IN AN unprecedented solidarity visit to Israel yesterday, President Clinton pledged over $100 million (£63.7 million) in US aid to fight terrorism and promised increased security co-operation between the US and Israel.
Hoping to add some practical content to the pronouncements that emanated from the anti-terrorism conference held at Sharem el-Sheikh earlier this week, Mr Clinton said the US and Israel would enter into a bilateral agreement to counter terrorism and that the funds would go towards supplying Israel with equipment and training in its battle against terrorism. The two countries, he said, would co-operate in developing new counter-terrorism measures.
For many Israelis, deeply shaken by the latest spate of suicide bombings, Mr Clinton's visit - his third since becoming President - was seen as an unqualified display of solidarity with the Jewish state.
While Mr Clinton, at the behest of his security advisers, did not travel on a No 18 bus in Jerusalem the route targeted by suicide bombers on consecutive Sundays in February and early this month - he did visit the Beit Hinuch High School in the capital which lost three of its graduates in the bombings.
Shaking hands with dozens of excited students, Mr Clinton said he wanted to express his "grief with the students ... and my determination to give them a more peaceful future."
Mr Clinton then called two youngsters injured in the recent blasts and chatted to them by phone in their hospital beds.
Alter laying a wreath at the grave of the assassinated Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, Mr Clinton then sped off with his 110-car motorcade to Tel Aviv for a meeting with 1,009 students in a packed city auditorium.
Mr Clinton's demonstrative support of Israel was evident at the press conference following the anti-terrorism summit in Sharem el-Sheikh. Asked about the detrimental effect the tight Israeli closure imposed as a result of the bombings was having on Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza, Mr Clinton appeared almost to come to Israel's defence, describing the punitive measure as a "step against terror and for security."
Israeli political commentators described the visit as, a historic peak in US-Israel relations.
As much as being a solidarity visit, Mr Clinton's stay was seen as an attempt to save the Middle East peace process which appeared to be derailing in the wake of the latest attacks. The US President, who has staked much on the successful fulfilment of the process, is acutely aware of the political damage it will cause him on the home front, in an election year, if it falls apart.
But his visit was also seen as an attempt to boost the Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, in, the run-up to the May 29th elections. Ahead of opposition Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu by as much as 15 points before the latest spate of bombings, Mr Peres's lead has been completely wiped out by the attacks. Now, both Mr Peres and Mr Clinton realise that without strong measures against the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement, it will be very difficult to restore the confidence of the Israeli public in the peace process.