[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 19 (Monday, May 15, 1995)]
[Pages 778-784]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Policy 
Conference

May 7, 1995

    Thank you. If I had really good judgment I would stop now while I'm 
ahead. [Laughter] You're not supposed to clap for that. [Laughter]

    Thank you, Steve, for that wonderful introduction and for your 
leadership. Mr. Prime Minister, Ambassador Rabinovich, the Israeli 
Minister of Health, Larry Weinberg and Lester Pollack and Neal Sher and 
members of our administration who are here, Mr. Lake and Ambassador 
Indyk, Secretary Glickman. I can't help pointing out that we have been a 
country now for a very long time, and the Jewish people have a special 
relationship with the soil. Dan Glickman is the first Jewish-American 
Secretary of Agriculture in the history of the Republic. I'm also 
delighted to see one of the best friends Israel has in the United 
States, Senator Frank Lautenberg, out there in the audience. It's good 
to see you, Senator.
    I'm delighted to be here tonight among so many familiar faces and to 
have Steve remind me of that remarkable occasion I had to meet with this 
group in 1989. I first spoke with an AIPAC group in my home State, in 
Arkansas, 5 years before that. I thank so many of you here for your 
support and your counsel. And I am deeply honored to be the first 
sitting President ever to address this conference.
    There are many things for which I could express my thanks to AIPAC. 
I would like to begin by thanking you for having all these students here 
tonight. I think that's a wonderful--[applause] Thank you. Thank you. I 
must say, when we came out to such a nice, enthusiastic reception, and 
the Prime Minister and I were standing here and they started shouting, 
``Four more years,'' Steve whispered in my ear. He said, ``Do you think 
they're talking about you or Prime Minister Rabin? '' [Laughter]
    And it wasn't so many years ago when we could have voted the 
students in both places in my home State, but we've changed that now, so 
you'll have to decide. But I'm glad to have you here.
    I want to thank you for helping to make the partnership between the 
United States and Israel what it is today. I want to thank you for 
understanding by the enormous response you gave to the Prime Minister 
the incredibly pivotal role he has played in making that partnership 
what it is by having the

[[Page 779]]

courage to take the risks he has taken to make a lasting peace. Few 
individuals that I have ever met have risen to the challenge of history 
as he has.
    He could well have been content simply to be a member of the heroic 
generation that defended Israel at its birth and then to have risen to 
lead the Israeli military in preserving its strength against all odds. 
But instead, he has shepherded the Jewish state into a new era. And I am 
persuaded that no matter what happens in the days and weeks and months 
ahead, there will be no turning back, thanks in large measure to Prime 
Minister Rabin.
    He has sacrificed many things large and small to make this 
relationship work and to pursue the peace. He has, for example, endured 
the ban on smoking at the White House. [Laughter] But I want you to know 
something else. When we first met, as I have said over and over again, 
he was looking at me and I was looking at him, and he was sort of sizing 
me up, and I already knew he was bigger than life. [Laughter] I said, if 
you will take risks for peace, my job is not to tell you what to do, how 
to do it, or when to do it, it is to minimize those risks. That is what 
I have tried to do.
    I can tell you something, my fellow Americans, if they were easy, 
somebody would have done it before. Anytime a leader takes on an issue 
this fraught with difficulty, this full of emotion, where every day and 
every way even the leader must sometimes have mixed feelings about the 
decisions that have to be made, that requires a level of fortitude and 
vision most people in any elected democracy cannot muster. You have to 
be willing to watch your poll ratings go up and down like a bouncing 
ball. You have to be willing to be misunderstood. You have to be willing 
to know that no matter what you do, if it is all right, things beyond 
your control could still make it turn out all wrong. And if you do it 
anyway because you know that it is the only honorable course for the 
long-term interests of your people, that is true statesmanship. And that 
is what the Prime Minister has done.
    I would like to ask your leave for a moment to discuss one other 
issue before I return to the Middle East. This weekend I have been 
working on two major areas of foreign policy: first of all, preparing 
for the very good meeting I just finished with the Prime Minister and, 
secondly, getting ready for the upcoming trip I will take to Moscow and 
Kiev. Tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of the victory of the Allied 
forces in World War II in Europe. We will mark that day here in a very 
moving and wonderful ceremony. Then I will get on the plane and travel 
to Moscow and then to Kiev to honor the sacrifices in that war of the 
peoples of Russia and the newly independent states.
    Five decades ago, the people of the United States and the then 
Soviet Union joined together to oppose an evil unmatched in our history. 
In that conflict, 27 million Russians lost their lives--or members of 
the Soviet republic. They were soldiers and citizens; there were untold 
tens of thousands of women and children; they were Russians and 
Belarussians, Uzbeks and Jews, Ukrainians, Armenians, and more. Death 
touched every family. The siege of one city took a million lives in 900 
days. This week we will honor that almost unimaginable sacrifice.
    But the trip also gives us a chance to look forward. Just as we 
fought five decades ago for our common security, against the common 
evil, today we can fight for our common security by striving for common 
good. Fundamentally, this trip is about making the American people more 
secure and giving them a better future.
    We've always based our policies from the beginning of our 
administration on a sober assessment of the challenges faced by these 
nations and a conviction that cooperation was in our best interests. We 
supported the forces of openness, democracy, and reform in Russia for 
one reason above all: It is good for the American people and good for 
the rest of the world.
    In the last 2 years, that policy has made every American safer. It's 
helped Russia become a partner for trade, investment, and cooperation 
and to assume its rightful place among the nations of the world. We've 
got some concrete benefits to show for it. Some of you may not know 
this, but because of the agreement made last year between the United 
States and Russia, for the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age, 
there are

[[Page 780]]

no Russian missiles pointed at the citizens of the United States.
    We're destroying thousands of nuclear weapons at a faster rate than 
our treaties require. We have removed nuclear weapons from Kazakhstan, 
and Ukraine and Belarus soon will follow. We're cooperating with the 
Russians to prevent nuclear weapons and bomb-making materials from 
falling into the hands of terrorists and smugglers. We're working 
together to extend indefinitely a nuclear nonproliferation treaty. For 
the first time in half a century there are no Russian troops in Central 
Europe or the Baltics. Almost 60 percent of the Russian economy is now 
in private hands, and the elements of a free society--elections, open 
debate, and a strong, independent media, whether the politicians like it 
or not--are beginning to take root.
    Compared with only a few years ago, when severe disagreements with 
Moscow paralyzed our relations and threatened nuclear confrontation, we 
live in safer, more hopeful times because of this extraordinary opening 
to new freedom in Russia.
    Of course, ultimately, the fate of this country, like every other, 
lies in the hands of its own people. And there is still a struggle 
between the proponents of reform and the forces of reaction. Peaceful, 
democratic change is not inevitable, and the forces of reform will 
suffer setbacks. But after all, that's no different from what happens in 
any democracy. The forces of hope and fear are not always in the proper 
balance.
    Nonetheless, in the struggle for freedom, the engagement and support 
of the West, and especially the United States, can make an important 
difference. So more than ever, we have to engage and not withdraw. We 
will have our differences with Russia, but even our differences today 
occur in a different context. The movement of the relationship is 
plainly toward increasing democracy and increasing security. The 
interests of our people are clearly best supported by supporting that 
transition in Russia to a more free and open society. When we have 
similar goals, we'll cooperate. When we disagree, as we do and we will, 
we must manage those differences openly, constructively, and resolutely.
    The war in Chechnya, where continued fighting can only spill more 
blood and further erode international support for Russian reform is a 
case in point. And Russia's cooperation with Iran is another.
    All of you know that Iran, a country with more than enough oil to 
meet its energy needs, wants to buy reactors and other nuclear 
technology from Russia. This fact, together with other evidence about 
Iran's nuclear program, supports only one conclusion: Iran is bent on 
building nuclear weapons.
    I believe Russia has a powerful interest in preventing a neighbor, 
especially one with Iran's track record, from possessing these weapons. 
Therefore, if this sale does go forward, Russian national security can 
only be weakened in the long term. The specter of an Iran armed with 
weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them haunts not 
only Israel but the entire Middle East and, ultimately, all the rest of 
us as well.
    The United States, and I believe all the Western nations, have an 
overriding interest in containing the threat posed by Iran. Today Iran 
is the principal sponsor of global terrorism, as the Prime Minister has 
said. It seeks to undermine the West and its values by supporting the 
murderous attacks of the Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and other terrorist 
groups. It aims to destroy the Middle East peace process.
    You know the need for firm action here as well as I do. And I thank 
you for your long history of calling attention to Iran's campaign of 
terror. I thank you for urging a decisive response, and I thank you for 
supporting the action we have taken. We have worked to counter Iran's 
sponsorship of terrorism, its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. We led 
our G-7 allies to ban weapons sales, tightening restrictions on dual-use 
technology and in preventing Iran from obtaining credit from 
international financial institutions. But more has to be done. That's 
why I ordered an end to all U.S. trade and investment with Iran.
    I understand this will mean some sacrifice for American companies 
and our workers. But the United States has to lead the way. Only by 
leading can we convince other nations to join us. I hope you will help 
us convince other nations to join us.

[[Page 781]]

    Let me mention two other nations. We have also taken a strong stand 
against Libya. We remain determined to bring those responsible for the 
bombing of Pan Am 103 to trial. And make no mistake about it, though 
U.N. sanctions have weakened Saddam Hussein, he remains an aggressive, 
dangerous force. He showed that last October, menacing Kuwait until our 
Armed Forces' swift and skillful deployment forced him to back down. As 
long as he refuses to account for Iraqi weapons programs, past and 
present, as long as he refuses to comply with all relevant Security 
Council resolutions, we cannot agree, and we will not agree, to lift the 
sanctions against Iraq. We will not compromise on this issue, and we 
value the support we have received from the Prime Minister and the State 
of Israel.
    Our measures to contain these rogue nations are part of a larger 
effort to combat all those who oppose peace, because even as we achieve 
great strides in resolving the age-old conflict between Arabs and 
Israelis, there remains a struggle between those searching for peace and 
those determined to deny it, between those who want a better future and 
those who seek a return to the bloody past in the Middle East.
    No one should doubt the determination of the United States. We will 
oppose the enemies of peace as relentlessly as we support those who take 
risks for peace.
    Now I want to go over some of the things that the Prime Minister has 
said because it is important that we be seen as one voice on these 
issues. As Steve said, before I was elected to office I vowed to be an 
unshakable supporter of Israel. I have kept that commitment. We have 
maintained current levels of security and economic assistance. We've 
made clear to all that our commitment to the security and well-being of 
the Jewish state is absolutely unwavering, and will continue to be.
    In any agreement, in any agreement Israel concludes with Syria it 
will have the means to defend itself by itself. And no child in Kiryat 
Shemona or Metulla will go to bed afraid for his or her safety.
    Today, Israel's military edge is greater than ever because the 
United States has kept its word. We approved the purchase of F-15-I's 
for the Israeli Air Force because Israel should have the world's best 
long-range, multiple-role fighter. We have continued the transfer of 200 
fighter aircraft and attack helicopters that began after the Gulf war. 
We are committing over $350 million, the major share of development 
costs, for the Arrow missile system to assure that Israel never again is 
left defenseless in the face of a missile attack.
    We delivered the most advanced multiple-launch rocket system in the 
world to give Israel defense forces the fire power they need. And to 
help enhance Israel's high-tech capabilities, we approved the sale of 
supercomputers, and we allowed access for the first time to the American 
space launch vehicle markets.
    As you and AIPAC have argued for a decade, this is a two-way 
relationship that has real benefits for both our nations. Our strategic 
and intelligence cooperation is now deeper than ever. This year we 
conducted the largest ever joint military exercise with the idea. We are 
pre-positioning more military hardware in Israel. And the Pentagon has 
signed contracts worth more than $3 billion to purchase high-quality 
military products from Israeli companies.
    The landmark events of the last 2 years were, in part, possible 
because the United States worked to ensure Israel's strength, because we 
helped to give Israel the confidence to make peace by minimizing those 
risks, because we built a relationship of trust, and because we made it 
clear that no one could drive a wedge between us. And, Mr. Prime 
Minister, as long as I'm here, no one will ever drive a wedge between 
us.
    But we have a new problem here at home to which others have alluded. 
Here in the United States and in positions of authority, there are those 
who claim to be friends of Israel and supporters of peace and people who 
believe they are friends of Israel and supporters of peace, whose 
efforts would make Israel less safe and peace less likely. Under the 
cover of budget cutting, back-door isolationists on the left and the 
right want to cut the legs off of our leadership in the Middle East and 
around the world. They want to deny the United States the resources

[[Page 782]]

we need to support allies who take risks for peace.
    Legislation being prepared in Congress could reduce by as much as 25 
percent our foreign policy spending, which is now just a little over 1 
percent of the Federal budget and is clearly, as a percentage of our 
income, by far the smallest of any advanced nation in the world. We did 
not win the cold war to walk away and blow the peace on foolish, penny-
wise, pound-foolish budgeting.
    Consider this: Everybody is happy that we're helping Ukraine, 
Belarus, and Kazakhstan get rid of nuclear weapons on their territory. 
That makes us safer. But we can't do it for free. We're helping to build 
democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, but we can't do that for free. 
We're combating the international flow of drugs that plagues our 
communities, but we can't do that for free.
    All over the world, in countries that are desperately poor, people 
are trying to learn how to support themselves and to sustain their 
environment so that they can have orderly societies and be part of 
peaceful cooperation and not be consumed by the radical currents 
sweeping across the world. And for a pittance by American standards, we 
can make all the difference in the world. But we cannot do it for free.
    More than any audience in this country, perhaps, you understand 
that. You understand the importance of our leadership and the reasonable 
price we must pay to sustain it. If we have to abandon that role simply 
because we are denied the tools of foreign aid and security assistance, 
one of the first to be affected is Israel, because Israel is on the 
frontline of the battle of freedom and peace, and Israel's strength is 
backed by America's strength and our global leadership.
    There may be some who say, ``Well, I'm going to cut all this, but 
I'll protect bilateral assistance to Israel.'' Ask the Prime Minister. 
Even if that is done, other budget cuts would threaten our efforts to 
help Israel reach a lasting peace with its neighbors. Because those 
efforts depend upon our ability to support everybody who takes risks for 
peace. If we renege on our commitments to Egypt, to Jordan, to the 
Palestinians, we will never convince anybody else that we will stand 
behind our commitments. We cannot do it. We must not do it.
    I thank you for your vision in supporting debt relief for Jordan. We 
need that kind of support to help the risk takers, including the 
Palestinian Authority, demonstrate to their people that peace does bring 
benefits, that it promises a better life for themselves and for their 
children. The price we pay for these programs, I say again, is small 
compared to their benefits.
    So I ask you to help me to win bipartisan support to preserve 
American leadership, to prevent the isolationists from risking all that 
was achieved in the cold war and its aftermath. And I ask you to do 
something else when you go home. Survey after survey after survey show 
that if you ask the American people what are we spending on foreign aid 
and welfare, poll after poll after poll says we're spending somewhere 
between 40 and 50 percent of our budget on foreign aid and welfare. The 
truth is, we're spending a nickel of our budget on foreign aid and 
welfare--all of our foreign assistance programs probably define a little 
over 2 cents in the budget; our direct welfare programs, about 3 cents. 
If the American people knew the facts, they would support these 
endeavors. If they understood that of the 22 wealthiest countries in the 
world, we are dead last in the percentage of our income and the 
percentage of our national budget going to these programs, they would 
not walk away from this.
    So when you go home, don't just lobby Congress. Write your folks in 
the local newspaper, call into some of those talk radio shows from time 
to time and tell the American people the truth.
    Let me say just a few words about where we are now in the Middle 
East. The conflict of decades will not end with the stroke of a pen, or 
even two pens, but consider how far we have come. No one who was there 
will ever forget that brilliant day on the White House lawn when Prime 
Minister Rabin and Chairman Arafat resolved to end their conflict. No 
one who was there will ever forget the magnificent ceremony in the Araba 
on the ground at the Patriarch's Walk when Israel and Jordan made peace 
after 46 years. Those were two of my proudest moments as President. They 
should be two of

[[Page 783]]

every American's proudest moments for our country in the last 2 years.
    There is a constituency for peace in the Middle East growing 
stronger and stronger. Thanks in large measure to the tireless efforts 
of Secretary Christopher, Israel and Syria are engaged in serious, 
substantive negotiations on the terms of a treaty which can both secure 
another of Israel's borders and put an end to the entire conflict. A 
number of Arab countries, Morocco, Tunisia, Oman, Qatar, have begun to 
normalize relations with Israel. We have begun to dismantle the Arab 
boycott, and I think we'll see its end before too long. I will not rest 
until we do see the end of the boycott. It is high time, and it should 
be ended.
    I think all of you know that peace requires more than treaties. It 
surely requires economic progress. We are moving aggressively on this 
front. We're continuing to provide the $10 billion in loan guarantees so 
Israel can absorb the 600,000 emigrants from the former Soviet Union and 
finance the investment and infrastructure it needs for a growing 
economy. We are cooperating to turn cutting-edge technologies into new 
products and to create new jobs for our nations, working to create a 
Middle East development bank, encouraging development in Israel and 
Jordan that will generate good new jobs, starting to attack the economic 
discontent of Egypt's young where extremism has its roots.
    After all these efforts, and for all the energy the Israelis, Arabs, 
and Americans have devoted to the cause, the circle of peace is not yet 
closed. And the dream of the day when all Israelis are truly secure in 
their homes and free from fear is not yet fulfilled. The closer we come 
to achieving that peace, the more desperate and fanatical become the 
enemies of peace.
    In the wake of the tragedy in Oklahoma City, about which the Prime 
Minister spoke so eloquently, I think our Americans now feel more 
strongly than ever and understand more clearly than ever the sense of 
horror and outrage at terrorism, at the bus bombings, the attacks on 
soldiers, the killings in the streets of Jerusalem. The cost of all this 
inhumanity and cowardice has been appalling. We grieve with the families 
of the victims. We thank the Prime Minister for going to see the family 
of Alicia Flatow. And we--[applause]--and we honor the memories of 
Alicia and Corporal Waxman and so many others.
    We are encouraging Chairman Arafat to continue and to intensify his 
efforts to crack down on extremists. He is now taking concrete steps to 
prosecute those who plan and carry out acts of violence. These measures 
and others to confront terror and establish the rule of law must be 
continued. The peace will never succeed without them.
    As I said in the Knesset last fall, the enemies of peace will not 
succeed because they are the past, not the future. We will continue to 
do everything in our power to make that statement true.
    But we face today in the Middle East, in Russia, and throughout the 
world a whole set of new challenges in a new era. The global economy, 
the explosion of information, the incredible advance of technology, the 
rapid movement of information, and people, all these forces are bringing 
us into a more integrated world. They prod people on the one hand to 
realize that it makes sense to stop killing each other and to make peace 
and to start working together, whether that's in the Middle East or 
Northern Ireland or Southern Africa.
    That means that the next century can be the most exciting time, the 
time most full of human possibility in all history. But we also know 
that all these forces of integration have a dark side as well, for they 
make us vulnerable in new ways to organized destruction and evil, in 
terrorism terms and in terms of proliferating weapons of mass 
destruction. We see that not only at the terrible tragedy in Oklahoma 
City or the World Trade Center or the streets of Israel, we also see it 
in the subway stations of Japan. The more open and flexible our people 
become, the more we move around and relate to each other, the more 
vulnerable we will be, and the more vigilant we must become.
    In the Middle East, as nowhere else, these two forces of integration 
and disintegration are locked in a deadly struggle, a strong Israel 
backed by a strong America, building peace with its neighbors, a new 
openness in the region but, on the other side, these continu- 

[[Page 784]]

ing desperate attempts of fanatics, eager to keep old and bloody 
conflicts alive.
    We can beat them. We must beat them. But we are going to have to 
work at it. We cannot grow weak. We cannot grow weary. And we cannot 
lose our self-confidence. If we give up on the peace, if we give up on 
our freedoms, if we walk away from what we are and what we can become, 
in the United States, Japan, the former Soviet Union, but most of all in 
the Middle East, then they will have won, even if we defeat them.
    So I ask you in closing, stand for the forces of the future. Stand 
with this brave man in his attempts to make peace. And let's don't stop 
until the job is done.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 10 p.m. at the Sheraton Washington. In his 
remarks, he referred to Steve Grossman, president, Larry Weinberg, 
chairman emeritus, and Neal Sher, executive director, American Israel 
Public Affairs Committee; Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel; Health 
Minister Efraim Sneh of Israel; Itamar Rabinovich, Israeli Ambassador to 
the U.S.; Lester Pollack, chairman, Conference of Presidents of Major 
American Jewish Organizations; Martin Indyk, U.S. Ambassador to Israel; 
and Hamas kidnaping victim Cpl. Nahshon Waxman.