[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000-2001, Book III)]
[October 16, 2000]
[Page 2207]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Opening of the Plenary Session of the Middle East Summit 
in Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt
October 16, 2000

    Well, first of all, I would like to thank you, President 
Mubarak, for having us all here, for providing 
an opportunity for the Palestinians and the Israelis to come together 
and to talk and for us all to try to save the peace process.
    I thank His Majesty, the King of Jordan; 
and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, 
who has been working very hard out here, and we're grateful for him; and 
my good friend Javier Solana from the European 
Union--for all being here.
    I think it's very important that we all be quite honest and blunt 
with each other, but we be sober and serious about this. We're here 
because we would like to achieve three objectives. We want to end the 
violence and restore security cooperation. We hope to achieve agreement 
on an objective and fair factfinding process on what happened to bring 
us to this sad point and how we can avoid having it ever happen again. 
And we want to get the peace process going.
    The future of the peoples involved here, the future of the peace 
process, and the stability of the region are at stake. We cannot afford 
to fail here. In order to succeed, though once again we have a situation 
piled high with grievance, we have got to move beyond blame. We have got 
to focus on what we're going to do tomorrow and the next day and the 
next day. We have to have a balanced, mutual disengagement, and we have 
to restore the security cooperation and have the confidence-building 
measures necessary for people to go about their business and live in 
peace and begin to rebuild the bonds of trust.
    The only other thing I want to ask you all is just to remember 
before these terrible events how far we have come since September 19, 
1993, when the Palestinians and Israelis signed the agreement to find a 
peaceful future together and resolve their differences peacefully on the 
lawn of the White House.
    We shouldn't give it all up for what has happened in the last few 
weeks. And what has happened in these last few weeks reminds us of the 
terrible alternative to continuing to live in peace and to continuing 
the peace process.
    President Mubarak, I am grateful to you, 
again. We can, if we will look to the future and proceed in a fair and 
balanced way, we can do what we have to do here, and we must do that.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 1:30 p.m. at the Jolie Ville Golf Resort. 
In his remarks, he referred to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt; King 
Abdullah II of Jordan; United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan; and 
European Union Council Secretary General Javier Solana, High 
Representative for the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy. A tape was 
not available for verification of the content of these remarks.