here, all of
    our guests from Israel, and all of our American guests. Thank you for
    coming, in the words of Prime Minister Rabin, to make a stand against
    violence and for peace.
        We are gratified to know that this Rabin Center will promote
    Yitzhak's legacy and his vision of a Middle East in a world where people
    do not have to die for peace but can actually live in peace and enjoy
    it.
        I still remember quite clearly the meeting we had in March of 1993,
    when the Oslo agreement was still months away, but he had already
    foreseen the bold steps he would have to take. He shared with me his
    assessment of the danger posed by the adversaries in the Middle East. As
    I recall, he called it a marriage of extremists and missiles. He
    understood that Israel needed a strategic peace, a circle of peace with
    others in the region to isolate and weaken extremists.
        All I could say to him then and all I can do now is to state again
    that as Israel takes risks for peace, the United States will do
    everything in its power to minimize those risks and advance that cause.
        Today I also thank Leah and Dahlia for remembering our friend His Majesty King
    Hussein. In a humorous moment in an otherwise profoundly somber day, at
    his funeral, I was standing with another leader of the Arab world whom I
    dare not mention for fear of embarrassing him, and we noticed standing
    there at the King's funeral Prime Minister Netanyahu, General Barak, and
    General Mordechai. And the leader looked at me, and he said, ``This is
    truly an amazing world. King Hussein is the only thing they agree on.''
    [Laughter]
        Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin were brave soldiers who had the courage to
    tell the hard truth that there would be no security for any in the
    Middle East without fairness for all, that the time had come to lift
    people's hopes, not exploit their fears, to reach across the divide of
    history and hatred, to fulfill the true promise of the Promised Land.
    They knew well enough that extremists would try to derail the peace
    accord by keeping fear and frustration, mistrust and misery dominant in
    the lives of ordinary Palestinians and Israelis. But they were
    determined to turn back the tide, and so they did.
        How we gloried in those brilliant days in 1993 and 1995 when the
    leaders of the Middle East gathered here to grasp hands and pledged to
    build a safer and better future. How we enjoyed those first halting
    steps toward reconciliation. Even then there was humor: I will never
    forget when Yitzhak promised me in September of '93 that he would shake
    Mr. Arafat's hand as long as there was no kissing. [Laughter]
        But it wasn't long after that when they came here to sign all the
    maps to embody in concrete terms the accord which had been reached, when
    a dispute arose. And it was at the last minute, and no one knew how to
    resolve it. So I showed them back to my private dining room, and I said,
    ``I believe I could find Jericho, but otherwise I don't know much about
    this map. You guys go in that room and solve it. We'll wait until it's
    done.'' And they sat there alone and resolved the problem.
        Today, the people of the Middle East still have a chance to build
    the secure peace of Prime Minister Rabin's dreams, to isolate the

    [[Page 406]]

    extremists, to weaken their ability to shatter the peace with terrorism
    or missiles or weapons of mass destruction. But it is just a chance.
        I can still hear the strong voices of Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein
    speaking to us today and saying: Push ahead with the peace process.
    Build on Oslo and Wye River--before it is too late. But today, their
    voices must be embodied by others all across the Middle East. Tzarich
    chaverim li-shalom. We need friends of peace.
        The loss of Yitzhak Rabin, the premature death of His Majesty King
    Hussein make it time--and past time--for all in the Middle East to
    remember the wisdom of the ages: Life is fleeting. When we return to
    dust, our differences are as nothing. All that remains is our legacy. It
    must be an affirmation of our common humanity. Why is it we can only see
    the humanity we share when we lose someone we love?
        Long ago, Leah said it very well in 1975 at a women's conference in
    Mexico City. She said this: ``War solves nothing. Our area thirsts for
    peace, for the benefit of all peoples living there. Our true enemies are
    poverty, illiteracy, disease, and inequality of opportunity.''
        Leah, you and Yitzhak lived the history of
    Israel together, from your marriage in the year of your nation's birth,
    from the ashes of the Holocaust and the seeds of the Diaspora. You
    fought for independence and survival. You helped to build the
    enlightened, vibrant democratic society that Israel is today. And I want
    to say that we are very grateful to you for your sacrifices, for your
    contributions to help build an Israel that is strong and free,
    prosperous and at peace. We thank you.
        That is also America's cause in the Middle East; and in Central
    America, where I visited last week, and where longtime adversaries in
    civil wars now reach across great divides; and in Northern Ireland, the
    land of my ancestors, whose leaders I met with yesterday, where we are
    so close to finishing the job; and in the former Yugoslavia, where we
    are determined to avoid in Kosovo a repeat of the terrible senseless
    bloodshed of Bosnia; and in Africa, where too much blood still is being
    shed, but whose leaders came here this week in a remarkable display of
    unity to seek a partnership of freedom and opportunity with the United
    States.
        In all these places the struggle for peace continues. And we must
    continue it in the Middle East, between Israelis and Palestinians and
    all across the region, because every day we delay the process of peace
    strengthens the extremists and supports their violent designs.
        I would like to close with three admonitions. We must not grow
    weary. The psalmist says, ``Do good; seek peace, and pursue it.'' We
    must not harden our hearts in the face of all that has been lost.
    Shakespeare said it best:

        The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
        It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
        Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
        It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

    Let us give it and take it. And finally, we must not lose faith. Yitzhak
    Rabin once quoted these words from the poet Tchernichovsky: ``I believe
    in the future. That day will come when peace and blessings are borne
    from nation to nation.'' And he added, ``I want to believe that that day
    is not far off.''
        With the help of a merciful God, we will hasten the day of Yitzhak
    Rabin's dreams.
        Shalom. Salaam. Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:49 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to the following members of Prime
    Minister Yitzhak Rabin's family: Leah Rabin, widow; Dahlia Rabin-
    Pelossof, daughter; Noa Pelossof, granddaughter; Yuval Rabin, son, and
    his wife, Tali; and Rachel Jacob, sister. The President also referred to
    Ambassadors Marwan Muashir of Jordan, Ahmed Maher El-Sayed of Egypt,
    Noureddine Mejdoub of Tunisia, Mohamed Benaissa of Morocco, Saad
    Muhammad al-Kubaysi of Qatar, and Abdallah bin Muhammad bin Aqil al-
    Dhahab of Oman; Hasan Abdel Rahman, the Palestine Liberation
    Organization representative in Washington, DC; Gen. Yitzhak Mordechai,
    and his wife, Cochi; Gen. Ehud Barak, chairman, Israeli Labor Party, and
    his wife, Nava; Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel; and
    Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority. The scroll and the
    award were presented by the Yitzhak Rabin Center.