“Sooner or later we’ll return to some measure of sanity in our politics.” Well, don’t hold your breath, President Clinton.
Clinton was the first-ever speaker at the Council on Foreign Relations’ Martin Indyk Lecture Series yesterday. He spoke glowingly of the late Ambassador Indyk who served as his Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and Middle East point person.
Despite Clinton’s signature betrayal of the American people, this was a President who knew what he was doing, managed from the middle, and achieved numerous, authentic foreign policy and economic successes. Yes, this was at a time when there was still a small measure of sanity in our politics.
The 1990s Oslo Accords promising peace, mutual recognition, and land exchanges between Israel and Palestine was one of those successes. Of course, reactionary forces on both sides of that equation have long since scuttled Oslo’s promise and the prospects of peace. Too bad, since Oslo remains the only tangible path to possible peace between Israel and Palestine.
Clinton told some behind-the-scenes stories about the 1993 White House ceremony commemorating the signing of the treaties. The ceremony featured Yitzhak Rabin, Yasser Arafat, and Clinton and included 27 separate maps highlighting territorial transitions.
Upon conclusion, the President took a scheduled phone call and returned to have Rabin tell him they had a serious problem. It seemed that a river near Jericho went unclaimed on the maps with both sides then immediately claiming it.
Clinton told us that he said to Rabin that he and Arafat needed to work on this together and settle the matter without him. After an hour, Rabin returned to the Oval Office to say, “He’s (Arafat) right. It’s their river.” And the issue was seemingly settled. Only a self-confident, tough-minded military hero like Rabin could have made such a concession. Clinton said of Rabin, “I’m not sure I’ve ever loved a man more than Rabin.”
p.s. I attended a small lunch with Arafat at the Council in the mid-1990s during NYC’s United Nations week. There were only 30 of us (or so) at the lunch. As we were leaving, I walked past a small conference-room door and saw, unbeknownst to us, Fidel Castro lunching with an even smaller group of Council members. I guess I only made it to the B List.