Sec. Clinton's Remarks with Israeli Prime Minister
Sunday, 01 Nov 2009 04:24:30 -0600
Hillary Rodham
Clinton
Secretary of State
Jerusalem
October 31,
2009
MODERATOR: Good evening, and we welcome Secretary
of State Clinton. We shall start with a few words, and then
we’ll take two questions from each side. Prime Minister,
please.
PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: It’s my pleasure
to welcome Secretary of State of the United States Hillary
Clinton to Jerusalem. Welcome, Hillary. You are a great
friend and a great champion of peace. I think that we owe a
vote of thanks to you, to George Mitchell, to your staffs,
and of course, to President Obama and the entire Obama
Administration for the tireless efforts to re-launch the
peace process – the peace process between us and the
Palestinians, and between us and the Arab world –
following the President’s vision of a regional
peace.
We are eager to advance on both. We think that
the place to resolve outstanding issues and differences of
opinion is around a negotiating table. We think we should
sit around that negotiating table right away. We’re
prepared to start peace talks immediately. I think what we
should do on the path to peace is to simply get on it and
get with it. So I’m sure we’ll discuss these things and
other things in the spirit of friendship between us and you,
between Israel and the United States. Welcome to
Jerusalem.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you so much, Prime
Minister. It is a great personal pleasure for me to be back
in Jerusalem and a great honor to be here as Secretary of
State once again. And I look forward to our discussion, and
I appreciate the very positive words about the need to get
back into a negotiation that would be in the best interests
of Israel and Israel’s security, as well as create a state
for the Palestinian people. Both President Obama and I are
committed to a comprehensive peace agreement because we do
believe that it holds out the best promise for the security
and future of Israel, and for the aspirations of the
Palestinians.
So I’m looking forward to our
discussion tonight. I know you’re someone who is
indefatigable, so even though we’re starting our meeting
so late, I have no doubt that it will be intense and cover a
lot of ground. And I’m very much eager to begin those
discussions.
QUESTION: Madame Secretary, do you think
both sides should re-launch the peace process without any
preconditions?
SECRETARY CLINTON: I want to see both
sides begin as soon as possible in negotiations We have
worked – and of course, Senator Mitchell has worked
tirelessly – in setting forth what are the approaches that
each side wishes to pursue in order to get into those
negotiations, so I’m not going to express my opinion as to
whether or not there should be conditions. The important
thing, as the prime minister just said, is to get into the
negotiations. I gave the same message today when I met with
President Abbas.
We know that negotiations often take
positions that then have to be worked through once the
actual process starts. I think the best way to determine the
way forward is, as the prime minister said, get on the path.
MODERATOR: Mark.
QUESTION: Mark Landler, New
York Times. Madame Secretary, when you were here in March on
the first visit, you issued a strong statement condemning
the demolition of housing units in East Jerusalem. Yet, that
demolition has continued unabated, and indeed, a few days
ago, the mayor of the city of Jerusalem issued a new order
for demolition. How would you characterize this policy
today?
For the prime minister, sir, there’s been
increasing tension, as you know, around – surrounding the
Temple Mount, some civil unrest in the streets. Every time
the peace process has lagged, often matters have been
settled through violence. Are you worried that we are
heading into that phase?
And then a last question, if
I may. (Laughter.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: That’s the New
York Times, for you. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: Dr.
Abdullah’s aides in Kabul have confirmed that he’s not
going to take part in the runoff. Are you concerned that a
Karzai government elected without the benefit of a runoff,
given all the fraud in the first round, will be lacking in
legitimacy?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, let me say I have
nothing to add to my statement in March I continue to stand
by what I said then.
With respect to Afghanistan and
Dr. Abdullah’s decision, I think that it is his decision
to make. Whatever went into that determination is obviously
his choice. But I do not think it affects the legitimacy.
There have been other situations in our own country as well
as around the world where, in a runoff election, one of the
parties decides, for whatever reason, that they are not
going to go on. I do not think that that in any way affects
the legitimacy. And I would just add that when President
Karzai accepted the second round without knowing what the
consequences and outcome would be, that bestowed legitimacy
from that moment forward, and Dr. Abdullah’s decision does
not in any way take away from that.
PRIME MINISTER
NETANYAHU: I’m concerned with the attempts to create
provocations around the issue of the Temple Mount. There are
parties who are trying to do that. I assure you that the
Government of Israel is not one of them. There are also
extraordinary falsifications. My staff decided to have a
meeting, a free evening, a few weeks ago They decided to
have it in the Old City. In the David City there’s a
little restaurant there. They said, “Could you come for
dessert,” because I worked long hours. I said, “Sure,
I’ll see what I can do. I don’t promise, but we’ll
make the arrangements.”
Our security people went
there. Within an hour, Palestinian news agencies carried the
story that Netanyahu was coming to the Old City to burrow a
new tunnel under the Temple Mount. So help me God, this
became an issue of great consequence. There were rumors that
the violence would break out, exactly as you said. Now, this
is entirely false. I give that as one example. There are
daily examples of this and daily actions by militants,
particularly the militant Islamic radicals who are trying to
stir up trouble on the Temple Mount.
We are going to
continue our efforts to keep Jerusalem safe, open, quiet,
accessible to all three great faiths – Judaism, Islam, and
Christianity. And the city is now very robust. It’s got a
lot of tourism, as you see in the entire area. And the best
way to see what is happening there is to go for yourself. Go
take a look. You’ll see. And you’ll see our actual
policy in place. We want a peaceful Jerusalem without
provocations on the Temple Mount or anywhere
else.
QUESTION: Madame Secretary, you went to Abu
Dhabi, and I believe you came up with not much from Abu
Mazen, who is actually presenting Israel and the United
States with lots of no’s. Also, United States is
encountering many no’s from Iran. At the moment, it
doesn't look like some arrangement is being made at the
moment. What is your reaction to what – receiving the
no’s from the Arab world?
And the same question,
please, to Prime Minister Netanyahu.
SECRETARY
CLINTON: Well, first of all, I believe that strategic
patience is a necessary part of my job, and I view the
conversations that we had this morning with President Abbas
and his team as being very constructive and useful in
continuing the move toward engagement that leads to
negotiations. So if Senator Mitchell and I appear to be
patient and persistent, it’s because we are. We think
it’s worth being both.
With respect to Iran, there
is not yet a final decision with respect to the Tehran
research reactor. The important matter that I would
underscore is the unity among the P-5+1, which includes not
only the United States but the United Kingdom, France,
Germany, Russia, China, and also the EU, in putting forth
and in staying firm with this. The world is united in a view
that Iran should not have or acquire nuclear weapons
capacity. And our view is that we are willing to work toward
creative outcomes like shipping out the low-enriched uranium
to be reprocessed outside of Iran. But we’re not going to
wait forever. Patience does have, finally, its limits And it
is time for Iran to fulfill its obligations and
responsibilities to the international community, and
accepting this deal would be a good beginning.
PRIME
MINISTER NETANYAHU: You asked two questions, one on Iran and
the other on the peace process. On Iran, I want to express
our appreciation for the very clear stance adopted by
President Obama that has united, as Secretary Clinton has
just said, an international consensus that Iran must cease
its efforts to become a nuclear military power. I think the
fact that there has been unity that has not been seen for a
long time on this position is something very valuable, very
important. And I think it’s important not only for Israel,
I think it’s important for the Middle East, for our
region, for the peace of the world. So I want to commend the
efforts of you and President Obama and the Western and other
leaders have taken here to – on this issue that I think is
central to the future of the world, to the future of
peace.
As far as the question about the peace process
is concerned, look, first let me, before you talk about the
no’s, talk about the yes. And I want to put rhetoric aside
and talk about facts. It’s a fact that since my government
took office, we dismantled hundreds of earth blocks,
checkpoints, facilitated movement in the Allenby Bridge, and
eliminated a lot of bureaucratic hurdles to daily life and
economic activity in the Palestinian Authority’s areas.
And as a result, there’s been a Palestinian economic boom.
That is a fact.
The second fact is that I gave a
speech at Bar Ilan University in which I said that Israel
will accept the vision of two states for two peoples, a
demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish
state of Israel. It wasn’t easy to do, but we did it. That
is a fact.
The third fact is that we’ve been
talking earnestly, openly, and transparently to the American
Administration, and we’ve talked about measures that we
can take to facilitate further the launching – the
re-launching of the peace process. That is a fact.
The simple fact is this: We are willing to engage in
peace talks immediately without preconditions. The other
fact is that, unfortunately, the other side is not. It is
asking and piling on preconditions that it never put on in
the 16 years that we’ve had that the peace process since
the annunciation of the Oslo Accords. There have not been
these preconditions. It’s a change of Palestinian policy,
and I hope they change back to the right thing, which is to
get into the negotiating tent. We’re eager and sincere in
our desire to reach an agreement to end this conflict. I
happen to think that we’re able to do this, contrary to
all the pessimists around us. But the only way we can get to
an agreement is to begin negotiating, and that is something
that we are prepared to do That is a fact.
MODERATOR:
Finally, Joe Klein from Time Magazine. Yes.
QUESTION:
I’m tempted to ask why is this night different from all
other nights --
SECRETARY CLINTON: Do you want us to
burst into song? (Laughter.)
QUESTION: Yes. For 40
years, we’ve seen American secretaries of state and
Israeli prime ministers in a similar situation. Despite the
prime minister’s optimism, the talks are stalled. The
prospect of talks is stalled. And while you’ve said yes
without preconditions to talks, so many of your – you’ve
said no to a settlement freeze. And I wonder whether that
would be open to negotiation.
And Madame Secretary, is
the Obama Administration still in favor of a total freeze?
And if not, what’s plan b?
PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU:
Joe, the specific question you asked about the settlements
also has to be fully factual. The fact of the matter is that
we – I said we would not build new settlements, not
expropriate land for addition for the existing settlements,
and that we were prepared to adopt a policy of restraint on
the existing settlements, but also one that would still
enable normal life for the residents who are living
there.
Now, there has not been in the last 16 years
– not 40 years but 16 years, since the beginning of the
peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians –
any demand every put not on restraint, but on any limitation
on settlement activity as a precondition for entering
negotiations. This is a new thing. Now, it’s true that you
can take a new thing and you can repeat it ad nauseum for a
few weeks and a few months, and it becomes something that is
obvious and has been there all the time. It’s not been
there all the time.
QUESTION: It was there in the
first Bush Administration, right?
PRIME MINISTER
NETANYAHU: No, there has not been a precondition for
entering or continuing with the peace process between us and
the Palestinians. There’s not been a demand coming from
the Palestinians that said we will not negotiate with you
unless you freeze all activity – something that is
problematic in so many ways, judicial and in other ways. I
won’t get into that. But this is a new demand. It’s a
change of policy, the Palestinian policy. And it doesn't do
much for peace. It doesn't work to advance negotiations. It
actually – this uses a pretext, or at least does something
as an obstacle that prevents the reestablishment of
negotiations.
Now, mind you, the issue of
settlements, the issue of territories, the issue of borders
– these will be engaged in the negotiations, and they’ll
have to be resolved for a peace agreement to be achieved.
But you can’t resolve it in advance of the negotiations,
and you certainly shouldn’t pile it on as a
precondition.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I would add
just for context that what the prime minister is saying is
historically accurate. There has never been a precondition.
It’s always been an issue within the negotiations. What
the prime minister has offered in specifics of a restraint
on the policy of settlements, which he has just described
– no new starts, for example – is unprecedented in the
context of the prior two negotiations. It’s also the fact
that for 40 years, presidents of both parties have
questioned the legitimacy of settlements.
But I think
that where we are right now is to try to get into the
negotiations. The prime minister will be able to present his
government’s proposal about what they are doing regarding
settlements, which I think when fully explained will be seen
as being not only unprecedented but in response to many of
the concerns that have been expressed. There are always
demands made in any negotiation that are not going to be
fully realized. I mean, negotiation, by its very definition,
is a process of trying to meet the other’s needs while
protecting your core interests. And on settlements,
there’s never been a precondition, there’s never been
such an offer from any Israeli government. And we hope that
we’ll be able to move in to the negotiations where all the
issues that President Obama mentioned in his speech at the
United Nations will be on the table for the parties to begin
to resolve.
PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: Thank you very
much.
ENDS