[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 43 (Monday, October 31, 1994)]
[Pages 2162-2164]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Signing Ceremony for the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty at 
the Border Between Israel and Jordan

October 26, 1994

    King Hussein, President Weizman, Prime Minister Rabin, Prime 
Minister Majali, Crown Prince Hassan, Foreign Minister Peres, Foreign 
Minister Kozyrev, Mr. Secretary of State; to the people of Jordan and

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Israel, with a special thanks to those who are our cheering section up 
there--[laughter]--we thank you all.
    At the dawn of this peace of a generation, in this ancient place we 
celebrate the history and the faith of Jordanians and Israelis. But we 
break the chains of the past that for too long have kept you shackled in 
the shadows of strife and suffering. We thank those who have worked for 
peace before. We celebrate the efforts of brave leaders who saw the 
bright horizon of this dawn, even while the darkness lingered.
    This vast bleached desert hides great signs of life. Today we see 
the proof of it, for peace between Jordan and Israel is no longer a 
mirage. It is real. It will take root in this soil. It will grow to 
great heights and shelter generations to come.
    Today we honor the constant and devoted work of two courageous 
leaders, two who have risked everything so that their children and their 
children's children need fight nor fear no more.
    King Hussein, today in this arid place, you bring to full flower the 
memory of the man who taught you to seek peace, your grandfather, King 
Abdullah. When he was martyred four decades ago, he left you with a 
great burden and a great dream. He believed that one day, on both sides 
of the River Jordan, Arab and Jew would live in peace. How bravely you 
have shouldered that burden and carried that dream. Now after so much 
danger and so much hardship, Your Majesty, your day has come. Truly, you 
have fulfilled your grandfather's legacy.
    Prime Minister Rabin, you have spent a lifetime as a soldier, 
fighting first to establish your country and then for so long to defend 
it. For a lifetime, you have fought with skill and tenacity and courage, 
simply to achieve a secure and lasting peace for your people. Now you 
have given them the hope of life after the siege. In your own words, you 
have now given them the challenge to furnish the house of Israel and 
make it a home. As a general, you have won many battles through strength 
and courage. But now, through strength and courage, you command the army 
of peace, and you have won the greatest victory of all. We salute you.
    As has been said before, this treaty is the product of many hands. 
Crown Prince Hassan and Foreign Minister Peres know better than any of 
us that peace does not spring full-grown. It requires cultivation. It 
requires patience and care. We salute their devotion and persistence, 
and the wise and determined counsel of Secretary Christopher. We are in 
all their debt, and we thank them.
    I say to the people of Israel and Jordan: Now you must make this 
peace real, to turn no-man's land into every man's home, to take down 
the barbed wire, to remove the deadly mines, to help the wounds of war 
to heal. Open your borders. Open your hearts. Peace is more than an 
agreement on paper. It is feeling. It is activity. It is devotion.
    The forces of terror will try to hold you back. Already they take 
deadly aim at the future of peace. In their zeal to kill hope and keep 
hatred alive, they would deny all that peace can bring to your children. 
We cannot, we must not, we will not let them succeed.
    The United States stands with you. Since President Truman first 
recognized Israel, we have wished for and worked for comprehensive peace 
between Israel and all of her neighbors. On behalf of all Americans, 
including millions of Jewish and Arab Americans for whom this day means 
so much, I thank you for trusting America to help you arrive at this 
moment. The American people are very proud of the opportunity we have 
had.
    And now let the work of progress bear fruit. Here at the first of 
many crossing points to be open, people from every corner of the Earth 
will soon come to share in the wonders of your lands. There are 
resources to be found in the desert, minerals to be drawn from the sea, 
water to be separated from salt and used to fertilize the fields. Here 
where slaves in ancient times were forced to take their chisels to the 
stone, the Earth, as the Koran says, will stir and swell and bring forth 
life. The desert, as Isaiah prophesied, shall rejoice and blossom.
    Here your people will drink water from the same well and savor 
together the fruit of the vine. As you seize this moment, be assured 
that you will redeem every life sacrificed along the long road that 
brought us to this day. You will take the hatred out of

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hearts, and you will pass along to your children a peace for the 
generations.
    Your Majesty, Mr. Prime Minister, here in the great Rift Valley you 
have bridged the tragic rift that separated your people for too long. 
Here in this region, which is the home of not only both your faiths but 
mine, I say: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall inherit the 
Earth.

Note: The President spoke at approximately 1:50 p.m. at the Wadi Araba 
border crossing. In his remarks, he referred to King Hussein, Crown 
Prince Hassan, and Prime Minister Abd al-Salam al-Majali of Jordan; 
President Ezer Weizman, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Foreign 
Minister Shimon Peres of Israel; and Foreign Minister Andrey Kozyrev of 
Russia.