PM RABIN'S SPEECH AT THE OPENING OF THE ARAVA BORDER
August 8, 1994
THE FOLLOWING IS PRIME MINISTER YITZHAK RABIN'S SPEECH AT THE OPENING
OF THE ARAVA BORDER CROSSING BETWEEN ISRAEL AND JORDAN, EILAT, 8
AUGUST 1994:
Your Royal Highness,
Secretary of State of the United States,
Prime Minister of Jordan,
Foreign Minister of Israel,
Ministers of the Governments of Jordan and Israel
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Stage-master, working in the service of history, has done us a great
favor today he has chosen this site as the ideal backdrop for the new
relationships being formed between Israel and Jordan.
We are literally seated at this time and this place, all of us, Israelis
Jordanians, and Americans, on the remains of the past. We are sitting on an
old mine field which was cleared only three days ago. This is what divided
Israel and Jordan for decades. This is the field in which death and
destruction were sowed.
We are sitting at this time and at this place, all of us, Israelis and
Jordanians, before the future. To our right and to our left stand the new
Israel-Jordan border crossing terminals which sprang up overnight. In a
short time, tourists and businessmen from all over the world will start to
pass through here from Eilat to Aqaba, from Aqaba to Eilat, from Israel to
Jordan, from Jordan to Israel.
Three days ago, this was a wilderness. Only sand and more sand. Today, this
place teems with new life. Three weeks ago, the dream of peace was far away.
Today it is materializing: telephone lines, tourism. Soon it will seem as
though this is the way it has always been.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends say to us: 'The pace of events is too fast. We cannot keep up. Wait
a moment.'
Your Royal Highness, Our Friends in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,
We have waited forty-six years. We have gone through war, pain and
suffering. To prevent further loss and sorrow, we cannot wait even one day
more.
It looks like the walls of hostility are tumbling down before our eyes
and all this would have been impossible, had not the two peoples, the
Jordanians and the Israelis, and their leadership wanted this to happen.
This is the first step on a long, long journey. There are still problems,
difficulties, obstacles and challenges ahead. But the far-sightedness which
has characterized our contacts in the past and which has compelled us to
take the first steps towards peace and the spirit of responsibility and
pragmatism that in the end, we will reach comprehensive peace with the
Kingdom of Jordan, and with all our neighboring Arab countries.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the Arava, of which Isaiah says in the Bible, 'The wilderness and the
solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as
the rose,' we hereby declare the Arava Border crossing between Israel and
Jordan now open.
Mazal tov!
Congratulations!