American Jewish Committee Urges Arafat to End Violence, Respond to Clinton Peace proposal

American Jewish Committee
Friday, 29 December 2000

The American Jewish Committee issued the following statement today regarding Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and yesterday's Palestinian terror attacks in Tel Aviv and on the Israel-Gaza border:

"President Clinton's bold and controversial proposal to bring an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict merits a thoughtful response from both sides. It has received such a response from the Government of Israel, which has conditionally accepted it as a basis for final negotiations.

"The Palestinians' response, meanwhile, has been a distressingly familiar combination of violence, sanctioning of violence, and political evasion.

"While the Israeli cabinet wrestled yesterday with wrenching decisions about Israel's borders, future security and the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian leaders continued to demonstrate an unwillingness to entertain any compromise from their long-held maximalist positions and to lead their people toward peace.

"And when murderous Palestinian extremist groups – Hamas and Islamic Jihad – exploded bombs on a Tel Aviv bus and at a Gaza crossing point, killing two Israelis and wounding a dozen more, the Palestinian Authority was silent. Indeed, Yasser Arafat's lieutenants continued to incite violence, leading hundreds into attacks on Israeli soldiers.

"Yesterday's bombings were another grim extension of the Palestinian campaign of violence against Israel, launched after Chairman Arafat spurned a far-reaching compromise offered by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at Camp David last summer. We join our own Government in denouncing this latest terrorist outrage, and we join with the Government and the people of Israel in grieving for the dead and injured.

"But while Israelis are mourning the latest victims of terror and at the same time debating monumental concessions for peace, and while American diplomats are turning over every stone to create opportunities for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, Palestinians are continuing the violence that has senselessly cost the lives of hundreds of their own people and their Israeli neighbors – and continuing to resist the hard choices that conclusive peace negotiations will require.

"In these difficult days for the Israeli people, the American Jewish Committee reaffirms its faith in the democratically elected government of Israel to make the difficult and painful decisions to attain peace and security, and to implement whatever measures may be necessary to counter the Palestinian campaign of violence while continuing to seek a solution through negotiations."

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org