15/02/2026 04:17

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I’m at the far left, with Vince Foster next to me and Mack McLarty in the back row. They agreed, though after I left, the Palestinians still refused to negotiate on the basis of the ideas I had advanced, saying they had already rejected them. The staff director was Gerald Stern, who was on leave from his job as executive vice president of Occidental Petroleum. I knew Arafat wanted to do it.

My young staffers were talented, honest, and dedicated, and I felt I owed many of them the chance to serve the country by working in the White House. Unemployment was down to 4. All in all, the weekend was helpful, but the real bonding would come in the fires of the struggles, victories, and defeats that lay ahead. How she stood up to them I’ll never know, but the sight of her in chains finally began to penetrate the shield the Whitewater reporters had erected around Starr and his staff.