• •
A DAY OF PEACE
'A Brave Gamble'continued from page 1.
limits of Israeli power, his
inner divisions over the
issue of recognizing the
PLO, and on which he said,
with stirring eloquence that
usually eludes him:
"Let me say to you, the
Palestinians: We are des-
tined to live together, on the
same soil in the same land.
We, the soldiers who have
returned from battle
stained with blood, we who
have seen our relatives and
friends killed before our
eyes, we who have attended
their funerals and can-
not look into the
eyes of the parents
and orphans, we
who have come from
a land where parents
bury their children,
we who have fought
against you, the
Palestinians — we
say to you today in a
loud and clear voice:
Enough of blood and
tears. Enough!"
In the crowd, Abie
Nathan, the Israeli
peace activist who
went to jail for reach-
ing out to Chairman
Arafat before his gov-
ernment was ready to
follow suit, sat staring
at the spectacle before
him.
"It feels strange," said
Mr. Nathan. "When you
work so hard for something
to happen, and then it does,
it is hard to accept its reali-
ty. I feel like
someone who
has never won
u) anything, and
• then they show t
up at your door
with a big
— prize and you
go, 'Oh my
God! Can it
t= be?'"
The agree-
'— ment signed
gave the PLO
w autonomy
over the Gaza
Strip and
Jericho and
U the promise
•4*.f*k.s.
B
that more of the West Bank
will fall under its control
during a five-year interim
period that will test
Palestinian willingness to
further compromise and to
stick to its pledge to eschew
violence.
At Monday's ceremony,
every speaker — from
Prime Minister Rabin and
Israeli Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres, to
Chairman Arafat and the
PLO's Mahmoud Abbas,
from President
Clinton to Secretary of
State Warren Christopher
and Russian Foreign
Minister Andrei Kozyrev
— stressed the many differ-
ences that still must be
dealt with before anything
like full rap-
prochement is a
reality.
Jerusalem,
Israeli settle-
ments in the ter-
ritories and final
Israeli security
arrangements are
among the diffi-
cult issues left
unsettled.
Following the
signing, away from
the White House
and its diplomatic
niceties, Prime
Minister Rabin
addressed these issues
directly — and emotionally
— at a Washington hotel
news conference.
Jerusalem, he said, will
remain "united under
Israel's sovereignty and our
capital forever." There will
be no uprooting of Israeli
settlements as transpired in
the Sinai when Israel made
the past fortnight.
But even his critics would
be hard pressed to dismiss
the sincerity of what Prime
Minister Rabin said next. It
was his most moving state-
ment of the day and it hint-
ed at the ferocity of the
inner debate that raged
within him as he struggled
to accept that Israel and the
we learn the hard way we
make peace with enemies,
even enemies we despise
[because] with friends there
is no need to make peace.
"We will not forget, but at
the same time it will not
keep us from making
peace."
It was about as much as
the stolid Rabin could han-
In Israel supporters of
peace
with peace stage a rally PLO are now officially
Egypt, and "no
(above), Prime
working to the same
Israelis [living Minister Rabin now end.
must sell the
in the territo-
The words came
ries] will come agreement at home, tinged with an anger
probably
with
the
under Pales-
that receded into a kind
help of Warren
tinian jurisdic-
of resignation, poignant-
Christopher.
tion." Moreover,
ly underscoring that the
the • Jewish
prime minister's own
state, he said, will ensure
misgivings and hopes are
its external security by con-
mirrored in the debate now
tinuing to control the
taking place in Israel's
waters off Gaza and the
cities and towns — and
Jordan River Valley near
that, for him, Monday was
Jericho.
not so much a celebration as
Opponents of the agree-
it was a bitter pill.
ment might well dismiss
"I cannot forget the 30
those statements as today's
years of PLO terror, not the
political chatter, given the
fighting against soldiers,
turn-around in Israeli policy
but terrorism against inno-
they have witnessed over
cent civilians," he said. "But
dle. Later,. when TV anchor-
man Peter Jennings asked
how the prime minister felt
when he shook Chairman
Arafat's hand, Mr. Rabin
shot back:
"I don't think this is the
time to speak of my person-
al feelings."
Prime Minister Rabin and
his Labor coalition have
shattered the psychological
barrier that kept Israel
from dealing directly with
the PLO, the one Pales-
tinian organization strong
enough and, ironically, will-
ing to moderate enough, to
enter into an agreement
with Israel that stopped
short of giving the Pales-