Back to Ambassadorial Speeches - Ambassador Itamar Rabinovich

Remarks by Ambassador Itamar Rabinovich to the American Jewish Conference May 5, 1994

AMBASSADOR RABINOVICH: Al, David, my ambassadorial colleagues, leaders and members of the organization, my friend and colleague Uri Savir, the director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Thank you very much, Al, for these kind and overly kind words of introduction. It is a genuine pleasure to be bringing to you tonight greetings from the government and people of Israel. It is a genuine pleasure to watch a thriving American Jewish organization in its activities year 'round and in the festive mood of this annual gathering.

There are many facets to your activities and many dimensions to the relationship between you and the state of Israel. I am tempted to address several of them, but to be practical, I will focus my remarks on the main issue on our agenda, the peace process.

It is a privilege to be making these remarks in the immediate aftermath of the secretary of state's address to you. The United States is, technically speaking, one of the two co-sponsors of the Madrid peace process, but in substantive terms, it is the chaperon and the orchestrator of the peace process. We fought for many years to have direct contact with our Arab neighbors. We know that without direct contact and negotiating, peace will not be established, but we also know that without friendly facilitation by the United States, peace accords will not be finalized. Finding the right balance between direct negotiations and reliance on the good offices of the United States is one of the many challenges in this peace process, but given the excellent working relationship we keep with the Clinton administration, our mode of cooperation need not concern us too much.

As an ambassador posted to Washington, I am obviously constrained in what I can say about our work with the State Department and the secretary, but I will say that we are confident that both the vital interests of the state of Israel and the role of managing the peace process are well looked after at Foggy Bottom.

Yesterday, an important agreement was signed in Cairo. The White House ceremony last September was a dramatic and moving event, but the psychological breakthrough and the symbolic crossing had to be translated into practicalities.

It took seven months of protracted negotiations and many crises to finalize the agreement on implementation. You, and many millions, had occasion to watch on television yesterday what we, the negotiators, had encountered many times in closed rooms. You saw yesterday that our delegation was willing to leave had the agreement not been kept. We have told you many times that we have red lines, and you saw yesterday that, indeed, we do.

But the important tests are still ahead of us, and more important, ahead of the Palestinians. The purpose of the agreement is to produce a change in reality. The Palestinian leadership is now given, for the first time, authority and responsibility for a sizeable population in a given territory. Its ability to govern, to administer, to keep law and order, to prevent violence and terror, and to foster economic development will have a crucial impact on the future of this peace process.

On another track, our negotiations with Syria, some important progress was made. The secretary has referred to this progress and to the lingering gaps in his own address. We are grateful for his willingness to invest time, efforts and creativity in yet another trip to the region in the near future. We believe that further progress can be made and that some gaps can be narrowed in that trip. For that to happen, Syria needs to respond fully to the peace package that we have presented and to engage in public diplomacy so as to persuade our government and our people that a transition from enmity to reconciliation has indeed been made.

Earlier this evening, a less dramatic but hardly less significant event has come to a close. The Israeli delegation to the arms control negotiations in Doha, the capital of Qatar, landed back at Ben Gurion airport.

Think about it. Ten days ago we were in Muscat, Oman. Today we came back from Doha. In September we will be in Bahrain. It is a complex reality. The Israeli citizen has to cope with, one and the same time -- at one and the same time with the prospect of fresh violence in Hebron, with the novel phenomenon of a direct television broadcast from the Gulf, and with the acrimonious debate on the price of a potential peace with Syria.

I know that these questions are also in your minds. It is comforting and important for us to know that in peacemaking as in war, you are with us. May G-d be with you in your work, and may I wish you success in your present deliberations and in your ongoing work.

Thank you very much.