Bill Clinton: “Well, he did say the time had come for an end to war and bloodshed, but he did not reaffirm the specific commitments he…”

“Well, he did say the time had come for an end to war and bloodshed, but he did not reaffirm the specific commitments he made in writing. And yes, I think I would have liked the speech better had he done so. But when I listened to it in Arabic, it seemed to be delivered with great conviction and passion, more than the translation would imply. And I think you have to have a certain discount factor really for both of the speeches because of the ambivalence of the supporters of both men about this agreement. I mean, Arafat, after all, did not get a unanimous vote in his council for this agreement. You know, what he was trying to do is to reach out to the Israeli people to establish his good faith without further weakening his position. And by the same token, I think the Prime Minister did a terrific job of reaffirming to the Israeli people how difficult this was for him, how strongly committed he is to the welfare of the people of Israel and why, that he is doing this because he thinks it's better for them. I wasn't perhaps as disappointed as you were, because I thought it was so important that Arafat came and spoke directly to the people of Israel, reaffirmed in general the commitments he had made, looked at me and thanked the United States in ways that he--I mean, he has to know, because I've made it so clear publicly and privately, that the United States is committed to the security of Israel and that therefore if he wants us to help him, he's going to have to honor every last one of the commitments he made, which in private again today I asked him to do, and he reaffirmed that he would.”