[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 44 (Monday, November 8, 1999)]
[Pages 2227-2229]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Ceremony Honoring the Memory of Yitzhak Rabin in Oslo

November 2, 1999

    Your Majesties, Prime Minister and Mrs. Bondevik, Mr. Mayor, 
President Ahtisaari, Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Barak, Chairman 
Arafat, Leah Rabin, ladies and gentlemen, today we bear witness to the 
wisdom of the Psalm which says, ``the righteous shall be in everlasting 
remembrance.'' We honor a righteous man whose memory is everlasting, 
because he devoted his life to the security of his country but gave his 
life to the promise of peace.
    Yitzhak Rabin's life was a lesson, teaching us that old fears and 
suspicions and hatreds

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can, in fact, be overcome--for he would be the first to remind us that 
he felt all those things, too, but he let them go--teaching us that 
there could be no security without lasting peace and no peace without 
charity for all and malice toward none, teaching us that the only final 
answer to violence is reconciliation.
    Almost 7 years ago, those principles brought Israelis and 
Palestinians to this city of peace to find common ground. And today our 
friend brings us back to Oslo. We can almost hear his kind, but stern 
voice telling us, ``Well, this is all very nice, but if you really want 
to honor me, finish the job.'' He would be pleased to see Israel's cause 
represented by Prime Minister Barak, his friend, fellow soldier, and 
fervent ally for peace.
    In his last hour, Yitzhak Rabin, who was a shy person in public, 
sang to a peace-loving throng of Israelis the Shir Ha Shalom, the ``Song 
of Peace.'' Its words sing out to us today: Don't say the day will come; 
make it come. Today, in honor of our friend and leader, we must all say 
we will make it come--a new day of peace that is more than the absence 
of war; a new day of tolerance and respect, of trust and shared destiny, 
when the fears of the past are released so that the hands and heart are 
free to embrace the promise of the future.
    The enemies of peace remain alive and active. Even in this day we 
see their dark work. But the Scripture reminds us that evil can be 
overcome by good, and only by good. So we pursue Yitzhak Rabin's vision 
not only because we loved and admired him--although we surely did--but 
because it is right and the only way.
    We have now a chance, but only a chance, to bring real and lasting 
peace between Israel and her neighbors. If we let it slip away, all will 
bear the consequences: Israel still trapped within a circle of 
hostility; the Palestinians still saddled with poverty and frustration 
and pain; both--and their Arab neighbors wrapped in an endless and 
pointless cycle of conflict.
    So if Rabin were here with us today, he would say there is not a 
moment to spare; ``All this honoring me and these nice words, they're 
very nice, but please finish the job.''
    The way ahead will be full of challenges for the Israelis, the 
Palestinians, the Syrians, the Lebanese, for the friends of peace here 
represented. President Mubarak and King Abdullah will be important to 
our efforts. I am determined that the United States will do all we can, 
including living up to the commitments we made at Wye River. But the 
most important thing we can do today is to say to our friend, Rabin, we 
can still hear you; we are prepared to finish the job.
    When President Kennedy was assassinated, Abba Eban said, ``Tragedy 
is the difference between what is and what might have been.'' That is 
the way we felt in the months and years after Prime Minister Rabin was 
killed. Today let us say together we are done with tragedy. We will 
close the gap between what is and what might have been.
    The other night my wife had to the White House one of the great 
scientists in our country, who is unlocking the mysteries of the human 
gene. And he said to us the most astonishing thing--he said all 
humanity, genetically, are 99.9 percent the same. And if you get any 
group, ethnic group, together--100 Norwegians--with another ethnic 
group--100 west Africans--you find that the genetic differences among 
individuals within each group are greater than the genetic profile of 
differences between the Norwegians and the Africans. Think of that.
    Think of all the bodies that have been piled up, one after another, 
the young and the old, throughout human history in tribute to that one-
tenth of one percent difference. Think about what brings us here today--
that the greatest quality a human being can have is the ability to reach 
beyond that last one-tenth of one percent to unite in the common 
humanity of the other 99.9 percent.
    Yitzhak Rabin led us in that great reach out--reaching across the 
last divide of one-tenth of one percent. It was his greatness. It is his 
lesson. It is his message to us today. Let us hear him, even as we loved 
him.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 11:50 a.m. in the Main Hall at City Hall. 
In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik of 
Norway and his wife, Bjorg; Mayor Per Ditlev-Simonsen of Oslo; President 
Martii Ahtisaari of Finland; former Prime Minister Shimon Peres and

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current Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel; Chairman Yasser Arafat of 
the Palestinian Authority; Leah Rabin, widow of Yitzhak Rabin; President 
Hosni Mubarak of Egypt; and King Abdullah II of Jordan.