Haaretz
Cheshvan 12, 5766
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton said Sunday that she
supports the separation fence Israel is building along the edges of the
West Bank, and that the onus is on the Palestinian Authority to fight
terrorism.
"This is not against the Palestinian people," Clinton,
a New York Democrat, said during a tour of a section of the barrier being
built around Jerusalem.
"This is against the terrorists. The
Palestinian people have to help to prevent terrorism. They have to change
the attitudes about terrorism."
Clinton's comments echoed Israel's
position that the Palestinians must crack down on militants or Israel will
find ways to prevent attacks on its citizens.
Israel Defense
Forces commanders explained the security considerations of the barrier to
Clinton at an observation point in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of
Gilo.
From the lookout, Clinton could see the barrier change from
a concrete wall around parts of Jerusalem to an electrified fence on the
approach to the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
Clinton, who is on a
three-day visit to Israel, also met Sunday with Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.
On Monday, Clinton -
along with several international dignitaries, including her husband,
former U.S. President Bill Clinton - is to attend ceremonies marking the
10th anniversary of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination.
Hillary Clinton touted Sharon's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in
September as "courageous" and said the Israeli leader needs a "reliable
partner" on the Palestinian side to further the positive momentum created
by the pullout.
"That was an incredibly difficult position for him
to take, and it caused great distress within the Israeli society," Clinton
said. "But he did it as a means of demonstrating that he is committed to
trying to get back into a process."
Clinton is not slated to visit
the Palestinian areas during her visit.
The Clintons interrupted
their Israeli visit to travel to Jordan on Sunday night to meet with King
Abdullah following last week's triple hotel bombing in Amman. The couple
was to visit one of the attacked hotels.
Clinton said the trip to
Jordan is to "pay our respects to His Majesty and the people of Jordan,
who themselves have suffered from the violent extremists that we are
united against."
Clinton brushed off questions Sunday on whether
she plans to run for U.S. president in 2008.
"I've already been to
the White House," she said before meeting with Foreign Minister Silvan
Shalom. Polls have indicated that, if she were to run for president, she
would be the favorite for the Democratic nomination.
Clintons
attend Rabin memorial
Bill Clinton, in an emotional address
delivered Saturday night meters from the site where Yitzhak Rabin was
slain 10 years ago, urged some 200,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv to take
up Rabin's peacemaking and "see it through to the end."
Clinton,
who forged a deep bond with Rabin as he sought to broker Mideast peace
with the Palestinians and Israel's neighboring Arab states,was the keynote
speaker in the memorial rally marking the anniversary of the assassination
of former prime minister Rabin by a far-right Israeli.
"I loved him
very much, and I was in awe of his ability to move from being a soldier to
being a peacemaker, a politician to a statesman," Clinton said.
"If
he were here, he would say, 'There is enough of all this missing. If you
really think I lived a good life, if you think I made a noble sacrifice in
death, than for goodness sakes take up my work and see it through to the
end,'" Clinton said.
"However many days Rabin had left, he gave
them up on this spot for you and your future," he said. "He knew he was
risking giving them up and he gave them up, too, for all the children of
the Palestinians, who deserve the benefit and the blessings of a normal
life, as well."
On November 4, 1995, while leaving a peace rally,
Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, an extremist Jew who considered him
a traitor for making concessions to the Palestinians.
In a speech
that was at times deeply personal, Clinton said he "expected to be missing
Yitzhak Rabin for the rest of my life."
Clinton ended his speech by
saying "Shalom Haver," Hebrew for "Goodbye friend," the same words he
famously used to bid farewell to Rabin at the Israeli leader's
funeral.
Images of Rabin, who won a Noble Peace Prize for signing
the Oslo interim peace accords with the Palestinians, played on a huge
television screen towering over the square.