"Jordan's feud with the PLO over the future of Jerusalem also rumbled on, with Yasser Arafat insisting the city was the Palestinians' capital, even though the treaty grants Jordan custody of its Muslim holy places."


Associated Press

October 25, 1994

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin today urged his people to back Israel's peace treaty with Jordan, painting an idyllic portrait of open roads and skies between the long-time enemies.

Presenting the treaty to the Israeli parliament on the eve of its signing Wednesday, Rabin hailed the document as a major step toward cementing Israel's place in the Middle East. He said it would mean "a fundamental and substantive change in our very existence."

As he spoke, workers put the finishing touches to a newly asphalted plaza on the Jordan-Israel border, in the desert just north of the Red Sea, where President Clinton and 5,000 guests will witness the signing of the treaty.

Clinton said today before heading to the Middle East.

A wave of anti-Israeli terrorism, including the bus bombing that killed 23 people last week, including the suicide bomber, provoked calls to tone down the celebrations or postpone the signing since families were observing the one-week period of mourning.

Jordan's feud with the PLO over the future of Jerusalem also rumbled on, with Yasser Arafat insisting the city was the Palestinians' capital, even though the treaty grants Jordan custody of its Muslim holy places.

Arafat told 2,000 cheering students in the Gaza Strip.

On the Israeli side, the right-wing Likud opposition decided to support the treaty, assuring its acceptance by the 120-member Knesset later in the day.

Aware of the unease felt by many Israelis, the 72-year-old former general departed from his customary dry, unemotional style and laced his speech with biblical verse and vivid images.

Rabin spoke of

Rabin said that to deliver the fruits of peace as fast as possible, Israeli tourists would be allowed into Jordan just a week after the signing, even though diplomatic relations won't be established for a month.

Illustrating the friendly new climate, the Elite company, a chocolate manufacturer, announced it had already filmed a commercial at Petra, the spectacular ancient city in the Jordanian desert.

With the Jordan accord, a peace treaty with Egypt holding up firmly, and a preliminary deal with the Palestinians in place, Israel has reached its greatest level of acceptance in 46 years as a Jewish homeland in the Middle East.

Rabin turned to Isaiah 52:7 to express his emotions, in the slow, basso tone that is his hallmark: "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation."

Recalling his first public visit to Amman on Oct. 16, he said:

The Muslim fundamentalist group is blamed for the Tel Aviv bus bombing and other recent attacks.

said Rabin.

In Jordan, King Hussein told an Israeli newspaper his country would "do everything in our power" to curb terrorists.

In talking to the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth, Hussein sought to get a reassuring message to Israelis. "It will be a very warm peace," he said.

Of Arafat, who has not been invited to the signing, Hussein said only that "Arafat is our problem and yours."

Israelis also worry that Syria, its most powerful enemy, opposes the treaty and has set tough conditions for making peace with Israel.

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