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Clinton and Arafat meet in bid to energize peace talks

April 21, 2000

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and U.S. President Bill Clinton went into Thursday evening talks at the White House with hope of energizing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

The meeting came just over a week after a similar session between Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. As Clinton and Arafat posed for photographers in the Rose Garden before their meeting, Clinton again expressed optimism about the prospects for peace.

"We've reached a very serious time in the peace process and both (Arafat) and Prime Minister Barak have set for themselves an ambitious timetable to reach a framework agreement as soon as they can, and then a final agreement by the middle of September," Clinton said. "So we're working hard on it and I think we'll get some things done today." Arafat arrived in the U.S. capital early Thursday morning from Cairo, fresh from similar talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.Earlier, the Palestinian leader attended a luncheon meeting at the home of U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Clinton's advisers say they view these meetings as extremely important. They say that once the Arafat-Clinton talks are concluded, they will have a better idea as to whether it's possible to reach the May 13 deadline. Palestinian optimism low

Palestinians have been less than optimistic lately about prospects for an agreement, which would cover some of the most difficult issues in the peace process, including borders, Jerusalem, refugees and Jewish settlements.

The Palestinians have demanded that a Palestinian state be established on all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Israel says it is willing to offer Palestinians most of the territory but not all of it. It has vowed not to cede any part of Jerusalem, which it calls its "indivisible, eternal" capital. 'No place for more flexibility'

Palestinian negotiator and Cabinet minister Hassan Asfour said on Tuesday, "We have nothing new to add. ... There is no place for more flexibility."

On Monday, Arafat said Thursday's meeting with Clinton was crucial for moving toward peace.

So far, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators have held two rounds of talks this year at Washington's Bolling Air Force Base in an attempt to forge the framework toward agreement.

Arafat has said that if they fail to reach a final agreement by a September 13 deadline, the Palestinians will unilaterally declare a Palestinian state.

http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/2000/fyi/news/04/21/clinton.arafat/

http://www.usembassy.it/file9801/alia/98101506.htm

10/15/98

TRANSCRIPT: CLINTON AFTER MEETING WITH ARAFAT, NETANYAHU OCT. 15

(Talks offer chance for parties to break logjam)

Washington -- President Clinton said the Middle East Peace Talks at Wye River October 15-18 "offer the chance for the parties to break the logjam" that has stalled the peace talks for the last 17 months.

Speaking October 15 in the Rose Garden with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, the President said that although "neither side can expect to win a hundred percent of every point ... concessions that seem hard now will seem far less important in the light of an accord that moves the Israelis and Palestinians closer to lasting peace."

After meeting for close to an hour in the Oval Office with the two leaders, Clinton said, "There remain enemies of this peace, extremists on both sides who feel threatened by the peace and will be tempted once again to kill it with violence.

"We can defeat that kind of threat," the President said, "by building a genuine Israeli-Palestinian partnership that will stand the test of time."

Following is the White House transcript:

(Begin transcript)

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

October 15, 1998

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

FOLLOWING MEETING WITH

PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU AND CHAIRMAN ARAFAT

The Rose Garden

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I am pleased to welcome prime Minister Netanyahu, Chairman Arafat, and their delegations.

For 17 months, the Middle East peace process has been stalled, placing in jeopardy all that Israelis and Palestinians have achieved together since the Oslo Accords. This week's talk at Wye River offer the chance for the parties to break the logjam and finally take the next essential steps for peace in the Middle East. We must remember as we come together again that in the end, peace is more than a process. It is, in the end, a destination. These two leaders have the power to lead their people to peace.

As I said to prime Minister Netanyahu and Chairman Arafat only a few moments ago, I believe there are certain realities that underlie these negotiations. First, Israelis and Palestinians are neighbors, and what they must do they must do together -- or it will not be done at all. Second, mutual respect and understanding is required for any meaningful and enduring agreement. Otherwise there can be no honorable, principled compromise.

As in any difficult problem, neither side can expect to win a hundred percent of every point. But concessions that seem hard now will seem far less important in the light of an accord that moves the Israelis and Palestinians closer to lasting peace. Closer to a day when the people of Israel can have the safety and security they have been denied for too long. Closer to the day when Palestinian people can realize their aspirations to be free and secure and able to shape their own political and economic destiny.

There remain enemies of this peace, extremists on both sides who feel threatened by the peace and will be tempted once again to kill it with violence. We can defeat that kind of threat by building a genuine Israeli-Palestinian partnership that will stand the test of time.

Too much time has already been lost. The issues on the table at Wye River are very important, and more difficult issues lie ahead, in the impl

http://www.afsi.org/OUTPOST/97MAR/mar10.htm

CLINTON TOLERATES ARAFAT'S DECEIT

At least 11 of the 33 articles in the PLO's National Charter still call for the destruction of Israel.

This demand for Holocaust II--which would consume thousands of relatives and friends of Maryland's large Jewish community--was written in 1964. But in September of 1993, in the Clinton White House Rose Garden, PLO leader Yasir Arafat promised that this demand would be removed from the Charter. He promised this in writing that became part of the Oslo Accords. He promised that he would change those words demanding Israel's destruction.

I recall being very skeptical of the great Clinton claiming that this Rose Garden Rabin-Arafat handshaking would bring Peace In Our Time. And I was right, along with many others who were also skeptical--in view of Arafat's record as the leading serial killer of Jewish civilians since Heinrich Himmler.

Two years later, in 1995, when Israel agreed in the Oslo II Accords to withdraw from the cities of the West Bank, Arafat promised again to remove the Destroy Israel articles from that Palestine Charter.

He promised--and he did no such thing.

Later, on the eve of the May 1996 Israeli elections, when Shimon Peres was desperate to show some evidence of a PLO change of attitude on Destroy Israel, Arafat summoned the Palestine National Council to what would be a charade-hoax but which Peres called "The most important ideological change in this century" (which Peres verdict was described as "deluded" by Maryland's psychiatrist and political columnist, Dr. Charles Krauthammer).

There was no such change in the Palestine Charter. There was only a repetition of the 1993 pledge to change it--with the Council to report back on or before October 24, 1996. That day came and went, and there were no changes at all in the 32 year-old demand for the destruction of Israel.

Dr. Krauthammer notes: "Arafat has sold Israel the same rug four times." Number four was the Hebron Accords, with President Clinton's Special Middle East envoy Dennis Ross specifying that a change in these Destroy Israel articles is a requisite.

And guess what? Last week, Arafat told French newspapers, Le Monde and Liberation: "The Israelis want us to adopt a new charter. As far as I know, the Israelis do not have a constitution. When they will have one, we will do the same."

By way of further violation of the Hebron Accords: on the day Israeli troops evacuated most of Hebron, two of Arafat's cabinet ministers issued calls on Palestinians to drive out all the Jews left in Hebron.

This Jihad for Judenrein is a serious threat, since another of Arafat's broken promises is his army of 50,000, who are now armed with anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles as well as Katyusha rockets. The Oslo accords limited the Palestinian Authority to a police force of 18,000 --which is financed by U.S taxpayers. But this inflation from 18,000 to 50,000 is yet another of Arafat's broken promises--like the German reaction to troop limitations in the Versailles Treaty.

By contrast, Arafat has not even bothered to say "This is my last territorial demand"--as Adolf did--because he really doesn't need to. He has the cooperation of the pro-Arab U.S. Department of State, together with the Clinton pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. So he doesn't have to do anything but wait for the next territorial concession.

Meanwhile, the Department of State issued a statement last week that the PLO is "generally in compliance" with the Oslo Accords. That is a lie which is simply monstrous. For in addition to Arafat's repeated breaking of promises to expunge the Destroy Israel articles, the Palestinian Authority has harbored rather than extradited terrorists, and has done nothing to dismantle the terrorist networks. The Hebron Accords specified 400 Palestine Police for Hebron--1,000 are there now.

Yet President Clinton has the colossal chutzpah to claim that the Hebron pullout--along with all of Arafat's broken promises--"bring us another step closer to a lasting, secure Middle East peace."

"We shall have peace in our time" as Neville Chamberlain said--just after Munich, in 1938. ÷