Bill Clinton: “Good morning. The loss of life and the tragedy of the violence in the Middle East this week have been a terrible…”

“Good morning. The loss of life and the tragedy of the violence in the Middle East this week have been a terrible development for the Israeli and the Palestinian people, a blow to all those who work for a lasting peace, an encouragement to those who oppose a lasting peace. Earlier this week I called on Israelis and Palestinians to end the cycle of violence, to restore calm, to recommit themselves to the hard work of building peace through negotiations. There has been some progress since then toward ending the confrontation but not enough. Therefore, after consulting with Secretary Christopher, who has literally been working around the clock with the regional leaders to resolve this problem, I have invited Prime Minister Netanyahu and Chairman Arafat to come to Washington as soon as possible. They have accepted my invitation, as has King Hussein of Jordan. I've also invited President Mubarak of Egypt; he is seeing whether it is possible for him to attend. I expect the meetings to take place early this week. The United States has often played a pivotal role in bringing Arabs and Israelis together to work out their differences in peace. It is our responsibility to do whatever we can to protect the peace process and to help move it forward. This is such a moment. The events of this week are all the more shocking because the Israelis and the Palestinians have taken so many giant steps toward peace in the last couple of years. They have shown the world that they want peace. They know they must make hard choices to achieve that goal. I'm prepared to do everything in my power to help the Israelis and the Palestinians end the violence and begin the peace process again in earnest. We have to return to the path of peace along which they have already traveled so far.”