The Prime Minister explained that the talks with President Clinton were friendly, but there were difficulties. There was also the need to restore a good personal relationship between the two leaders. He said that the main problem had to do with the West Bank, which meant the security of Israel's heartland. A number of possibilities were raised and the President said he would propose them to Arafat. Future meetings were foreseen. Text:
Prime Minister Netanyahu: We had very good talks; they were very open, friendly. There are difficulties. We're trying to bridge them. We're trying to get Arafat to keep his promises to fight terrorism and tear up that covenant. I've gone through a very serious effort on the part of the Israeli Cabinet to determine which areas we can give up without jeopardizing Israel's security. So there is potentially a deal out there if Palestinian expectations are brought into realistic terms.
That's what we were talking about. But I think the President also made an effort to dispel some of the - I don't know if one could call it "bad blood" - that had been introduced into the relationship because of all sorts of leaks and attributions to him. He made a point to say that our personal relationship was and should continue to be excellent. And I said, "Fine. Let's just go."
Larry King: By the way, when those stories were appearing, did it concern you that Clinton was very angry with you and your actions, and that that affected the friendship of the two countries?
Prime Minister Netanyahu: Yes, I suppose these things don't help. But you have to understand, I lead a country that is the one single homeland of a very ancient people, and the Jewish people have suffered as no other people have suffered in three millennia of dispersion and pogrom and exile. Now that we've come back to this tiny country that we call our own, it's my responsibility to do what I think is right to safeguard the security of Israel and to bring it a real peace, a defensible peace. I have that confidence and I have that deep conviction that is more powerful than the surface storms that occasionally - that inevitably - accompany public life.
Mr. King: But America is important to you, right? Very important.
Prime Minister Netanyahu: It's very important. I have no doubt about the friendship of the United States or its commitment to Israel. But recognize that it is very different to see the Middle East from the banks of the Potomac than from the banks of the Jordan River. It's very different. Successive American presidents have had differences with Israeli prime ministers. Eisenhower and Ben Gurion - Eisenhower forced him out of the Sinai. We had to come back to the Sinai in 1967 to protect ourselves. Ever since then, we've had differences between American presidents and Israeli prime ministers. We had a famous reassessment of Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger opposing, in fact, Rabin. We had Ronald Reagan and Menachem Begin on the Lebanon campaign...
Mr. King: What's the biggest difference between Netanyahu and Clinton?
Prime Minister Netanyahu: It's actually peanuts compared to some of the other things like Bush/Baker and Yitzhak Shamir. You remember that. Because I think the level of disagreement is not all that great. The issue is important not because of the occasional differences of view that we may have, the issue is great because what we're dealing with is of such decisive importance. We're dealing with the heart of the country, which is called the West Bank. It's the Judean-Samarian mountain ridge that is the heart of the country, that overlooks Tel Aviv, that overlooks this narrow ribbon 10 miles wide along the coast, which is the rest of Israel. We're not dealing with the Sinai, as other presidents and prime ministers have done. We're not even dealing with the Golan Heights. We're dealing with Israel's back yard, which determines whether we live or we die. So naturally the stakes are very high.
Mr. King: Anthony Lewis of the New York Times, often a critic of Israel, had this to say last week. I'll be interested in your comment. "Mr. Netanyahu's actions of late show that he's trying to do two things at the same time. For the sake of relations with the United States, he wants to keep alive the illusion that he's ready for peace negotiations. But he wants to assure his government coalition, further to the right since David Levy's departure, that the idea of a negotiation is going nowhere."
Prime Minister Netanyahu: Wrong on both counts. Wrong and wrong. I'm not seeking peace for an illusion. I'm seeking peace for the sake of peace. I have my own small children at home, and I want to secure their future. I have the children of Israel that I want to see live in a peaceful land. And I have our neighbors, including the Palestinians, who I think, like us, deserve a better future.
That's what we're doing. I think this analysis, including the psychobabble that accompanies it, is simply not serious. If you sit in my position and you understand the requirements of peace, that Israel must have defensible and secure boundaries, you understand you don't just accept any demand that is made from the Arab side. You understand that you have to insist on Palestinian compliance with the promises to fight terrorism. Those terrorists are real, and they attack us, they blow up our buses, they bomb our cafes. We have every right to expect Arafat to fight them. We have every intention to make peace with them - with Arafat and the Palestinian Authority.
Mr. King: Do you fight those in your country that turn to terrorism?
Prime Minister Netanyahu: Yes. We don't have terror organizations. On occasion, we have isolated individuals who do criminal things, and we put them behind bars. We don't let them walk around free.
You know, I have brought with me two women, one the mother of a young man who was slain by terrorists - and they fled to Jericho in the Palestinian areas. They are walking around in the cafes of Jericho, laughing all the way. Another, the sister of a man who was killed. His killers are in Gaza, serving on the Palestinian Police, giving interviews, boasting of the murders. We have a right to expect Arafat to punish these people or extradite them to us. That hasn't happened. Every demand that I put up is for Arafat to comply with what he promised, but equally I am prepared to cede territory that doesn't jeopardize Israel's survival and its security.
Mr. King: What did the President say to this, what you have just said to us? What did he say when you, obviously, brought home this point?
Prime Minister Netanyahu: He said, "Let's figure out a way to weave the two, Palestinian compliance and Israeli redeployment," and we worked on a number of possibilities. We haven't finished that job, and certainly I think the U.S. would probably talk to Arafat and see where he stands.
But if there is goodwill on the Palestinian side - there is certainly goodwill on our side - to try to get this interim business, this question of fulfillment of Palestinian promises and a partial Israeli redeployment out of the way so we can get to the real business, which is negotiating a permanent peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians.
Mr. King: Wouldn't it be better, instead of going back tonight, if you stayed and you met with the President and Mr. Arafat, or would this be the wrong time?
Prime Minister Netanyahu: I think the United States wants to have a chance to hear him out the way they heard me out, and then we'll probably meet again, either in this way or in other ways, in a week or two. These things aren't resolved overnight. I have met Arafat before. I'll meet him again. I talk to him quite regularly on the phone. But what we're trying to do now is to prepare a move that will succeed in bridging the gaps between us and moving to permanent peace negotiations.
Mr. King: And you are saying on that front you are willing to give, as well?
Prime Minister Netanyahu: Yes, indeed. We've had several sessions of the Cabinet in which we try to define what are the strategic areas that Israel must preserve to defend itself, in this tiny country beset by so many radical regimes and terrorist organizations, and at the same time defining, in this way, what it is that we can be more flexible about, territory that we can give in this redeployment. We've done that, and we're ready to move.
Mr. King: One other thing, did the Holocaust Museum make a mistake in removing the request for Arafat to visit?
Prime Minister Netanyahu: I don't want to get into that. We weren't involved in that decision one way or the other. It's their decision.
Mr. King: Yes, but wouldn't you think it would be a good idea to let him go through that museum?
Prime Minister Netanyahu: I really think it's their decision. But I think a bigger question, Larry, is whether Arafat will now stop the tremendous tide of anti-Semitic propaganda in the Palestinian-controlled media, including absurd allusions to the Holocaust either as a Jewish fabrication, or in fact these false symmetries that are made to the Jewish state.