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| A STEP CLOSER? | |
 October 23, 1998  | |
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ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Another step in the Middle East peace process was finally concluded today. After more than a week of negotiations Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian Leader Arafat signed an agreement this afternoon at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. Our coverage begins with this report by Kwame Holman. KWAME HOLMAN: Late this afternoon a tired-looking quartet of leaders entered the East Room of the White House. President Clinton was flanked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jordan's President King Hussein, and Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat. The parties had rushed from the site of their talks 70 miles outside Washington. President Clinton joked about the marathon nature of the session. PRESIDENT CLINTON: After some very difficult negotiations, very long, dare I say, quite sleepless, the Israelis and Palestinians here have reached an agreement on issues over which they have been divided for more than 17 months. KWAME HOLMAN: The peace talks occurred over nine days at selected Wye River Plantation Conference Center on Maryland's Eastern shore. Day and night the two Mideast leaders, together with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and occasionally President Clinton, hammered away at an agreement. President Clinton canceled other events in order to shuttle between the White House and the talks, ultimately investing some 78 hours in the U.S. effort to break the 19-month old impasse in the Arab-Israeli peace process. King Hussein of Jordan, in the U.S. to get medical treatment at the Mayo Clinic, made two trips to Wye River to help push the negotiations forward. In the final days and hours Netanyahu and Arafat met - sometimes shoulder to shoulder - in marathon sessions. The two reportedly met straight through from 10 o'clock last night until 6:30 this morning. Putting the deal together meant brokering and balancing Palestinian wishes to control more West Bank territory and to assert more prerogatives of statehood versus Israeli concerns for security from terrorism. The deal was far from certain for much of today. This morning, amid reports of a done deal, everything suddenly ground to a halt. The new problem reportedly was the status of Jonathan Pollard, who holds both U.S. and Israeli citizenships. Pollard was convicted in an American court in 1987 of selling U.S. secrets to the Israelis and continues to serve a life sentence in a North Carolina federal prison. On three occasions, including earlier this month, U.S. presidents have rejected Israeli requests to free Pollard. According to the arrangement announced today, President Clinton will review Pollard's case with an eye toward possible clemency and relief. That apparently cleared the way for the leaders to finalize the deal. PRESIDENT CLINTON: The Prime Minister and the Chairman, and the members of their delegation who supported this process, even when there were things about it they did not agree with, are quite well aware that the enemies of peace will seek to extract a price from both sides. They are quite well aware that in the short run, they themselves may have put themselves at greater risk. But by pledging themselves to the peaceful course for the future, to the same values and, ultimately, to the same enemies, they have given both Israelis and Palestinians a chance to have the future we all want for our children and our children's children. Every effort will have to be exerted to ensure the faithful implementation of this agreement -- not because the parties do not want to do so, but because the agreement covers many things, was developed over many days, involved many discussions and sleepless nights. It will test whether the Palestinian people are prepared to live in peace, recognizing Israel's permanence, legitimacy and a common interest in security. It will tell us whether Israelis want to help build a strong Palestinian entity that can fulfill the aspirations of its people and provide both real security and real partnership for Palestinians and Israelis. BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Today's a day when Israel and our entire region are more secure. Now, this has required sacrifice from both sides, and reaching into what Lincoln called, "the better nature of mankind." This is an important moment to give a secure and peaceful future for our children and the children of our neighbors, the Palestinians. We have seized this moment. I'm asking all people of goodwill, of honesty and candor, I'm asking all of them to join us in support for this important step for a secure future, a future of peace. We are more secure today because, for the first since the signing of the Oslo Accords, we will see concrete and verifiable commitments carried out. Our Palestinian partners will join us in fighting terrorism. They will follow a detailed and systematic plan to fight terrorists and their infrastructure; to jail killers that have so far roamed at large; to stop vitriolic incitement; and above all, finally, after 35 years, to cancel the articles in the Palestinian Charter which call for the destruction of Israel. This means that our world today will be safer for our children and for our neighbors' children. YASSER ARAFAT: (speaking through interpreter) This is a important and a happy day, a day of achievement that we will always remember with optimism and hope. It is true that whatever we achieved is only temporary, that has been late. But our agreement in the Wye River underscores that the peace process is going ahead, and that whatever we agreed upon in Madrid, Oslo, and in Washington and Cairo is being implemented on the same bases that have been agreed to, and that we will never go back. We will never leave the peace process, and we will never go back to violence and confrontation. No return to confrontation and violence. (Applause.) Please allow me to mention in this connection, first and foremost, to direct my talk to Mr. Bill Clinton for the long hours which he exerted during the past 10 days, particularly those 24 hours that he spent continuously, where he was always alert and understanding, creative in order to bring back history between the cousins. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The final speaker was Jordan's King Hussein, who has been in the United States undergoing treatment for cancer. KING HUSSEIN: I recall in discovering past events over many years, and one thing that remained with me throughout those many years was a total commitment to the cause of peace. We quarrel, we agree; we are friendly, we are not friendly. But we have no right to dictate through irresponsible action or narrow-mindedness the future of our children and their children's children. There has been enough destruction. Enough death. Enough waste. And it's time that, together, we occupy a place beyond ourselves, our peoples, that is worthy of them under the sun, the descendants of the children of Abraham. Palestinians and Israelis coming together. I have attended, sir, previous occasions here, and, of course, you, Mr. President, together with the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, were my partners four years ago in the Washington Declaration, and later on when the state of peace was finalized in our weekend in Jordan and in Aqaba. I don't think we might have given you as much hard work, or less sleep than you have been subjected to of late. But what I found this time, and what really gives me hope and confidence, is that that same chemistry, after the first meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Arafat, is there. I think that we passed a crossroad. We have made our commitment to the welfare and happiness and security and future of our peoples in all the times to come. And now our partners are numerous, and we wish them every success in their endeavors and we'll do everything we can to help them. I think such a step as is concluded today will inevitably trigger those who want to destroy life, destroy hope, create fear in the hearts and minds of people, trigger in them their worst instincts. They will be skeptical on the surface, but if they can, they will cause damage, wherever they are and wherever they belong. Let's hope that the overwhelming majority of us -- those who are committed to the future, those who know what responsibilities they hold now -- will be able, through steady progress and a determined combined joint effort, be able to thwart their aims and their objectives and move -- and maybe, God willing, witness the dawn that we are always seeking of a comprehensive peace in our entire region. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Hard-line Israelis and Palestinians rejected the pact even before it was signed. The founder of the militant Islamic group Hamas said the agreement would not put an end to its "military work against Israel." In the Gaza Strip some 2,000 Islamic Jihad militants staged a rally protesting the peace deal. They burned Israeli and American flags and a mock coffin. In Israel, right-wing politicians in the parliament threatened a no-confidence vote to bring down Netanyahu's coalition government, but opposition Labor Party members said they would support the prime minister and his peace-making efforts. |
