Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 11, 1994 TAG: 9411110047
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ZEMACH, ISRAEL LENGTH: Medium
Hussein arrived in northern Israel by helicopter and talked with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for three hours. He promised to visit Jerusalem soon but gave no date.
While the peace treaty preserved the Jordanian king's nominal control over Muslim holy sites in east Jerusalem, the Palestinians, who see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, want that role for themselves.
The king took a 10-minute stroll from the helicopter pad to the Beit Gavriel cultural center on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where the Bible says Jesus walked on the water.
He shook hands with an Israeli army officer and students in a crowd of several hundred that gathered to see him. He also kissed a baby girl.
It was Hussein's first public visit to a country that he often has visited secretly. He is the only Arab leader besides the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to openly visit the Jewish state. Sadat was assassinated Oct.6, 1981, by Islamic militants opposed to peace with Israel.
Hussein said the Israeli and Jordanian people are on the ``threshold of a peace which I hope generations to come will cherish, protect and enjoy.'' He called the treaty an ``honorable peace, a balanced peace.''
The treaty was signed Oct.26 in the presence of President Clinton at the Arava border crossing in southern Israel. Hussein stayed on his side of the border and did not enter Israel during that ceremony.
Speaking only a few miles from the Golan Heights that Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war, Rabin said he hoped the agreement would give momentum to talks with Syria and Lebanon.
Before the king arrived, the two countries opened a new border crossing at Sheik Hussein Bridge, 13 miles south of Zemach, one of four links opened since the two countries ended 46 years of war.
Israeli and Jordanian schoolgirls presented bouquets of flowers, and a squadron of Jordanian and Israeli single-engine planes flew overhead, one trailing a banner that proclaimed peace in three languages: ``Shalom, Peace, Salaam.''
About 50 Israeli dignitaries joined Jordanian officials in walking to the Jordanian side, where they shared small cups of thick coffee and Arabic cakes in a tent.
``Who does not love peace?'' asked 55-year-old Jordanian farmer Talal el-Ghazawi. ``We have waited for this moment for 50 years.''
by CNB