Clinton's Last Plea for Peace

(January 19, 2001)

As Bill Clinton prepared to step down as president, he sent the following open letters to the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, exhorting them not to give up on the efforts for peace. Extracts:

To the people of Israel:

Of all [my presidential missions], none has meant more to me than the future of your region and of your country...

You live in a dangerous world, and every day brings reminders of that reality. I have expanded our special strategic relationship and helped protect and enhance your security. As part of that continuing effort, I am recommending that when our most advanced fighter aircraft, the F-22, becomes available for sale, Israel, if it so chooses, will be among the first, if not the first, foreign customers. And we have just concluded a memorandum of understanding regarding bilateral security assistance to give practical expression to our long-term commitment to modernize the IDF...

I know that the violence of the past three months has brought you great pain, that it has shattered your confidence in the peace process and raised questions about whether you and the Palestinians ever could coexist peacefully side-by-side. But do not draw the wrong lessons from this tragic chapter. The violence does not demonstrate that the quest for peace has gone too far - but that it has not gone far enough. And it points not to the failure of negotiations - but to the futility of violence and force. The alternative to a peaceful settlement never has been clearer; it is being played out before our very eyes...

Whenever you and your Arab neighbors seek to resolve your remaining differences - today or several years hence; before or after more heartbreak and bloodshed - the fundamental issues will be the same. You will face the same history, the same geography, the same demography, the same passions and hatreds, and the same decisions that are required for a comprehensive peace...

To you who have returned to an ancient homeland after 2,000 years, whose hopes and dreams almost vanished in the Holocaust, who have hardly had one day of peace and quiet since the State of Israel was created, allow me this parting thought: You are closer today than ever before to ending your 100-year-long struggle for peace and normalcy. Don't give up on the pursuit of peace...

Shalom al Yisrael.

To the Palestinian people:

As I look back on my eight years in office, the experiences I have had and the lessons I have learned, one will stand out: my visit to Gaza, the first ever by a US president. I will never forget what it taught me about your suffering, your history of dispossession and dispersal, but also about your resilience and courage. I said at the time that the Palestinian people should be able to determine their own future on their own land and I believe that as strongly now as I did then.

These past eight years have not been easy ones for you. You face daily humiliations; you must struggle simply to find a job; worst of all, you continue to see too many children grow up in poverty. Peace, it is true, has not yet borne its fruits. And so I understand the disillusionment, the frustration, even the anger.

But, do not lose sight of what you have achieved: the ability to govern yourselves, to elect your leaders, to build your institutions. As one who has seen you and Chairman Arafat work so hard to achieve your goals, allow me to say this: Now is not the time to heed the voices of revenge and desperation, for they produce only bloodshed and death. Nothing you have accomplished has been accomplished through violence, and nothing will be.

It will only be accomplished through peace and negotiations...

Never have you been as close to achieving your goals - regaining your land, establishing a state, building a prosperous future for your children. There will always be those sitting comfortably on the outside urging you to hold out for the impossible more. But they are not the ones whose refugees will continue to languish in crowded camps. You are. They are not the ones whose children will grow up in poverty. You are. They are not the ones who will pay the price of missing an historic opportunity. You are...

I remain convinced that despite these difficult and often tragic days, both you and your Israeli partners will find a way to move from the logic of war and confrontation to the logic of peace and cooperation. And that, together, you will bring peace to this Holy Land, sacred to Moslems, Jews, and Christians alike.   

Source: CNN.com