[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 27 (Monday, July 10, 2000)]
[Pages 1585-1588]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Announcing the Camp David Summit and an Exchange
With Reporters

July 5, 2000

    The President.  Good morning. Early next week, Prime Minister Barak 
and Chairman Arafat will come to Camp David at my invitation. A few days 
before that, their negotiators will arrive to help pave the way for this 
summit. The objective is to reach an agreement on the core issues that 
have fueled a half-century of conflict between Israelis and 
Palestinians.
    After lengthy discussion with the two leaders, and after listening 
to Secretary Albright's report, I have concluded that this is the best 
way--indeed, it is the only way--to move forward.
    To state the task is to suggest the magnitude of the challenge. 
Behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lie the most profound questions 
about beliefs, political identity, collective fate. Etched in each 
side's mind are intense fears and emotions and a deep-seated

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commitment to defend their people's interests. There are no easy answers 
and, certainly, no painless ones. And therefore, there is clearly no 
guarantee of success.
    Why this summit, and why now? While Israeli and Palestinian 
negotiators have made real progress, crystallizing issues and defining 
gaps, the truth is they can take the talks no further at their level. 
Significant differences remain, and they involve the most complex and 
most sensitive of questions. The negotiators have reached an impasse. 
Movement now depends on historic decisions that only the two leaders can 
make.
    I will be there with them, and I intend to do all I can to help them 
in this endeavor. But to delay this gathering, to remain stalled, is 
simply no longer an option, for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as all 
of us has seen, knows no status quo. It can move forward toward real 
peace, or it can slide back into turmoil. It will not stand still. If 
the parties do not seize this moment, if they cannot make progress now, 
there will be more hostility and more bitterness, perhaps even more 
violence. And to what end?
    Eventually, after more bloodshed and tears, they will have to come 
back to the negotiating table. They will have to return to face the same 
history, the same geography, the same demographic trends, the same 
passions, and the same hatreds, and, I am sure, the exact same choices 
that confront them here and now.
    Of course, action does have its perils but so, too, does inaction. 
The decisions will not come easier with time. Fundamentally, that is 
what I have concluded. The leaders have to make the decisions that are 
still there to be made, and the longer we wait, the more difficult the 
decisions are likely to become. The Israeli and the Palestinian people 
have leaders now who are visionary enough, courageous enough, capable of 
building a fair, just, and lasting peace.
    In coming here and accepting this challenge, Prime Minister Barak 
and Chairman Arafat have shown they are ready to take risks to pursue 
peace. The rest of the world, and especially the rest of the region, 
cannot afford to be bystanders. For all those who are truly committed to 
the cause of peace and to the well-being of the Israeli and Palestinian 
people, now is the time to lend their support to the peacemakers.
    To the people of Israel and to the Palestinian people, I would like 
to say this: Peace under circumstances like these is never cost free. 
Neither side can achieve 100 percent of its goals. For the optimal 
solution of each party is, by definition, one the other party cannot and 
will not accept. Negotiations, therefore, must create an outcome that is 
realistic, balanced, and fair, and that meets the fundamental objectives 
of both sides, an outcome that strengthens the two parties rather than 
weakens one of them, an outcome that accommodates both sides' vital 
needs and dreams, an outcome that reconciles their competing grievances.
    That is the only outcome that will permit Israelis and Palestinians 
to offer their children a future far different from the past, one with 
more opportunity and less fear, more hope and less despair. And that, of 
course, is the ultimate prize of peace.
    The objective is often overshadowed, I might say, as all of you 
know, by the abject dreariness of the pursuit--one that you will, no 
doubt, have occasion to comment on in the days ahead. The ups and downs 
of the process, the daily hassles and disputes, the open-ended nature of 
the negotiations--all these, over time, have blurred the vision of what 
it is we are trying to achieve.
    For Prime Minister Barak and Chairman Arafat, the challenge next 
week will be to start drawing the contours of the long-awaited peace, a 
peace that can fulfill the Israeli people's quest for security, for 
recognition, for genuine reconciliation with Palestinians and genuine 
acceptance in the region--acceptance in deeds as well as words--a peace 
that can fulfill the Palestinian people's legitimate aspirations to 
determine their destiny on their own land and to build a better future.
    Almost 7 years ago now, we witnessed the historic handshake between 
the late Prime Minister Rabin and Chairman Arafat. It began a process 
that offered the Israeli and Palestinian people the chance to achieve 
what I then described as ``the quiet miracle'' of a normal life. That is 
still the vision that must inspire the efforts and call forth the 
commitment, courage, and creativity of

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Prime Minister Barak and Chairman Arafat next week.
    Q.  Mr. President, do you think that this is the last opportunity 
for peace during your Presidency? And how long will you give these 
negotiations? Are you talking days, weeks, what?
    The President.  Well, the answer to the first--actually, the short 
answer to both questions is, I don't know. I'll tell you what I do know. 
I know that Prime Minister Barak strongly believes that the nature of 
this process is such that the final decisions cannot be made except by a 
meeting between the two leaders and that he cannot go further than he 
has gone without that sort of meeting.
    Chairman Arafat understands that the nature of the process is such 
that the final decisions will have to be made by the two leaders. And so 
they're willing to give it their best shot. And they understand, too, 
that as we have already seen, delay tends to make these things worse, 
not better.
    One of the most important judgments any political leader has to make 
when dealing with a thorny problem is whether delay will make it better 
or worse. Occasionally, you actually get problems where the best thing 
to do right now is nothing, that delay will actually cause them to 
become less severe. These are not such problems. Delay only seems, to 
me, to make them more severe. So that's the answer to the first 
question.
    The second question is, we all know what the deal is. We know what 
the issues are. We know at least within a range what the options are. I 
think if we work hard, we can get it done in several days, but I will 
give it whatever time is required, as long as we're still moving 
forward.
    Q.  Mr. President, could you describe the extent of your 
participation? Are you going to move up to Camp David, lock, stock, and 
barrel, for as long as it takes? And are you going to present a U.S., 
maybe a model plan, that might bring these two sides together?
    The President.  Well, I think the less I say right now about what 
I'm going to do, the better. And I will spend as much time there as I 
need to spend. I may come back here from time to time, depending on what 
else is happening, what else I need to do. We've got a lot going on in 
Congress now, even though they'll be gone a lot--some of the time, 
perhaps. But I think they'll be here most of the time, we'll be here, 
and I may have to come back. So we'll just see. But I will be there a 
lot, and I'll work as hard as I need to work.
    Q.  What happens if this slips past the deadline in September? How 
important is that deadline?
    The President.  Well, it's a deadline they set for themselves, and I 
think they all see it in terms that are--both sides see it in terms that 
are different from the deadline they set for the framework agreement--
that is, they knew that there were problems inherent in making the 
framework agreement that if they could overcome, they could make the 
final agreement consistent with the framework agreement. So that's one 
of the things, obviously, that has driven my decision here.
    I think that neither of them really want to see us go by September 
without a resolution of this, and I think they understands the stakes 
here.
    Q.  Mr. President, can you talk about the symbolism of the location 
of Camp David, what impact at all it might have on the parties to help 
them bridge the difficult gaps between them?
    The President.  Well, it is a place where, obviously, a milestone in 
Middle East peace was reached, and I hope in that sense, I think, it has 
to be a positive environment. But I think they also realize that from 
the very beginning, these were the hardest questions that go to the core 
of both sides' identity and sense of themselves, far more difficult to 
resolve, with all respect, than any issues between Israel and the 
Egyptians or the Jordanians or even the Syrians. Although we are not 
there yet with the Syrians, everybody knows pretty much what the deal is 
there and that there are practical questions there that are not nearly 
so charged with emotion and identity and almost national consciousness 
as these are.
    So these are the difficult ones. And obviously, I hope that the 
setting will help to inspire them and to inspire us. I hope we'll all be 
inspired by it. But it's also a great place for us to be, because it 
gives us a reasonable

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chance to work in quiet and without interruption and to observe the 
necessary discretion that, without which, we won't be able to move 
forward.
    Thank you.

Mexican Elections

    Q.  Mr. President, something about Mexico, about the Mexican 
elections, please?
    The President.  Well, I called President Zedillo and congratulated 
him on what was clearly an open and fair and well-fought election. And I 
called President-elect Fox and congratulated him on his victory. We 
talked a little bit about the importance of our relationship and what 
lies ahead, and I told him that he would be welcome here at any time if 
he would like to come up.
    Obviously, he has a lot of things to do, and he'll have to make that 
decision. But I'd be happy to meet with him if he would like to come up 
and sort of get our relationship started. Most of his term will unfold 
with the next President, but the relationship that we have with Mexico 
needs to go beyond individual personalities always, because we have too 
much in common and too much of a future to build together.
    Thank you.

 Note:  The President spoke at 10:55 a.m. in the James S. Brady Press 
Briefing Room at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Prime 
Minister Ehud Barak of Israel; Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian 
Authority; and President Ernesto Zedillo and President-elect Vicente Fox 
of Mexico.