[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 43 (Monday, October 31, 1994)]
[Pages 2164-2166]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Jordanian Parliament in Amman, Jordan

October 26, 1994

    Your Majesties, Prime Minister Majali, Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, 
Members of the Parliament, citizens of Jordan, citizens of the United 
States:
    Mr. President, thank you for that generous introduction. Your 
Majesty, thank you for welcoming me to your beautiful country and for 
giving me the opportunity to accept your kind hospitality after your 
many visits to our Capital.
    I thank you all for the honor to address this assembly and to 
reflect with you on this historic day of peace. On this day, Your 
Majesty, descendent of the Prophet Mohammed, in making peace with your 
neighbor has done even more than fulfill the legacy of King Abdullah. 
You have sent a signal to the entire Arab world that peace is 
unstoppable.
    On this day, in the desert of the great Rift Valley, the people of 
Jordan stepped out of the shadows of strife. You made a bold choice: You 
rejected the dark forces of terror and extremism. You embraced the 
bright promise of tolerance and moderation. You spurned those who would 
drag you back into the hostile past. You chose instead a future of 
opportunity and tranquillity for your children. The United States 
admires and supports the choice you have made. And we will stand with 
you in months and years ahead.
    Today the people of Jordan pay homage to those who led the great 
Arab revolt for freedom, independence, and unity. You honor the memory 
of three generations of Jordanians who gave their lives in defense of 
your country, what Your Majesty has called the shattering toll in blood 
and tears, the waste of youth, and the grief of our forefathers.
    In your address to our Congress 2 months ago, Your Majesty called 
for an end to the unnatural and sinister state that has spread fear and 
isolation. You urged your people to commit themselves to establishing a 
new, humane, and natural order. Now the people of Jordan have said: 
Enough of blood, enough of tears. It is time to move on. In the words of 
Your Majesty, they have said, ``Let us make what is abnormal, normal.''
    All over the world people of different faiths and all walks of life 
celebrated this day. All over the world people of good will rejoiced at 
the leadership of King Hussein, who, with his courage, discipline, and 
vision, honored King Abdullah's wish as he embarked on his last journey 
to Jerusalem, when he said, ``Do your very best to see that my work is 
not lost. Continue it in the service of our people.'' Now it can be 
said, Your Majesty has met King Abdullah's charge, and in so doing you 
are meeting the challenge of history and advancing the cause of peace 
throughout the Arab world.
    Today's victory is also in keeping with the history of Jordan, which 
has long been a model for progress and a voice of moderation in the Arab 
world. From the beginning, when King Abdullah brought together disparate 
peoples in a united kingdom, following this path has never been easy for 
you. Yet in the midst of hard times and conflicts, you are building a 
society devoted to the growth of pluralism and openness. You have 
established a Parliament where all voices can be heard.
    You have nurtured a growing partnership between Your Majesty and all 
Jordanian citizens. Your nation's commitment to pluralism has been 
matched by a remarkable generosity of spirit, for you have opened your 
doors to millions of your Arab brethren. And they have come here, year 
after year, seeking refuge in your nation, and here they have found

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a true home. In return, they have enriched your economy and your 
culture.
    My country, a nation of immigrants from every area of this world, 
respects your openness and your understanding that diversity is a 
challenge, but it can be a source of strength. America's commitment to 
Jordan is as strong tonight as it was when Your Majesty traveled to the 
United States for the first time 35 years ago and met President Dwight 
Eisenhower, the first of eight Presidents you have known.
    The President and Your Majesty discussed the great threat that 
communism then posed to America and to the Arab world. And when 
President Eisenhower asked what America could do to help, Your Majesty 
said then, ``We need more than anything else the feeling that we do not 
stand alone.'' Now, at a time when those who preached hate and terror 
pose the greatest threat to the cause of peace, President Eisenhower's 
response still holds true. Thirty-five years ago he told Your Majesty, 
``Our country knows what you have done. Believe me, we won't let you 
down.''
    Both of us, Jordan and America, are fighting the same battle. Today, 
that battle is the struggle for peace. And I say again, on behalf of the 
United States, we will not let you down.
    From the outset, America's commitment to a comprehensive peace in 
the Middle East has been backed by a strong pledge that whenever Arabs 
and Israelis turned the page on the past, the United States would work 
with them to write a real, practical future of hope. Those who take 
risks for peace must not stand alone. We will work with Jordan to meet 
your legitimate defense requirements and to give you the security you 
deserve.
    But for peace to endure, it must not only provide protection, it 
must produce tangible improvements in the quality of ordinary citizens' 
lives and, in so doing, to give those citizens a real stake in 
preserving the peace. The United States understands the need for peace 
to produce real benefits, and we are taking steps to meet that goal.
    We have pledged to forgive all of Jordan's debt to our own 
Government, and we have encouraged, indeed urged, other countries to do 
the same. From one end of your border with Israel to the other, the 
U.S.-Jordan-Israel Trilateral Economic Commission is preparing to invest 
in progress. Visionary designs to develop the great Rift Valley, 
ambitious projects to produce more energy and fresh water, new efforts 
to extract minerals from the Dead Sea, and exciting plans to encourage 
visitors to share the wonders of your lands, all these are being brought 
to life.
    Making these dreams real, of course, will require new investment and 
new capital. To that end, the United States supports the creation of a 
Middle East bank for cooperation and development. And we will take the 
lead in consultations with governments within and beyond the region to 
ensure that the bank is properly structured. Our Government's Overseas 
Private Investment Corporation is establishing a $75 million regional 
investment fund to encourage American investment in projects like those 
in the Rift Valley. And the United States will actively pursue practical 
means of expanding trade and investment opportunities with Jordan. We 
will consider a wide array of measures, including a bilateral investment 
treaty, other trade arrangements, and other initiatives that will lessen 
barriers to trade and increase prosperity in your area.
    These critical steps, and others to provide your citizens with the 
economic opportunities they deserve, are vital to building peace in 
Jordan and throughout the Middle East. If people do not feel these 
benefits, if poverty persists in breeding despair and killing hope, then 
the purveyors of fear will find fertile ground. Our goal must be to 
spread prosperity and security to all. After all, the chance to live in 
harmony with our neighbors and to build a better life for our children 
is the hope that links us all together. Whether we worship in a mosque 
in Irbid, a Baptist church like my own in Little Rock, Arkansas, or a 
synagogue in Haifa, we are bound together in that hope.
    Yet, though we know in every corner of the world people share that 
hope, there are those who insist that between America and the Middle 
East there are impassible religious and other obstacles to harmony, that 
our beliefs and our cultures must somehow inevitably clash. But I 
believe they are wrong. America refuses to accept that our civiliza- 

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tions must collide. We respect Islam. Every day in our own land, 
millions of our own citizens answer the Moslem call to prayer. And we 
know the traditional values of Islam, devotion to faith and good works, 
to family and society, are in harmony with the best of American ideals. 
Therefore, we know our people, our faiths, our cultures can live in 
harmony with each other.
    But in the Middle East, as elsewhere across the world, the United 
States does see a contest, a contest between forces that transcend 
civilization, a contest between tyranny and freedom, terror and 
security, bigotry and tolerance, isolation and openness. It is the age-
old struggle between fear and hope.
    This is the conflict that grips the Middle East today. On one side 
stand the forces of terror and extremism, who cloak themselves in the 
rhetoric of religion and nationalism but behave in ways that contradict 
the very teachings of their faith and mock their patriotism. These 
forces of reaction feed on disillusionment, on poverty, on despair. They 
stoke the fires of violence. They seek to destroy the progress of this 
peace. To them, I say, you cannot succeed. You will not succeed. You 
must not succeed, for you are the past, not the future.
    The people of Jordan and all those throughout the Arab world who are 
working for peace are choosing progress over decline; choosing reason, 
not ruin; choosing to build up, not tear down; choosing tomorrow, not 
yesterday. The people of Jordan on this day, through King Hussein, have 
pledged themselves to a treaty based on a fundamental law of humanity, 
that what we have in common is more important than our differences.
    This was the message of Moses' farewell address to the children of 
Israel as they gathered to cross the River Jordan when he said, ``I have 
set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that 
you and your descendants may live.'' And it is the message the Prophet 
Mohammed brought to the peoples of other faiths when he said, ``There is 
no argument between us and you. God shall bring us together, and unto 
him is the homecoming.''
    Today the people of Jordan and the people of Israel have reached 
across the Jordan River. They have chosen life. They have made a 
homecoming. And tonight we say, thanks be to God, Ilham du Illah.

Note: The President spoke at 9:32 p.m. in the Chamber at the Parliament. 
In his remarks, he referred to Ahmad Lowzi, President of the Senate, and 
S'ad Ha'il Srour, Speaker of the Lower House.