[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[September 4, 1999]
[Pages 1489-1491]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1489]]


Remarks on the Middle East Peace Process and an Exchange With Reporters
September 4, 1999

    The President. The new agreement which will be signed today between 
the Israelis and the Palestinians represents a wonderful opportunity to 
move the peace process forward. It is a product of hard work and the 
growing understanding by Israelis and Palestinians alike that the 
fulfillment of one side's aspirations must come with, and not at the 
expense of, the fulfillment of the other side's dreams.
    The two sides have both strong positions to be reconciled and shared 
interests to be pursued together. They know there's no sense in an 
endless tug-of-war over common ground.
    The United States has been honored to support these efforts for 
peace, from the signing of the Oslo agreement on the White House lawn 
almost exactly 6 years ago, to the Wye River accords achieved with the 
help of the late King Hussein, to the peace between Israel and Jordan 
itself in 1994, down to the present agreement. Our success in these 
endeavors, of course, goes back to the Camp David accords under 
President Carter in 1978.
    Today I want to pay tribute to Prime Minister Barak for fulfilling his promise to seek a just and lasting 
peace for the people of Israel and to Chairman Arafat for his courage in taking yet another step toward 
mutual respect and recognition. I am grateful for Egyptian President 
Mubarak's extraordinary efforts in this 
instance. He had a critical role in facilitating this agreement. And, of 
course, I want to say a special word of thanks to Secretary 
Albright and her team for going the 
extra mile to help the parties bridge their final gaps and reach 
consensus.
    There is much hard work ahead for all of us. The United States 
pledged in the Wye River accords that we would help both sides minimize 
the risks of peace and we would help to lift the lives of the 
Palestinians. I ask Congress now to provide the funds we need to keep 
that promise.
    Final status talks are now set to begin. We will do everything we 
can to be supportive all along the way and to achieve our larger goal: a 
just, lasting, and comprehensive peace in the entire region, including 
Syria and Lebanon. I hope today's progress is seen by leaders in the 
Middle East as a stepping stone toward that larger goal. Our commitment 
to reaching it will never waver.
    Thank you very much.

Reinvestigation of 1993 Waco Incident

    Q. Mr. President, were you concerned that incendiary devices were 
used at Waco--or are you concerned?
    The President. Well, let me say I support the Attorney 
General's decision to seek an independent 
investigation, and I think that's what ought to happen, and we ought to 
see what the investigation turns up. We ought to find out what the truth 
is and let you and the American people know.
    Q. Do you still have confidence in the Attorney General and the 
Director of the FBI?
    The President. Yes, I certainly have confidence in the Attorney 
General. You know, she's told us what happened; 
and she's told us she asked some questions that she didn't get the right 
answers to.
    And I think that with regard to the Director, I don't think that it's--there is going to be an 
independent investigation, which she supports and 
which he has said he supports. I don't think it serves any purpose for 
the rest of us to assign blame until the investigation is conducted and 
the evidence is in. I think he did the right thing in saying he thought 
there ought to be an independent investigation, and I think that that's 
all we can ask of him. And she is now going to appoint an appropriate 
person to do it, and I think we ought to let them do their job.

East Timor

    Q. Mr. President, are you pleased at the outcome of the voting in 
East Timor?
    The President. Yes, I'm pleased because so many people voted, and 
I'm pleased because the outcome was so unambiguous. I believe it's 78\1/
2\ to 21\1/2\; that's about as clear an expression of public opinion as 
you could ever expect.
    Now, I'm very concerned about the continuing violence. The people 
who lost the election should recognize that they lost it fair and 
square, and we should now find a way to go

[[Page 1490]]

forward peacefully. I respect the fact that the Government of Indonesia 
supported the referendum and has said that it will abide by these 
results. It isn't often that a country is willing to do such a thing. 
But I think it is also important that the Indonesians do everything they 
can to keep the peace and to prevent the bloodshed that we now see in 
East Timor. They have a capacity, I think, that would enable them to do 
that.
    We will work with the United Nations; we will do everything we can 
to support it. But this was a truly historic occurrence and one that may 
provide some guidance, some indication, some hope for people throughout 
the world. It would be tragic, indeed, if the referendum, which was so 
heavily supported by the people--not only the 78 percent who voted for 
independence but just the huge percentage of the citizens that showed up 
to vote--it would be tragic if all that came out of it was more and more 
violence and killing of innocents.
    So I think it's important that they, the United Nations, and all of 
us who support them do everything we can to minimize the bloodshed and 
to facilitate an orderly and honorable transition. And we will support 
that.

Legislative Agenda

    Q. Now that you're--[inaudible]--your vacation and Congress is going 
to come back, what are you hoping to accomplish as far as the 
legislative agenda?
    The President. Well, I'm quite optimistic, actually, in view of some 
of the developments of the last few weeks. I hope we can pass the 
Patients' Bill of Rights. There is now a bipartisan bill that has been 
supported by the American Medical Association and 200 other health 
professional, health consumer groups. I hope now that those who have 
been opposing it in the congressional leadership will change their 
position and let us go forward.
    I'm very hopeful that we will pass juvenile justice legislation that 
will adopt the commonsense measures to keep guns out of the wrong hands 
that the Senate adopted. I'm very hopeful that in the end we will get a 
budget agreement that will enable us to extend the life of Social 
Security, extend the life to the Medicare Trust Fund, and provide for 
prescription drugs and pay down the debt of the American people. And 
there are many other things that are going on.
    I would like to emphasize, since this is Labor Day and all the 
children are going back to school, I'm also especially hopeful that we 
can be successful with our education agenda. This is the occasion, this 
year, 1999, as we see in every 5-year period, when we have to 
reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. And back in 
January, at the State of the Union Address, I asked the Congress to 
change the terms in which we give money to States and school districts 
to stop subsidizing failure, to end social promotion, to dramatically 
increase our commitment to after-school and summer school programs and 
to proven strategies that turn around failing schools.
    We've seen all over the country where there is a systematic effort 
to turn these failing schools around, they work. And if we do that, plus 
the charter schools, plus the school modernization program and hooking 
them all up to the Internet, and our continuing commitment to hire more 
teachers, I think that this could be one of the most productive years 
that we have had since I've been President.
    It's in the nature of divided government that things that happen 
that are positive tend to happen late in the process. So I am not at all 
pessimistic. I'm quite hopeful that we can get over this difference we 
have over the tax issue, that they will accept an affordable tax cut 
that will provide--my tax proposal provides about as much relief to 
middle class Americans as theirs does at a much, much lower cost and 
permits us to achieve these other objectives.
    So I'm going to work as hard as I can with members of both parties 
to get that done as they come back. I'm looking forward to it, looking 
forward to talking to the leaders of the Senate and the House in both 
parties and going back to work.

President's Vacation and Home Purchase

    Q. Mr. President, after all you have done in the last 2 weeks, do 
you need a vacation? [Laughter] And how do you like your new house?
    The President. Yes, even by my standards this was a fairly active 
vacation, you know. Hillary is 
keeping me busy, and we had a lot of--we also had finalized the house. I 
love this house. It's a beautiful old house, and the older part of it 
was built in 1889. The people who lived in it for the last 18 years have 
taken wonderful care of it. It was obviously a place that

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has been lovingly tended to, and it will be a good place to wake up in 
the morning--lots of light. I like the neighbors; they were nice. And so 
I'm looking forward to it. I know that Hillary is, and I'm very pleased 
that we were able to find it.
    And I'd also like to say, since you asked me the question, a special 
word of thanks to all the people who opened their homes to 
Hillary or to Hillary and me, to 
people on our behalf, as we were looking for a place. As you might 
imagine, the circumstances for them were somewhat unusual; the publicity 
for them--most of them--was somewhat--was unprecedented, and I was very 
touched by the way we were received.
    And I had a wonderful vacation. I liked it all. But I had to come up 
to Camp David to get a little rest this weekend.
    Q. Thank you, Mr. President.
    The President. Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 4 p.m. at Camp David, MD. In his remarks, 
he referred to Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel; Chairman Yasser 
Arafat of the Palestinian Authority; and President Hosni Mubarak of 
Egypt.