News Conference With Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
(December 13, 1998)
Prime Minister Netanyahu. Mr. President, I want to
welcome you and your entire delegation—the Secretary of State,
the National Security Adviser, and your exceptional team—for coming
here on this mission of peace and for your understanding of our concerns.
We spent many hours in Wye River, and there and in
our conversations this morning, I've come to appreciate and admire your
extraordinary ability to empathize and the seriousness with which you
examine every issue. Your visit here is part of the implementation of
the Wye River accords.
Now, this was not an easy agreement for us, but we
did our part. And we are prepared to do our part based on Palestinian
compliance. When I say that we did our part, you know that within 2
weeks we withdrew from territory, released prisoners, and opened the
Gaza Airport, precisely as we undertook to do.
The Palestinians, in turn, were to live up to a series
of obligations in the sphere of security and ending incitement and violence
and the repeal of the Palestinian Charter and in commitments to negotiate
a final settlement in order to achieve permanent peace between us. I
regret to say that none of these conditions have been met.
Palestinians proceeded to unilaterally declare what
the final settlement would be. Coming out of Wye, they said again and
again that regardless of what happens in the negotiations, on May 4th
of 1999, they will unilaterally declare a state, divide Jerusalem, and
make its eastern half the Palestinian capital. This is a gross violation
of the Oslo and Wye accords, which commit the parties to negotiate a
mutually agreed final settlement.
Mr. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority must officially
and unequivocally renounce this attempt. I think no one can seriously
expect Israel to hand over another inch of territory unless and until
such an unambiguous correction is made.
I said that there are other violations. The Palestinians,
I'm afraid, began a campaign of incitement. At Wye, as those who are
here well know, we agreed to release Palestinian prisoners but not terrorists
with blood on their hands or members of Hamas who are waging war against
us. No sooner did we release the agreed number of prisoners in the first
installment that the Palestinian Authority refused to acknowledge what
they agreed to at Wye. Falsely charging Israel with violating the prisoner
release clause, Palestinian leaders openly incited for violence and
riots, which culminated in a savage near-lynching of an Israeli soldier.
And the Palestinian Authority organized other violent demonstrations.
Therefore, the Palestinian Authority must stop incitement and violence
at once, and they must do so fully and permanently.
There has also been some downgrading on parts of the
security cooperation between us, and the Palestinian Authority must
restore this cooperation again, fully and permanently. They must live
up to their other obligations in the Wye agreement in the fields of
weapons collections, illegal weapons collections, reducing the size
of their armed forces, and the like.
Now, I stress that none of these are new conditions.
All are integral parts of the Wye and Oslo agreements to which we are
committed. We hope that tomorrow the Palestinian Authority will once
and for all live up to at least one of their obligations. And if the
PNC members will vote in sufficient numbers to annul the infamous Palestinian
Charter, that will be a welcome development. And it's important, 5 years
after the promise to do so at Oslo, to see this happen, would be a welcome
and positive development.
I think this is—it's just as important to see
strict adherence to the other obligations in order to reinject confidence
into the peace process and to get this process moving again, where Israel
will also do its part.
Mr. President, I'm sure that we can achieve peace between
Palestinians and Israelis if we stand firm on Palestinian compliance.
I very much hope that you will be able to persuade the Palestinians
what I know you deeply believe and I believe, that violence and peace
are simply incompatible. Because, ultimately, what is required is not
merely a checklist of correcting Palestinian violations but, I think,
a real change of conduct by the Palestinian leadership. And they must
demonstrate that they have abandoned the path of violence and adopted
the path of peace. For us to move forward, they must scrupulously adhere
to their commitments under the Wye agreement, on which we have all worked
so hard.
And may I say, on a personal and national note and
international note, that if there's anyone who can help bring the peace
process to a satisfactory conclusion, it is you, President Clinton.
Your devotion to this cause, your perseverance, your tireless energy,
your commitment have been an inspiration to us all. May it help us restore
peace and hope to our land and to our peoples.
President Clinton. Thank you very much, Prime Minister.
I thank you for your statement and for your warm welcome. I would say
to the people of Israel, I was told before I came here that no previous
Presidents had ever visited Israel more than once, and this is my fourth
trip here. I may be subject to tax assessment if I come again in the
next 2 years, but I am always pleased to be here.
I want to thank you, also, and the members of your
team, for the exhausting effort which was made at Wye over those 9 days,
the time we spent together, the sleepless nights, and the extraordinary
effort to put together a very difficult, but I think sound, agreement.
Let me begin by talking about some of the things that
we have discussed today. We've had two brief private meetings: one,
a breakfast meeting with our wives this morning, and then a brief private
meeting, and then our extended meeting with our two teams. I want to
begin where I always do. America has an unshakable commitment to the
security of the State and the people of Israel. We also have an unshakable
commitment to be a partner in the pursuit of a lasting, comprehensive
peace.
I have told the Prime Minister that I will soon submit
to the Congress a supplemental request for $1.2 billion to meet Israel's
security needs related to implementing the Wye River agreement. Only
if those needs are met can the peace process move forward.
At the same time, I am convinced, as I think we all
are, everyone who has dealt with this problem over any period of time,
that a lasting peace properly achieved is the best way to safeguard
Israel's security over the long run.
Last month, at the conclusion of the Wye talks, Prime
Minister and Chairman Arafat and I agreed that it would be useful for
me to come to the region to help to maintain the momentum and to appear
tomorrow before the PNC and the other Palestinian groups that will be
assembled. I also want to commend the Prime Minister for the steps he
has taken to implement the Wye agreement which he just outlined.
He has secured his government support for significant
troop withdrawal from the West Bank and begun the implementation of
that withdrawal, reached an agreement that allowed for the opening of
the Gaza airport, and he began the difficult process of prisoner releases.
The Palestinian Authority has taken some important
steps with its commitments, a deepening security cooperation with Israel,
acting against terrorism, issuing decrees for the confiscation of illegal
weapons, and dealing with incitement, taking concrete steps to reaffirm
the decision to amend the PLO Charter, which will occur tomorrow.
Have the Palestinians fulfilled all their commitments?
They certainly could be doing better to preempt violent demonstrations
in the street. This is a terribly important matter. I also agree that
matters that have been referred consistent with the Oslo agreement for
final status talks should be left there and should be subject to negotiations.
But in other areas, there has been a forward progress on the meeting
of the commitments.
Now, I know that each step forward can be excruciatingly
difficult and that now real efforts have to be made on both sides to
regain the momentum. We just had a good discussion about the specific
things that the Israelis believe are necessary for the Palestinians
to do to regain the momentum. And we talked a little bit about how we
might get genuine communication going again so that the necessary steps
can be taken to resume the structured implementation of the Wye River
agreement, which is, I think, part of what makes it work. At least it
made it work in the minds of the people who negotiated it, and it can
work in the lives of the people who will be affected by it if both sides
meet all their commitments, and only if they do.
Each side has serious political constraints; I think
we all understand that. Provocative pronouncements, unilateral actions
can be counterproductive, given the constraints that each side has.
But in the end, there has been a fundamental decision made to deal with
this through honest discussion and negotiation. That is the only way
it can be done. It cannot be done by resorting to other means when times
get difficult. And again I say the promise of Wye cannot be fulfilled
by violence or by statements or actions which are inconsistent with
the whole peace process. Both sides should adhere to that.
Let me also just say one other word about regional
security. I think Israelis are properly concerned with the threat of
weapons of mass destruction development, with the threat of missile
delivery systems. We are working with Israel to help to defend itself
against such threats, in particular, through the Arrow antiballistic
missile program. We've also just established a joint strategic planning
committee as a forum to discuss how we can continue to work together
on security matters.
We're going to take a couple of questions, I know,
but again I would like to say in closing, Mr. Prime Minister, I appreciate
the courage you showed at Wye, your farsightedness in seeking peace
and in taking personal and political risks for it, which should now
be readily apparent to anyone who has followed the events of the last
6 weeks. Your determination, your tenacity to build an Israel that is
both secure and at peace is something that I admire and support. And
I think, if we keep working at it, we can keep making progress.
Thank you very much.
House Judiciary Committee Vote on Impeachment/Palestinian
Vote to Amend the Charter
Q. Mr. President, what is your reaction to the decision
of the Judiciary Committee of the House yesterday? Do you intend to
resign, as did President Nixon? And with your permission, one question
to Prime Minister Netanyahu in Hebrew.
[At this point, a question was asked in Hebrew, and
the translation follows.]
Interpreter. Mr. Prime Minister, you have, to some
extent, appointed Mr. Clinton to act as a referee between the Israelis
and the Palestinians. He will appear tomorrow in Gaza where the decision
of the committee will be to revoke its objection to the existence of
Israel. What will you do if this decision is taken, and how will you
react to issues facing you with the Cabinet regarding a no-confidence
vote?
President Clinton. My reaction to the committee vote
is that I wasn't surprised. I think it's been obvious to anyone who
is following it for weeks that the vote was foreordained. And now it
is up to the Members of the House of Representatives to vote their conscience
on the Constitution and the law, which I believe are clear. And I have
no intention of resigning. It's never crossed my mind.
[At this point, Prime Minister Netanyahu answered in
Hebrew.]
Prime Minister Netanyahu. If you can translate all
of that, you're a genius. [Laughter]
[The Prime Minister's remarks were translated as follows.]
Interpreter. In essence, we expect to see the Palestinian
side revoke the Palestinian Charter. We also expect the Palestinians
to meet their commitment to stop incitement. If, in fact, tomorrow the
Palestinian Charter is revoked, we will view it as a success of our
policy. What we merely expect is the Palestinians honor their commitments.
And that's our expectation.
Prime Minister Netanyahu. I would say that's a pretty
good abbreviation of what I said. [Laughter] You have a great future
as an editor. [Laughter]
The President. We all need one. [Laughter]
House Impeachment Vote
Q. Mr. President, how confident are you that you can
avoid impeachment in the full House next week, and are you planning
any particular kind of outreach additional to lawmakers or the public?
President Clinton. Well, I think it's up to—it's
a question of whether each Member will simply vote his or her conscience
based on the Constitution and the law. And I don't know what's going
to happen. That's up to them. It's out of my hands. If any Member wishes
to talk to me or someone on my staff, we would make ourselves available
to them. But otherwise, I think it's important that they be free to
make this decision and that they not be put under any undue pressure
from any quarter.
Many of them have said they feel such pressure, but
I can't comment on that because I haven't talked directly to many members
of the House caucus, the Republican caucus, and I have talked to those—a
few—who said they wanted to talk to me. Otherwise I have not.
I don't think it's appropriate for me to be personally calling people;
unless they send word to me that there is some question they want to
ask or something they want to say, I don't think it's appropriate.
Middle East Peace Process
Q. Mr. President, you said that now it's up to the
Members of the House to decide——
Prime Minister Netanyahu. May I ask a favor. You are
free to ask any one of your questions, but I think the President has
come here on a very clear message, on a very clear voyage of peace,
and I believe that it would be appropriate also to ask one or two questions
on the peace process. I would like to know the answers, too.
Q. This would be exactly my second question. The first
one is about what will happen Thursday if the Members of the House will
decide about impeachment, if in this case, whether you will consider
resignation. And second question, about the peace process, after all
what you see now, after you hear the Prime Minister, don't you think
you were wrong in the Wye memorandum, that you figured you'd get an
agreement which both sides cannot comply?
President Clinton. Well, the answer to both questions
is, no. And let me amplify on your second question. No, I don't think
it was wrong. Look, if this were easy, it would have been done a long
time ago. And we knew that in the Wye agreement it would be difficult
for both sides to comply. Actually, the first 2 weeks were quite hopeful.
In the first phase, I think there was quite good compliance on both
sides. And I think the Prime Minister feels that way as well.
A number of things happened with which you are very
familiar which made the atmosphere more tense in the ensuing weeks.
And one of the things that I hope to do while I'm here, in addition
to going and meeting with the Palestinian groups, including the PNC,
is to do what I did this morning, to listen very carefully to the Prime
Minister and to his government about what specific concerns they have
in terms of the agreement and compliance with it and then try to resolve
those and listen to the Palestinians, as I will, so that we can get
this process going again.
I find that when the parties are talking to each other
and establish an atmosphere of understanding of the difficulty of each
other's positions and deal with each other in good faith, we make petty
good progress. But there is a long history here. And 9 days at Wye,
or 2 weeks of implementing, you know, it can't overcome all that history,
plus which, there are political constraints and imperatives in each
position which make it more likely that tensions will arise.
But the fact that this has been hard to implement doesn't
mean it was a mistake. It means it was real. Look, if we had made an
agreement that was easy to implement, it would have dealt with no difficult
circumstances, and so we'd be just where we are now, except worse off.
We have seen in the first phase of implementation that
good things can happen on the security side from the point of view of
the Israelis and on the development of the territory from the point
of view of the Palestinians—and the airport—if there is
genuine trust and actual compliance. And so what we have to do is to
get more actual compliance and in the process rebuild some of that trust.
Perjury and Censure
Q. Mr. President, some Republicans want you to go
further than a statement of contrition. They say that they want an admission
of perjury. And you willing to do that? And what do you think about
Chairman Hyde and the Republican leadership opposing a vote in the full
House on censure?
President Clinton. Well, on the second question, I
think you ought to ask them whether they're opposed to it because they
think that it might pass since, apparently, somewhere around three-quarters
of the American people think that's the right thing to do.
On the first question, the answer is: No, I can't do
that, because I did not commit perjury. If you go back to the hearing,
we had four prosecutors—two Republicans, two Democrats—one
the head of President Reagan's criminal justice division, who went through
the law in great detail and explained that, that this is not a perjury
case. And there was no credible argument on the other side. So I have
no intention of doing that.
Now, was the testimony in the deposition difficult
and ambiguous and unhelpful? Yes, it was. That's exactly what I said
in the grand jury testimony, myself, and I agree with what Mr. Ruff
said about it. Mr. Ruff answered questions, you know, for hours and
hours and hours and tried to deal with some of the concerns the committee
had on that. And I thought he did an admirable job in acknowledging
the difficulty of the testimony.
But I could not admit to doing something that I am
quite sure I did not do. And I think if you look at the law, if you
look at the legal decisions, and if you look at what the Republican
as well as the Democratic prosecutors said, I think that's entitled
to great weight. And I have read or seen nothing that really overcomes
the testimony that they gave on that question.
Jonathan Pollard
Q. What about Jonathan Pollard, Mr. President? What
about Jonathan Pollard? Can you—[inaudible].
President Clinton. Yes, I can. I have instituted the
review that I pledged to the Prime Minister. We've never done this on
a case before, but I told him I would do it, and we did it. And my Counsel,
Mr. Ruff, has invited the Justice Department and all the law enforcement
agencies under it, and all the other security, intelligence, and law
enforcement agencies in the Government and interested parties to say
what they think about the Pollard case, to do so by sometime in January.
And I will review all that, plus whatever arguments are presented to
me on the other side for the reduction of the sentence. And I will make
a decision in a prompt way.
But we have instituted this review which as I said
is unprecedented. We are giving everyone time to present their comments,
and I will get comments on both sides of the issue, evaluate it, and
make a decision.
Q. I would like to ask——
President Clinton. What did you say? They're demanding
equal time, three and three?
Q. I just want to ask the Prime Minister——
President Clinton. Oh, he wants to ask you a question.
That's good.
Q. Prime Minister, can you explain, perhaps to the
American people, why you think Mr. Pollard is worthy of release at this
point?
Prime Minister Netanyahu. Jonathan Pollard did something
bad and inexcusable; he spied in the United States; he collected information
on behalf of the Israeli Government. I was the first Prime Minister—and
this is the first government—to openly admit it. We think that
he should have served his time, and he did. He served for close to 13
years. And all that I appealed to President Clinton for is merely a
humanitarian appeal. It is not based on exonerating Mr. Pollard. There
is no exoneration for it. It is merely that he has been virtually in
solitary confinement for 13 years. It's a very, very heavy sentence.
And since he was sent by us on a mistaken mission—not
to work against the United States but, nevertheless, to break the laws
of the United States—we hope that, on a purely humanitarian appeal,
a way will be found to release him.
That is all I can tell you. It is not political. It
is not to exonerate him. It is merely to end a very, very sorry case
that has afflicted him and the people of Israel.
Sources: Public Papers of the President |