Speech Introducing President Bill Clinton

President Clinton,

Colleagues at Tufts,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

I wish first to salute my colleagues on the Board of Trustees of Tufts University and the Chairman of the Board Nathan Gantcher for their wise selection of Lawrence S. Bacow as President of Tufts. To Dr. Bacow I express my warm congratulations and wish him the best.

May I also express my thanks and gratitude to Leila Fawaz for the great job she is doing as Chair of the Issam M. Fares Lecture Series.

It is indeed a great pleasure for me to welcome President Bill Clinton to the Issam M. Fares Lecture Series at Tufts University.

As you address “our shared future”, Mr. President, we must think of it in our region in terms of peace. In the context of the Globalization in the 21st century a conflict in the Middle East will have direct impact on the rest of the Globe. Accordingly, I will focus on the need to resolve the Middle East conflict, a conflict to which President Clinton gave utmost attention. Close to the end of his Administration, and over a period of three weeks, he came pretty close to a breakthrough. Our distinguished Speaker has the gift of focusing on an issue and of pursuing it with vigor until he resolves it. I know that first hand, as I had the privilege of meeting with him in the White House early on in his second term of office. I was impressed by the intensity in which he handles issues and by his serious interest in my country Lebanon, and in our Middle Eastern region.

Mr. President, my country together with all Arab states, have taken a strategic decision to seek peace in the region. For too long our region has been allowed to drift into violence that has tented to develop into wars threatening the fabric of world peace. While the Middle East may be regarded in the West as a strategic theater and as the rich deposit of oil; to us, it is the source of classical civilizations, the home of the three universal religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and a major contributor to the making of Western Civilization.

The time has come to rise the great challenge facing the region. We must definitely stop the violence between Palestinians and Israelis. Only this way will we reverse the tide of fundamentalism and the excesses of extremist ideologies.

Violence breeds violence, and hatred begets hatred. In conflicts such as the one now raging in the Middle East, there is no alternative to dialogue, dialogue in the context of law and international legitimacy. For five decades, the United Nations Organization has been passing resolutions on all aspects of the Middle East Conflict. The Peace we seek must be based on these resolutions. UN Resolutions, Mr. President, are meant to be implemented, not to be negotiated indefinitely, and ultimately robbed of their content.

There is now talk about “total withdrawal in return for total normalization”. This is fine, but it simplifies the picture. Withdrawal is only one issue, and the position of the parties on it is quite different. The refugee issue is also pressing. There are some 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon alone, not to mention those dispersed in other countries, other regions. The solution to their problem should be in accordance with UN Resolution 194. This is not only a humane matter, but also a political matter of great impact on the future stability in the region.

Peace in the Middle East, as I see it, implies the following:

1. Israeli compliance with United Nations Resolutions on all issues of the Middle East conflict. The compliance includes implementation of Resolutions 242, 338 and 425 which call for Israeli withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967.
2. The rise of an independent and viable Palestinian state.
3. Agreement on the elimination of the weapons of mass destruction in all nations of the region.
4. Agreement by all states in the Middle East on an economic order that will favor development, progress, and the rise of democratic institutions.
5. Agreement on a new vision for the region in which each state feels secure into the long term future.

In recent months, Mr. President, the bigger issues of peace, have been set aside. Instead, the diplomatic effort has been totally directed towards stopping the violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Violence, however, is the symptom of disagreement on the big issues, such as the points I mentioned above. It will stop only when a just settlement is reached.

Let’s again refocus attention on the big issue of peace. Peace in the Middle East will be a historic achievement. An achievement of such dimension deserves the maximum effort that the world community can bring to bear on it. The US must take the lead in this effort. Europe and Russia should be brought in, as they have extensive experience in the Middle East and leverage in settling its affairs. At the end of this month, Beirut will host the Arab summit. The main item on the agenda is the search for a just, stable, and comprehensive peace in our region. The Summit reached its decisions by consensus, and I hope that these decisions will be taken into serious consideration by all those concerned.

President Clinton, we are honored to have you as our Speaker this evening, and we look forward to hearing your views on our shared future, which we hope we will all share in peace and prosperity.