[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 47 (Monday, November 28, 1994)]
[Pages 2417-2421]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of 
Israel and an Exchange With Reporters

November 21, 1994

Bosnia

    The President. I would like to make a brief comment and then give 
the Prime Minister a chance to make a comment.
    First of all, with regard to the NATO attack this morning on the 
airfield, it was a strong and entirely appropriate response. That 
airfield had been used to conduct air attacks against the Bihac region, 
and it was the right thing to do. The situation in Bihac remains quite 
serious. We'll just have to see how it next develops. But I strongly 
support the NATO action today.

Middle East Peace Process

    With regard to the meeting that we have just had, let me say that it 
was, as always, a good meeting. We remain committed to achieving a 
comprehensive peace in the Middle East. I have reaffirmed my support for 
the current aid level to Israel as well as for certain security 
assistance, including the Arrow missile program in the years ahead, so 
that we can continue to support the security conditions that, in my 
judgment, are the precondition for Israel being able to make a just 
peace with all her neighbors in the Middle East.
    Mr. Prime Minister, would you like to----
    Prime Minister Rabin. In the last 2 years, the Middle East has seen 
dramatic change in the interrelationships between the Arab countries and 
the Arab peoples and Israel. As you remember, in September '93, here on 
the lawns of the White House, we signed the Declaration of Principle 
between us and the PLO representing the Palestinians. We started to 
tackle the longest and the most complicated conflict in all the 
conflicts of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Since then, we have implemented 
the first phase. There are problems, but we are continuing this, the 
process of reconciliation and solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
    President Clinton visited the area when we signed the peace treaty 
with Jordan, the second peace treaty ever to be signed between Israel 
and an Arab country and the first one after the convening of the Madrid 
peace conference.
    We are committed to continue the negotiating with the Palestinians, 
with Syria, and Lebanon, with the purpose to achieve comprehensive 
peace. I'm sure that without the United States involvement, support, 
under the leadership of President Clinton to Secretary Christopher, it 
would be much more difficult, if at all, to achieve this progress in the 
peace process that we all witnessed and so many people did not believe 
that it would be possible to be done.
    Therefore, in our discussions, the President said what has been 
agreed, and we'll continue to adhere to our responsibility to achieve 
comprehensive peace. There will be obstacles; there will be 
difficulties. But I believe, with the support, involvement of the United 
States, we will achieve comprehensive peace.
    Q. Do you have any possibility of Syria in '95, of a peace 
agreement, Mr. Prime Minister?
    Prime Minister Rabin. In accordance to the Bible, all the prophets 
came from the Middle East. I would not advise anyone to become a prophet 
what will happen in the Middle East today. We will try our best.

Senator Jesse Helms

    Q. Mr. President, do you think that Jesse Helms owes you an apology?
    The President. Tomorrow I'm going to have a more extensive 
opportunity to meet with the press; I'll be glad to answer all those 
questions. I'd rather just answer questions today on these two matters 
we've discussed.

[[Page 2418]]

Bosnia

    Q. ----is NATO on crisis? Are the European allies and the Americans 
pulling in opposite directions? Do you intend to assert your leadership 
to try to get the allies to be more in accord with the American policy 
on using NATO force? Despite today's attack, Europeans have refused to 
enforce exclusion zones.
    The President. Well, let me say that you know what our position has 
been all along, and I think today's action is a good step in the right 
direction. We are moving forward. I will have a chance to meet with many 
of our allies in Budapest in the next few days, and we'll continue to 
work on it. But this was a step in the right direction.

Senator Jesse Helms

    Q. Are you talking to Helms about the Israeli aid and Arab aid, and 
are you talking also about NATO?
    The President. We're having extensive consultations and will 
continue to with the congressional leadership. But as I said, I'd rather 
talk about these matters today, and I'll answer some other questions 
tomorrow.
    Q. Mr. President, on these matters----
    Q. Senator Helms' office says----

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. ----to the Middle East leaders like the Prime Minister when the 
incoming head of the Foreign Relations Committee calls this process a 
fraud?
    The President. I don't think--well, the Prime Minister has already 
said the process is not a fraud; it's been quite successful. It's been 
the most successful process since Israel became a nation. And we'll just 
keep working at it to try to make it work better.
    Q. Can you clarify your position on the constitutional amendment----
    Q. Senator Helms also opposes troops on the Golan Heights----
    The President. I think it's--on the Golan issue, let me say, 
generally, we shouldn't get in the way of the parties making peace 
themselves. And I don't think I should say or do anything on that that 
would undermine the possibility of the parties reaching a peace. I think 
that ought to be the position that all Americans take. Now, the Prime 
Minister can comment on this better than I, but you know there have been 
American troops in the Sinai for quite a long time without incident. And 
I don't think any American would begrudge the investment we've made in 
the historic peace that grew out of Camp David.
    Prime Minister Rabin. Do you know that there are today a thousand 
Americans, about a thousand Americans, that served for 15\1/2\ years in 
the Sinai as part of the multinational force in which there are 
participation of military civilians from Austria, New Zealand, Colombia, 
Canada, and this force is in existence since we signed the peace treaty 
with Egypt, on the demand of Israel?
    All of the Americans there, as the others--and there is one fighting 
infantry battalion, American uniformed soldiers, in the Sinai. Their 
role is not to defend Israel. Their role is to monitor the military 
annex of the peace treaty, the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. 
And it serves effectively. No American was hurt there by any terror 
activities, because it is an area controlled by the Egyptian armed 
forces. We work in cooperation. We have all the machinery of 
cooperation.
    No doubt, on the Golan Heights, for 19 years, we had no one act of 
terror toward the lines between Syria and Israel. The Golan Heights 
today is the safest from terror because the Syrians keep their 
commitment under the disengagement agreement of 1974.
    Q. Mr. President, the Prime Minister is describing a monitoring 
force. Is that how you anticipate Americans being used, as monitors, or 
is it--which is something entirely different?
    The President. First of all, there has been no discussion--he 
described to you what came out of Camp David. There has been no 
discussion among the parties of a role for American forces yet. That 
would--let's let the people who have to make this agreement make it. And 
then, if we're asked by the parties themselves to become involved at 
some point in the future, I will come to the American people, I will 
come to the Congress, and I will make the case at that time based on an 
agreement that they would reach. There has been no agreement of any kind 
about this. We're jumping the gun here on this part of it.

[[Page 2419]]

Senator Jesse Helms

    Q. Are you going to see Helms yourself, Mr. Prime Minister? Are you 
going to see Mr. Helms, Senator Helms?
    The Prime Minister. He's not in town.

[At this point, one group of reporters left the room, and another group 
entered.]

Aid to Israel

    Q. Mr. President, with a new Republican Congress, what will happen 
to the foreign aid and to the American troops in the Golan Heights?
    The President. Well, first of all, with regard to the foreign aid, I 
have just pledged to the Prime Minister that I will support next year 
continuing the aid to Israel at its present level, in addition to some 
new security initiatives with regard to the Arrow missiles, 
supercomputers, and a couple of other things. So we are going to have a 
very robust security relationship with Israel, and I believe the aid 
levels will be maintained. We have enjoyed in this country, 
historically, a bipartisan level of support for Israel.
    Now, with regard to the Golan, I can only tell you that we in the 
United States must await an agreement of peace between Israel and Syria. 
If a peace agreement is reached regarding the Golan in which we were 
asked to participate, obviously that is something that I would consider.
    We have been in the Sinai, as a result of the agreement between 
Egypt and Israel, for quite a long time now without incident. I am very 
proud of the role the United States has been asked to play there as a 
monitor, not as a defender of Israel's security but as a monitor. But 
that has not been discussed now; we are a good ways from that. And that 
is something for Israel and for Syria to resolve between themselves 
before the United States can be involved in that.

Aid to Palestinians

    Q. Mr. President, can you shape foreign policy with Jesse Helms in 
Congress, and can you speed up foreign aid to Arafat, who seems to be on 
the brink of civil war?
    The President. I do think we should speed it up. There will be a 
meeting next week, a donors' meeting in Brussels, and we're going to try 
to move about $125 million out in a hurry. I do believe that the donors 
must work to get the assistance out quickly to enable the people in the 
areas to receive and to feel some benefits of the peace. I think that's 
critically important.

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Mr. President, do you see any chance of resuming the talks here 
in Washington between Israel and Syria in full scale of delegations and 
military----
    The President. I have no comment about that except to tell you that 
we will continue to do everything we can to reach a peace agreement and 
to facilitate the peace between the parties.
    Q. Mr. President, in view of the Republican victory in the election 
to the Congress, do you intend to change the foreign policy of the 
United States vis-a-vis the Middle East, or do you feel that this policy 
enjoys a bipartisan support in the American Congress or in the American 
public?
    The President. No, I have no intention of changing it; it's working. 
My policy in the Middle East is to support the peace process, to support 
a comprehensive peace, to stand behind Israel in its security, to 
increase the feeling that peace is possible, and then to make the 
benefits of peace apparent to all the parties who sign on to it. So that 
policy has worked very well for 2 years, and I intend to continue it.
    Q. Mr. President, what do you think of what happened in the Gaza 
Strip in the last few days?
    The President. Well, I think we have to work hard to stand up 
against terror and to try to bring the benefits of peace to the people 
who support the peace. And that is a difficult situation; we know that 
it is. But our policy will remain clear and steadfast there. We'll 
continue to support the peace process.
    Q. Don't you think that the way that President Asad treated you, it 
was an insult from your point of view?
    The President. I wouldn't characterize it in that way. I would say 
that if you look at the way my press conference and my comments about 
terrorism were played in the Syrian media, I don't think you can say it 
in that way. I do think that we have to keep working to build more trust 
and confidence

[[Page 2420]]

between the two countries. And I have urged President Asad to do that, 
to do whatever can be done to reach out to the people as well as to the 
Government of Israel to make it clear that Syria does genuinely wish a 
peace.
    I am convinced that the President of Syria wants to make peace with 
Israel, but I think that my opinion is not nearly as important as not 
only the opinion of the leaders of Israel but the people of Israel. 
Israel is a very great democracy, and the people need to feel in their 
bones that peace and security are both possible. And I am going to keep 
working to that end.
    Q. Mr. President, yesterday the Palestinian Minister said that 
unless sponsors speeded up aid to the territories very soon it might be 
too late. Do you share that bleak assessment, and what role do you think 
the violence in Gaza--I'm sorry--what do you think the connection was 
between the violence in Gaza and the fact that the economic situation is 
hurting?
    The President. I don't think you can draw a direct connection, but I 
do believe that when you bring peace to a place, you need to work hard 
to make sure that the benefits of peace become apparent to people who 
are the targets of the enemies of peace. And the poor in Gaza are 
clearly the targets of the enemies of peace. So we have to work harder 
and more aggressively, all of us who support the peace process, to try 
to make the benefits more apparent.
    We all knew that this would be difficult. The Prime Minister knew it 
would be difficult. There had never been, in effect, a national 
Palestinian Government there, if you will. There are difficulties. But I 
think the responsibility is on all of us who wish to see benefits of 
peace to keep pushing it. That's what the donors conference is about. 
And I think there is a sense of urgency among those who understand that 
the money, the investment need to go out.

Discussions With Prime Minister Rabin

    Q. Mr. Prime Minister, what did you achieve in your meeting today 
with President Clinton?
    Prime Minister Rabin. I'll say a few words in English, and with your 
permission, President, I will pass to Hebrew.
    First, I thanked the President for his involvement in sending the 
Secretary of State to the region, because in the last 2 years, we have 
achieved, to my humble opinion, dramatic changes in the Arab-Israeli 
conflict.
    We started to tackle the longest, the most complicated complex of 
conflict, the Israeli-Palestinians. I knew that there would be ups and 
downs, there would be enemies of the achievement of a solution to the 
Israeli-Palestinian problem. But I believe that regardless to what 
happened in Gaza, we are on the right track.
    We signed the peace treaty with Jordan, the country that has got the 
longest border with Israel, and it goes mostly the implementation of the 
peace treaty. We are still in process, not easy ones, with negotiations 
with Syria and Lebanon. This all happened in the last less than 2 years.
    I told the President that I, the Government of Israel, the people of 
Israel, thank him for his guidance, for his involvement, for his 
readiness, as he once wrote to me, and has kept his commitment that when 
Israel takes risks for peace, the United States would try its best to 
minimize these risks.
    And the support that we got from the President, from the 
administration, the Secretary of State, and what you were told by the 
President that for the next fiscal year the President will keep the same 
level of assistance to Israel, will recommend to the Congress to keep 
the same level, with the additions that the President mentioned, all 
this means backing Israel in its effort and assisting wherever it is 
needed, wherever it is possible by the United States to advance towards 
comprehensive peace. There are problems, but I'm proud of what has been 
achieved towards peace in the last 2 years.
    And now I shall be brief, with your permission.

[At this point, Prime Minister Rabin spoke in Hebrew, and a translation 
was not provided.]

Islamic Extremists

    Q. Mr. President, one more question. The Prime Minister mentioned 
the danger of the

[[Page 2421]]

Islamic extremists. Do you intend, as the President of the most powerful 
country, to build a coalition against the Islamic extremists and the 
danger?
    The President. First, let me say that I agree that it's a danger, 
and we are monitoring it very closely. We keep up with it, and we're 
going to do whatever is appropriate.

Note: The President spoke at 12:38 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. A reporter referred to Palestinian spokesman Nabil Shaath. A tape 
was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.