Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 13, 1993 TAG: 9309130070
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JIM ABRAMS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
But the hotel where Arafat was planning to stay was the scene of a wedding reception, just hours before his scheduled arrival.
The bride, Barbara Tannenbaum Epstein, said that when she saw all the police outside the hotel as she arrived, she was afraid the peace talks had broken down.
The bridegroom, Henry Epstein, said the agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis, like his marriage, "had to happen." He added that the peace accord, like marriage in general, was "a triumph of optimism over experience." The afternoon wedding reception was in the hotel's glass-enclosed lobby courtyard area.
Also on hand at the ANA Westin Hotel to welcome Arafat on his first visit to Washington was Dr. Alfred Lilienthal, a Jewish historian and longtime advocate of peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
"It's been a long, tough struggle," said the former State Department official who was there when the United Nations voted in 1947 to create a Jewish state. "That Arafat would come to Washington was something I never dreamed in a lifetime."
Lilienthal, who says he is called Al Farid, "the only one," by his Arab friends, said he hopes now that many will share his drive for peace. "Both sides have to accept each other."
Palestinian security guards and American police watched warily from both sides of the street as a Palestinian flag was hastily erected over the hotel and Palestinians and other Arabs milled around the lobby waiting for Arafat. But up on the third floor the three people handling press affairs showed little of the tension surrounding the momentous event.
"It's been a delightful atmosphere," said Abdul Hamid Salem," editor in chief of the WAFA Palestine News Agency in Washington. The television in the room was tuned to an NFL football game.
Across town where the Israelis are staying, the press room was much more hectic, with a dozen staffers fielding phone calls and answering questions from Israeli journalists.
Gad Ben-Ari, media adviser to the prime minister, said they've had "dozens and dozens" of requests for interviews, and they have to decide who gets to talk to the prime minister, and who gets relegated to lower officials. But in one sign that the two sides are beginning to think alike, the Israelis too were watching the football game.
No, sir, Yasser. You can't bring your gun to the White House.
Arafat left for Washington bearing his signature holster and pistol, but administration officials said Sunday the firearm won't be welcome at the White House ceremony.
A senior White House official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said a longstanding policy forbids firearms in the White House. "That applies to everybody," he said.
by CNB