REMARKS BY GOVERNOR BILL CLINTON B'NAI B'RITH 36TH BIENNIAL INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION WASHINGTON, D.C. SEPTEMBER 9, 1992 Thank you very much. It's an honor to join you today for your 36th annual convention. For nearly a century and a half, B'nai B'rith has set the standard of this nation for community service, individual responsibility, and opposition to every form of bigotry and intolerance. I want to thank President Schiner for his kind invitation to be with you today, and my long-time friend, Lynn Cutler, for her generous introduction. A few years back I was the honoree at the B'nai B'rith dinner in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where I grew up, so I'm an old friend of your organization. Today we join together once again to pay tribute to your extraordinary contributions to the struggle for justice here in America and around the world. You've been there to help those in need in your own neighborhoods, establishing local volunteer efforts, helping the blind, settling refugees from the former Soviet Union, combating the scourge of drugs, and working to strengthen the education of young Americans. Even when I was growing up in Arkansas, I knew the efforts of B'nai B'rith. Way back in 1914 B'nai B'rith opened the Levi Hospital in my hometown of Hot Springs, and today, because of your generous support, that hospital has become a major center for the treatment of arthritis and related diseases as well as a center for the rehabilitation of a wide variety of ailments, serving hundreds of patients every year without concern for their ability to pay. There's also a B'nai B'rith senior citizens housing complex in downtown Hot Springs, two synagogues and a thriving Jewish community. So I grew up with a keen appreciation for the work of B'nai B'rith and I've always admired your commitment to helping others. Wherever human tragedy strikes, at home or abroad, you've been there to provide assistance. You moved swiftly to address the crisis in Somalia, launched your own drive to help raise funds to stave off starvation of millions of Somalis. You were there to help the earthquake victims in San Francisco, Mexico City, Iran and Armenia. You provided aid to cyclone victims in Bangladesh and pressed the world to act against the atrocities in Bosnia and you moved very quickly to respond to the urgently needed assistance for the victims of Hurricane Andrew. What guides each of you is a belief in a covenant that we all share to enrich the lives of those around you, to fight bigotry ,to protect liberty. As the high holidays approach, each of you renews your commitment to your own covenant and as the shofar marks this period of reflection, let us join together to renew our dedication to the values we share in common. America and Israel share a special bond. Our relationship is unique among all nations. Like America, Israel is a strong democracy, a symbol of freedom, an oasis of liberty, a home to the oppressed and the persecuted. Yet in this world where the cold war has ended, peace is still a long way away in the Middle East. Israel is still surrounded by nations in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, still at risk of Scud attacks by Saddam Hussein, and now facing new, more advanced Scuds from Syria. Still suffering the economic hardships of the Arab boycott, still waiting for an offer of peace from her Arab neighbors. The current round of peace negotiations taking place in Washington is the best chance in a decade of bringing a lasting peace to the region. When I met with Prime Minister Rabin last month in Washington, I made clear to him my determination to continue the peace process, if elected. I want to be very clear about this: there will be no hiatus in the current negotiations. The recent elections in Israel have given this new government a mandate to move forward and Prime Minister Rabin has wasted no time in breathing new life into the negotiations. He's agreed to stop all political settlement activity and shift the funds to spending on infrastructure and education in Israel. He's freed 800 Arab prisoners and reversed 11 deportation orders of Palestinians. He's pledged a gradual reopening of streets in what have been some of the most violent commercial and residential areas. He's eased restrictions on Arab laborers entering Israel. Israel has reaffirmed its recognition of the U.N. resolutions that are the foundations of the peace process and specifically applied them to the negotiations with Syria and Israel. And it now has under consideration a plan for full autonomy for the Palestinians that includes early elections. Now it is time for the other side to reciprocate. The peace negotiations will no doubt take time, but there is a simple step the Arabs should have taken long ago--an end to their illegal boycott against Israel. That boycott is economic warfare and that war must end now. It is time the administration made it clear that the United States will no longer turn a blind eye to this practice, by putting an end to U.S. government contracts with anyone who participates in the boycott. That is why I support Senator Al Gore's initiative to prohibit Defense Department contracts with any foreign companies that participate in the Arab League's boycott against Israel. We need an administration that will promote action to stop the spread of dangerous missiles in the Middle East, and a strong international effort, and tough sanctions to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of nations like Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya. I do not believe we ought to pressure Israel into making unilateral concessions in the peace process as this administration has tried to do. I believe we must stand by Israel in its historic effort to integrate thousands, and hundreds of thousands of refugees into its society, and I believe the United States should serve as a catalyst and an honest broker in the peace negotiations. For in the end only Israel, the Palestinians, and the Arab nations can make lasting peace with one another. The United States must not waver in its financial, security, and moral commitments to Israel. That is why I said early on in my campaign: it is in our nation's best interest to continue military and economic assistance to Israel, because this vital aid encourages long-term stability in the region and demonstrates United States' commitment to Israel's security and sovereignty. I am especially disturbed by the long-term outlook for the spread of weapons of mass destruction. It is very menacing. That means that our commitment must include not only an effort to reduce this spread, but a reaffirmation of our strong commitment to maintaining Israel's qualitative military edge over its foes. The sight of children huddled in basements with gas masks during the Gulf War brought home to every American just how vulnerable Israel is and just how volatile the region is. Clearly we must meet our security commitments to our coalition partners in the Gulf. But any actions must be taken in close consultation with the Government of Israel. And arms sales must not undermine our commitment to Israel's qualitative edge. As I have said repeatedly, any sale of F-15s to Saudi Arabia must only go forward in this context. I believe we can -- and should -- provide for the adequate defenses of our coalition partners in the region in a way that does not threaten Israel's security. As I have said, I would support the sale of some versions of the F-15's to Saudi Arabia. But we must not sell any offensive version of the F-15s to Saudi Arabia that could threaten Israel, tilt the military balance, or erode Israel's qualitative military edge. There is another threat to Israel that has gone long unaddressed. It is a threat that can weaken Israel militarily, economically and politically. It can hinder our ability to respond to crises that may affect Israel. That threat is the weakening American economy. Without a growing economy, without a strong, stable, and secure American middle class, America's commitment to Israel will always be under pressure. It is time we had a president who will put our country back to work again, get our country moving forward again, have an America where our jobs are growing and our incomes are growing, not shrinking. Senator Gore and I have a plan to expand the economy, to create jobs and strengthen our middle class and reduce poverty. It recognizes that our first foreign policy priority and our first domestic priority must be one and the same: a revitalized economy. For we can not be strong abroad if we are not strong at home. Our plan creates millions of new jobs. We will rebuild our roads and bridges, we'll convert defense-based industries into peace time centers of cutting edge technology. We'll take every dollar by which we cut defense and put it back into the economy to create jobs for the 21st century. We'll give new incentives to the private sector to create manufacturing jobs and jobs in small business. In short, we will put America back to work again. Not with more trickle down economics, not by going back to tax and spend, but by going forward to invest, to educate, to cooperate, to compete, and to grow. Under our plan, health care will become a right, not a privilege. We must control the health care costs that are crippling our economy, ballooning our deficit, weakening the private sector. And we must ensure that every American has access to quality care. And our plan will begin on the first day of our inauguration, not the last two months before our effort to secure reelection. But you and I know this election is about more than the state of our economy and the government's responsibility to provide every American a decent chance at a decent way of life. It is also about the American spirit. About what kind of country we want to be and what kind of values we choose to cherish and to pass on to our children. Frankly, I'm deeply concerned by the cynicism, the intolerance, the ugliness that threatens our society today. And no one knows better than you the danger of bigotry, anti-Semitism and intolerance that is on the rise, not only in America, but also abroad. Your own Anti- Defamation League has been at the forefront of the struggle against hatred and bigotry for nearly half a century. You understand the threat to our society of skinheads on the rampage, the surge of neo-Nazism at the extreme fringes of our own country, and the rise in hate crimes according to your own ADL statistics. We're all aware of the troubling rise of anti- Semitism in the former communist bloc. Across the region neo-Nazis flourish, Jewish cemeteries are desecrated, and immigrants attacked. Within the last two weeks in Germany a holocaust memorial and an immigrant center were bombed. And anti-Semitic organizations like Pamyat in Russia are on the rise. It is the responsibility of our leaders to counter intolerance, bigotry and hatred. As president, my commitment to opposing fear and hate and prejudice will not bend with the prevailing political wind. It will be strong, steady, and certain. President Bush's press conference on September 12th, 1990 was one of the worst days in the history of our democracy. His callous remarks against the American Jewish community and its efforts to participate in our system of democracy were an affront to the basic right of all Americans to speak freely. I think patriotism requires all of us to love our country enough to right its wrongs. Patriotism is not silent in the face of wrong-headed policy, it is vocal. And while others criticize you, I applaud your patriotism. A Clinton-Gore administration will never give sanction to intolerance and bigotry. I must say I was also deeply disturbed by the tone of the first two days of the Republican convention in Houston, where it seemed that the Republicans were more interested in dividing the American people by claiming that some of us have values while others don't, rather than in uniting us in a common effort to overcome our problems. I will never do that, and you will not see a Democratic convention driving that kind of stake between the American people. I was raised in a different faith than most of you here. But we were both raised in a tradition which champions tolerance and which defends freedom. We both have absolute faith in the primacy of each individual's conscience and judgment. We believe everyone ought to have the freedom to worship God in his or her own way. We believe in the strength our country and our churches and synagogues draw from the constitutional separation between church and state. That's another reason why this election is so terribly important. We desperately need to bring this country together, to redefine our covenant to one another, to reaffirm the relationship of neighbor to neighbor, family to family, this generation to the next. We need to solve our common problems and move our nation forward together. We can and we must create a nation and a government we will be proud to leave to our children. We cannot have progress without restoring our sense of community. Whether we like it or not, we're going up or down together. If we're serious about what this country means and can yet mean, then we know America is not just a place, it's an idea. An idea cherished and given life by Puritans and Catholics, by Jews and Baptists, by Republicans and Democrats, by women and men, by people of all colors, of all races, of all religions. That means an America where hatred and bigotry are not tolerated, an America where we have a Supreme Court that will respect our Constitution, protect a woman's right to choose and protect the rights of all Americans. A Supreme Court that will free us of the need for Congress to overturn ill-advised rulings with legislation such as the Civil Rights Restoration Act and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. If we are serious about our covenant for a better America, then there is one sure place where all of us can meet. The one thing that most readily unites us across all the lines that divide us--it's our concern, our love, our hope for our children. So let us join now to give our children enough faith in the beauty of the idea of America, that they can make it theirs, too. This is a mission that guided the founders of our nation. It is the responsibility of our generation to carry on that dream. It was that idea which brought me and my wife to embrace the HIPPY Program from Israel in our state, to make it the largest program outside Israel in the world, so that we could give our poorest children a chance at a better future. Let me remind you of an incident that occurred when the delegations to the constitutional convention gathered in Philadelphia in 1787. A time when most of the states still had laws requiring anyone who held public office to be a Christian. Some states even specified that they had to be Protestant, believe in the divine inspiration of the scriptures, or believe in the trinity. A man named Jonas Phillips felt the injustice of this practice so strongly that he wrote a letter to the convention delegates. I am one of the people called Jews of the city of Philadelphia, he said. He did not think it right, he said, that any American should be singled out because of his or her religion, especially since he and many other Jews had been, quote, true and faithful patriots during the revolution. Eventually the framers of the Constitution agreed and declared that there should be no religious qualification for holders of federal office. One's relationship to God they said was and ought to be entirely separate from one's service to country. When Jonas Phillips wrote to the constitutional convention in 1787, he ended his letter with a prayer. May the people of the United States rise up as a great and young lion; may God extend peace to them and their seed after them, so long as the sun and moon endureth. We are closer to that dream because of the important and committed work of B'nai B'rith. Let us join together now in our common covenant to begin the work of changing and rebuilding our country. Let us build a nation that our seed will honor as long as the sun and the moon endureth. Next year will mark the 150th anniversary of B'nai B'rith. It's hard to predict the future, especially in my line of work. But this I'll promise. If you'll invite me, I'll be honored to celebrate your 150th birthday with you in Washington. Thank you and God bless you. Thank you.