FIFTY-FOURHillary and I began the first day of the new
Streetscape oil painting,century and the last year of my presidency with ajoint radio address to the American people, which was also televised live. We had stayed upwith the revelers at the White House until about two-thirty in the morning, and we were tiredbut eager to mark this day. A remarkable worldwide celebration had taken place the nightbefore: billions of people had watched on television as midnight broke first in Asia, then inEurope, then in Africa, South America, and finally North America. The United States wasentering the new century of global interdependence with a unique combination of economicsuccess, social solidarity, and national self-confidence,
Sunflower oil painting ,and with our openness, dynamism, anddemocratic values being celebrated the world over. Hillary and I said that we Americans hadto make the most of this opportunity to keep making our own country better and to spread thebenefits and share the burdens of the twenty-first?Ccentury world. That’s what I intended tospend my last year doing.Defying historical trends, the seventh year of my presidency had been full of achievementbecause we had continued to work on the public’s business through the impeachment processand afterward, following the agenda laid out in the State of the Union address and dealingwith problems and opportunities as they arose. The traditional winding down in the last halfof a President’s second term had not occurred.
Still Life oil painting ,I was determined not to let it happen this year,either.The new year brought the loss of one of my old partners, as Boris Yeltsin resigned and wassucceeded by Vladimir Putin. Yeltsin had never fully recovered his strength and stamina afterhis heart surgery, and he believed Putin was ready to succeed him and able to put in the longhours the job required. Boris also knew that giving the Russian people the chance to see Putinperform would increase the chances that he would win the next election. It was both a wiseand a shrewd move, but I was going to miss Yeltsin. For all his physical problems andoccasional unpredictability, he had been a courageous and visionary leader. We trusted eachother and had accomplished a lot together. On the day he resigned we talked on the phone forabout twenty minutes, and I could tell he was comfortable with his decision. He left office ashe had lived and governed, in his own unique way.On January 3, I went to Shepherdstown, West Virginia, to open peace talks between Syria andIsrael. Ehud Barak had pressed me hard to hold the talks early in the year. He was growingimpatient over the peace process with Arafat, and w
Artists oil painting ,as unsure whether their differences overJerusalem could be resolved. By contrast, he had told me months before that he was preparedto give the Golan Heights back to Syria as long as Israel’s concerns could be satisfied aboutits early-warning station on the Golan and its dependence on Lake Tiberias, otherwise knownas the Sea of Galilee, for one-third of its water supply.The Sea of Galilee is a unique body of water: the bottom part is salt water fed by undergroundsprings, while the top layer is fresh water. Because fresh water is lighter, care had to be takennot to draw down the lake too much in any given year lest the covering layer of fresh waterbecomes too light to hold the salt water down. If the fresh water were to fall below a certainpoint, the salt water could rush upward and mix
African oil painting ,with it, taking out a water supply that isessential for Israel.Before he was killed, Yitzhak Rabin had given me a commitment to withdraw from the Golanto the June 4, 1967, borders as long as Israel’s concerns were satisfied. The commitment was714
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