Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 29, 1995 TAG: 9509290084
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The New York Times and The Boston Globe
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
At 1:16 p.m., under the gleaming chandeliers of the White House East Room and at the same dark wood table they had used for the first self-rule accord in September 1993, Arafat and Rabin signed hefty, blue-bound copies of the historic agreement.
Then, as President Clinton stood at their sides, the two former enemies shook hands, firmly. The hundreds of diplomats, Cabinet officials and members of Congress gathered for the ceremony erupted in applause.
Arafat said in Arabic that the agreement ``demonstrates the irreversibility of the peace process.'' He called the reconciliation ``the peace of the brave.''
Israeli forces will withdraw from the West Bank's most heavily populated areas, giving a million Palestinians and 100,000 Israeli settlers the responsibility of self-governance and a schedule for democratic elections.
Arafat vowed to work to bring an end to violence. ``Our participation in the great peace process means that we are betting everything on the future. Therefore, we must condemn and forswear violence totally - not only because the use of violence is morally reprehensible but because it undermines Palestinian aspirations,'' Arafat said. ``Enough killing and enough killing of innocent people.''
Under the 1993 declaration, Palestinian authorities already administer the Gaza Strip and an enclave around Jericho. Now that the West Bank has been added to the territories under Palestinian rule, the two sides have agreed to discuss the final shape and status of a Palestinian entity in talks expected to begin next May.
Maybe it was a testament to the recent speed of landmark changes that this time the ceremony did not seem quite so extraordinary. This time, Arafat, who had fought in his first war against Israel in 1948, and Rabin, the general- turned-statesman, seemed more comfortable with their roles. And this time, no American television station offered live coverage.
``Perhaps this picture has already become routine,'' Rabin said, alert to the mood. ``The handshakes no longer set your pulse racing.''
But Rabin also underlined how far the Middle East peace effort had come by pointing to the other leaders participating: President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Hussein of Jordan.
``Please take a good, hard look,'' Rabin said. ``The sight you see before you at this moment was impossible, was unthinkable just two years ago. Only poets dreamed of it, and to our great pain, soldiers and civilians went to their death to make this moment possible.''
Rabin said, as Arafat sat nearby, ``We who have killed - and have been killed - are walking beside you now toward a common future. We want you as good neighbors.''
Virtually every speaker remarked on the difficult steps still needed to bring a comprehensive peace to the Middle East and noted the absence of senior officials from Israel's other neighbors, Syria and Lebanon.
As they posed for a group photograph in the Oval Office with Hussein and Mubarak, Clinton and Rabin and Arafat were asked about the missing leaders of Syria and Lebanon.
``We've got two places left,'' Clinton said, waving to empty space on a sofa.
``We will press forward with our efforts until the circle of peace is closed, a circle which must include Syria and Lebanon if peace is to be complete,'' Clinton said. ``We will not rest until Muslims and Jews can turn their backs to pray without any fear.''
WASHINGTON - Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers took another major step toward peace in the Middle East Thursday, signing an accord at a White House ceremony that will give self-rule to much of the occupied West Bank and could one day lead to a nation of Palestine.
``We who have killed - and have been killed - are walking beside you now toward a common future. We want you as good neighbors,'' Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said as Yasser Arafat sat nearby in an olive green uniform and his trademark kaffiyeh.
Under the terms of the accord, Israeli forces will withdraw from the most heavily populated areas of the West Bank, giving a million Palestinians and 100,000 Israeli settlers the responsibility of self-governance and a schedule for democratic elections. Arafat, in turn, vowed to work to bring an end to violence.
``Our participation in the great peace process means that we are betting everything on the future. Therefore, we must condemn and forswear violence totally - not only because the use of violence is morally reprehensible but because it undermines Palestinian aspirations,'' Arafat said. ``Enough killing and enough killing of innocent people.''
President Clinton, who interceded personally with Rabin and Arafat to help remove a last-minute snag over the timing of the Israeli withdrawal, hailed the agreement as a milestone in a process that was launched by the signing of the ``Declaration of Principles'' and the famous handshake between the two on the White House lawn in September 1993.
In accordance with the 1993 declaration, Palestinian authorities already administer the Gaza Strip and an enclave around the city of Jericho. Now that the West Bank has been added to the territories under Palestinian rule, the two sides have agreed to discuss the final shape and status of a Palestinian entity in talks expected to begin next May.
``The sight you see before you at this moment was impossible, was unthinkable, just two or three years ago,'' Rabin told Clinton, Arafat, the leaders of Egypt and Jordan, the head of European Union and the foreign ministers of Russia, Morocco, Norway and Japan, a representative of the Saudi royal family and other dignitaries gathered in the East Room. ``Only poets dreamed of it. And to our great pain, soldiers and civilians went to their death.''
But to the hot and crowded audience in the East Room, Rabin hailed the sense of familiarity of Thursday's moment as proof the peace process is succeeding.
``Our speeches are already repeating themselves; perhaps this picture has already become routine. The handshakes no longer set your pulse racing; your loving hearts no longer pound with emotion, as they did,'' Rabin said. ``We've begun to get used to each other. We're like old acquaintances. We can tell you all about Arafat's quirks. He and his friends can tell you all about ours. We have matured in the two years since we first shook hands here.''
Arafat said he ``definitely'' thought Thursday's agreement would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state - a notion that Israel does not yet accept.
For Clinton, it was the latest in a series of recent foreign policy successes. Though the peace process traces its roots to the administrations of his Democratic and Republican predecessors, Clinton's administration has pursued the goal of a Middle East peace with diligence. Republican congressional leaders were noticeably absent from Thursday's ceremony, though both House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole had been invited.
``Today the landscape changes and the chasm narrows,'' said Clinton, who was praised by both Arabs and Jews for his efforts Thursday. ``The agreement ... means that Israel's mothers and fathers no longer worry that their sons will face the dangers of patrolling Nablus or confronting the hostile streets of Ramallah. And it means that Palestinians will be able to decide for themselves what their schools teach, how their houses should be built, and who they choose to govern.''
In return for the Israeli withdrawal, Rabin said, Israel expects peace and order, and Arafat's help in a war against terrorism.
``I want to say to you, Chairman Arafat: Together we should not let the land flowing with milk and honey become a land flowing with blood and tears,'' Rabin said. ``If all the partners to peacemaking do not unite against the evil angels of death by terrorism, all that will remain of this ceremony are color snapshots; empty mementos.
``We ... will not permit terrorism to defeat peace. We will not allow it. If we do not have partners in this bitter, difficult war we will fight it alone. We know how to fight. And we know how to win,'' Rabin said.
The Arab dignitaries, in turn, urged Israel to release Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails; move along the concurrent peacemaking ``tracks'' with Syria and Lebanon, and reach an agreement on the status of Jerusalem, which both Palestinians and Israelis claim as a capital.
``A significant portion of Palestinian national rights reverts today to the Palestinian people ... a step which paves the way to free and democratic Palestinian elections ... (and) the establishment of an independent Palestinian national entity,'' Arafat said. ``This historic interim step ... demonstrates the irreversibility of the peace process.''
But ``added diligence lies ahead,'' said Arafat, the former terrorist chieftain who had his first bilateral meeting with a president in the Oval Office Thursday. ``We still carry on our shoulders many other tasks'' concerning Israeli settlements in Hebron and other tense areas of the West Bank, deliniation of eventual borders, the status of refugees and ``Jerusalem, which our people, irrespective of their faith - Muslims, Christians or Jews - consider to be the heart and soul.''
Arafat said the Palestinians and Israelis should make Jerusalem ``the joint cornerstone and the capital of peace between the Palestinian and the Israeli peoples.''
US officials said that Arafat's talk of a ``joint'' Jerusalem reflected a recent softening of the Palestinian position, but was ambiguously phrased so that they hesitated to draw conclusions about its significance.
Clinton's aides were more willing to talk about how the president drew Arafat and Rabin into his private dining room at midmorning Thursday, successfully urging them to iron out the 11th-hour wrinkle over the timing of the Israeli withdrawl.
The accord is opposed by hard-liners on both sides, and Rabin took pain Thursday to address Jewish fears about the wisdom of the deal, and to try to persuade his critics of the fruits of peace.
``Etched on every vineyard, every field, every olive tree, every flower is the deep imprint of Jewish history,'' Rabin said of the land long claimed by Arabs and Jews. ``But we are not alone here on this soil, in this land. And so we are sharing this good earth today with the Palestinian people - in order to choose life.
``We are not retreating. We are not leaving,'' Rabin said. ``We are yielding - and we are doing so for the sake of peace.''
Absent from the day's festivities were high-ranking officials from Syria or Lebanon - though both nations did send low-level diplomats to the White House.
As they posed for a group photograph in the Oval Office with King Hussein of Jordan and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Clinton and Rabin and Arafat were asked about the missing leaders of Syria and Lebanon.
``We've got two places left,'' Clinton said, waving to empty space on a sofa.
by CNB