August/September 1992, Page 34

Words to Remember

Did Linking Loan Guarantees to a Settlement Freeze Produce Rabin's Election Victory?

"The Labor vote shows clearly that the Bush administration-and particularly the often-masterful Baker State Department-was right in its handling of the Shamir government, and symbolically, of the $10 billion in loan guarantees that Mr. Shamir sought in order to build more settlements on the West Bank. President Bush has come in for a great deal of criticism these days, some of it accurate and some of it not. Still, anybody who as worked with the Middle East knows that the most painful-the most unrewarding-task is to take on any Israeli government or the stop-at-nothing Israeli lobby."

-Georgie Anne Geyer, Washington Times, June 27, 1992.

"It's simply not true, as some critics charge, that Mr. Baker only took on those issues guaranteed to make him look good. Instead he engineered the first formal face-to-face talks ever held among Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab states-a breathtaking achievement. In the process, he and President Bush constructively redefined American friendship with Israel, showing that it was possible to insure Israel's security and nudge it toward greater flexibility at the same time. That took political courage, and it paid off. Last month Israeli voters endorsed the Bush-Baker approach by electing Yitzhak Rabin as Prime Minister. There's good reason to hope the peace process can now accelerate, even if Mr. Baker soon moves on to another role.

-New York Times editorial, July 26, 1992.

"Many American Jews are rejoicing today. I think the Bush administration should be proud of itself. It helped to create the political conditions for this outcome, by giving Israel some clearcut options: either halt settlements and enter into serious negotiations with the Arabs, or lost the political and economic support of the United States."

-Editor Michael Lerner, Tikkun (liberal Jewish bimonthly), June 24, 1992.

"I would have conducted the autonomy negotiations for 10 years, and in the meantime we would have reached a half a million souls in Judea and Samaria. . . I didn't believe there was a majority in favor of a greater land of Israel. But it could have been attained over time."

-Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir in interview with Israeli daily Ma'ariv, published June 26.

"Only in Israel could one governing party be replaced by another through the simple verdict of the voters. . . Just like the voters in Arkansas, they throw them out for local reasons and vote them in for their own account, not because of the United States' position but because of the wisdom of the Israeli voters and what they thought was in the interest of their children and their future. Because of that, I feel more strongly than ever about the importance of rebuilding the frayed relationship between the United States and Israel. . . I'm very concerned about the damage which has been done to our relationship with Israel by the Bush administration."

-Gov. William Clinton to Jewish Leadership Council, Washington, DC, June 30, 1992.

"In a bold reach for Jewish votes. . . Gov. Bill Clinton is seeking to undermine President Bush's policy toward Israel-currently the most successful part of his record abroad. . . But the coming attack carries risks for Clinton. The American Jewish community is in disarray following the election victory of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's Labor Party last month, and undecided about where to go. Moreover, the Democratic candidate's approach may be interpreted as pandering by a dangerously high number of non-Jewish Americans."

-Columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, Washington Post, July 15, 1992.

"Governor Clinton's line, articulated for the New York state primary, that settlements are just one of many items for negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians is naive. . . The Clinton position has no possibility of success and is little more than a blessing on right-wing efforts to use American tax dollars to facilitate the de facto annexation of the territories. By allowing the destruction of the 'land for peace' option, it would undermine the unique opportunity that we presently have to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In short, Mr. Bush and Secretary Baker took the stand that had to be taken. It is the shame of American Jews that so few of us have given the administration the credit it deserves on this issue."

-President Jerome M. Segal, The Jewish Peace Lobby, in July 17, 1992 letter in Forward, New York, NY.

"Bill Clinton's Middle East policy. . . is neither good policy nor good politics. It is pandering, plain and simple. More important, it can pose a threat to the continuing and fragile Middle East peace process. . . Yitzhak Rabin. . . has promised to implement interim Palestinian autonomy within six months and to freeze Israeli settlements for one year. However, Rabin took these positions in the context of the Bush administration's refusal to grant unconditional loan guarantees. By repeatedly pledging to grant these guarantees without conditions, Clinton may nourish the dangerous hope that with a Bush defeat, settlements and de facto annexation of the West Bank and Gaza (and East Jerusalem) can continue without resistance."

-President James Zogby of the Arab American Institute (and member of the Democratic Credentials Committee), The Washington Post, July 2, 1992.

"The achievements of the Bush-Baker team exceed (by far) the accomplishments of any other American administration since the birth of the state of Israel. . . For 44 years Israelis have wanted to sit across the table and negotiate with their neighbors. It's happening, and all of Israel's preconditions were met. . . But it would not have happened if there was not a president who understood and was willing to take the risks. . . Yet some intimate that the president and secretary of state are anti-Semites. What chutzpah!"

-Former Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-MN), American Jewish World, June 26, 1992.

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