QUESTION: Since we talked about final issues, I – in the last month, I visited all [all? - YM] the refugee camps outside Palestine, mainly Lebanon. I found hopeless people, desperate people, people who have no jobs, lots of diseases [what type of diseases? - YM]. What your message to those people --
SECRETARY CLINTON: Right.
QUESTION: -- and if they can have a better future?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I certainly hope so, because I know how difficult conditions are. And I have visited myself and seen that over the past 20 years. But the best way for a resolution of not only the concerns of the Palestinians, but the concerns of Israelis, is to reach an agreement. Israel wants to have security. It wants to be a democratic, secure Jewish state living side by side with an independent, sovereign, viable Palestine [again, "Palestine" doesn't need to be democratic. YM].
And we know that there’s a long history of conflict that has to be overcome, but I think it can happen, and that holds the real promise of the kind of life that you would want for your children or I want for mine. But it can’t be arrived at unless there is an agreement, and I hope that everyone supports this process, because we’re facing very difficult circumstances.
I mean, I’m not telling you anything – you’ve got Hamas largely sponsored now by Iran. Life for people in Gaza is very difficult. You’ve got Israel being shelled and mortared from Gaza, which makes it very difficult for Israelis. There’s a lot of good work being done in the West Bank – institution-building, economic progress. I want to see security for Israel, and I want to see both the West Bank and Gaza as the home of Palestinian people who are charting their own future. So we’ll do everything we can to make that happen. [that was actually very good, Hilary. YM]
QUESTION: I mean, when you talk about Jewish state --
SECRETARY CLINTON: Yes.
QUESTION: -- don’t you think you’re imposing the outcome of the negotiation and many times, you’re saying, “We want to impose the outcome”? [the 'outcome'? Maher, we are a Jewish state from the very beginning. - YM]
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, of course, that, to me, is a fact, that if you go back and look at the original UN documents [and the League of Nations. - YM], and even if you look at some of the PLO documents over the last many years, everyone recognizes that Israel is a homeland for Jewish people. Palestinians have the right to work toward a homeland for themselves. And I don’t think that takes anything away from either side in saying that.
QUESTION: Today, coming to do this interview, we’ve been through lots of (inaudible) – I mean, from checkpoints to checkpoints, even security here treat us in a different way. But I met an old man in the checkpoint who, for him, says, “Peace for me is to go out of Jenin, from Jenin, to pray in Jerusalem, to go to Hebron, have a lunch, and come back to Jenin without seeing an Israeli soldier, without seeing a settlement [oh, so now they don't even want to see a Jew in their territory? can you imagine if I said 'I don't want to see an Aran in Tel Aviv? - YM], without seeing – without anybody stunning me.”
Is this the peace you bring in to the Palestinian – you want for the Palestinian, to convince the Palestinian?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Yes, I think that’s an excellent description – to be able to live a normal life [sorry, madam, what he described is not normal. - YM], to be able to live in peace among yourselves and your neighbors, to be unafraid of terrorism within the Palestinian state [are you trying to intimate that there is a Jewish 'terror' comparable to an Arab terror? - YM] or for Israelis to fear it within Israel. So you can do exactly that – you can take your children to visit their grandparents without fear that something terrible will happen to you, you can go to work 10 kilometers from your home without worrying about being stopped every one kilometer. It’s that sense of normalcy. I’ve talked to both President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad about that, and there have been changes which have really meant a lot to the people of the – of Palestine, and I want to see that for everybody.
And I want to see it for the people in Gaza. I feel terrible for the oppression and the treatment that they are receiving [is that Jewish hor Hamas "oppression"? - YM]. I want them to feel – I was in Gaza about 12 years ago – and I would like Gaza to have the same economic opportunities as we now see in the West Bank. In order to get that, there has to be an agreement. And I think, as listening to both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas, that vision of a normal life is what both leaders want for their people.
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