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THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                          (Jerusalem, Israel)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                     March 13, 1996

                      REMARKS BY PRESIDENT CLINTON
                         AND PRESIDENT WEIZMAN

                   The Residence of President Weizman
                           Jerusalem, Israel

10:20 P.M. (L)

PRESIDENT WEIZMAN: The President of the United States and myself, we met here in the house of the President of Israel in the capital of Israel in Jerusalem. We had a very nice conversation. We tried to analyze the situation, understand some of the things that have happened, foresee certain things that might happen.

I believe that the conference in Sharm-el Sheikh was a very important one. It was a show of solidarity in the world, first of all, to the state of Israel; and number two, solidarity in the attempt to fight world terrorism, that many countries suffer from it, not only we.

The United States is a great supporter of Israel, and I'm confident that it should be like this for many years to come.

I thank the President again for what has been achieved, for the keenness he shows of our interests, of our problems. And one thing I must say, the feeling is that you don't do this sort of automatically, but you have to do that, but you have a good, big heart which is very important. And I hope to see you again and come again to my home.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Let me say that it is a great honor to be back at the President's house and with the President again. And, along with the Prime Minister, we were able to give a report on our impressions of what happened at Sharm-el Sheikh today and what the significance of it was, and then we talked a little bit about the challenges ahead. We spent about an hour in a very good discussion, and, as always when I'm with the President, I learned a lot and I leave with a lot of food for thought.

But I feel much better about our prospects for presenting a united front against terror and for security, and, therefore, creating and maintaining conditions under which the peace process can proceed than I did before I went to Sharm el- Sheikh today. And I thank the Prime Minister for his work. And I say again, I came here more than anything else just to once again express the solidarity of the United States with Israel, grief at your loss, and our determination to do what we can both to restore your security and to preserve the march of peace.

Q President Clinton, do you have any reflections on President Weizman not going to the airport, obviously intending thereby to demonstrate Israel's historic commitment to Jerusalem being its capital, a position that you endorsed yourself during your campaign, but we haven't heard much from you on since? Do you have any feeling about that situation you'd like to share with us?

PRESIDENT CLINTON: No, my feeling is what it has been ever since the first agreement was reached in which Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed that that would be part of the final negotiations. And the United States agreed that we would support the process that Israel had fashioned. And that's what I intend to continue to do. I haven't changed my position on anything. I just -- I believe that we are a partner in a process that primarily affects the Israelis and the neighbors of Israel, and we ought to support the process that the parties agreed to for resolving all those matters.

THE PRESS: Thank you.

END 10:25 P.M. (L)