Elul 26, 5776
September 29, 2016
The Flawed Vision of Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres (1923-2016).
As you certainly know by now, Shimon Peres has died, and the world–led by the Israeli media–has gone into a paroxysm of mourning.
Commemorations of Peres have been taking place across the United States and Europe in such places as synagogues and university-based Hillel houses. Peres is being remembered as “a man of peace”, “a champion of the two-state solution”, and most of all as “a visionary.”
Peres’ funeral which begins today and stretches into tomorrow morning will be a grand affair with his body lying in state in the Knesset before being taken to Mt. Herzl where he will be interred along with other former Israeli presidents. He will be buried 5 meters from his “co-visionary”, Yitzhak Rabin.
Current and former world leaders are pouring in from all over the world including Barack Obama, Tony Blair, Federica Mogherini, Donald Tusk, Francois Hollande, and John Kerry. Pardon the cynicism, but it is a who’s who list of leaders and former leaders who regularly criticize Israel.
What is left to say about Shimon Peres?
For one thing, israelstreet has always shared the Israeli public’s ambivalence about Peres. On the one hand, your humble servant has recognized Peres’ innumerable contributions to this country during his early and middle years in such areas as military defense, nuclear power, education, and technological innovation. It is fair to say that as one of many who played integral roles in the founding of modern Israel, Peres was a visionary in these areas.
It is also fair to say that in the late 1980s, at about the time of the first Palestinian intifada, something went terribly wrong with Peres’ visionary ability. Peres and Rabin gradually became possessed of the idea that by giving the Palestinians a state, the Palestinians would in turn recognize the Jewish state of Israel, and both states would live side by side in mutual recognition and respect.
To facilitate this idea, Rabin and Peres took the terror organization, the Palestinian Liberation Organization and its leader Yasser Arafat, and elevated these terrorists to the status of “partners for peace”. Rabin, Peres, Arafat, and Clinton climaxed this idea by signing the Oslo Accords in 1994 which turned over 40% of Judea and Samaria to the PLO.
However, instead of creating a partner for peace, Rabin, Peres, Arafat, and Clinton created a terror infrastructure that thrives until this day. Fed by an educational system that vilifies Israelis and encourages stabbings, shootings, and bombings of Israeli men, women, and children, Palestinians have been responsible for the murders of at least 1500 Israelis since the Oslo signing took place on the White House lawn.
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Take the last 36 hours for example. From a Molotov firebomb attack on an Israeli car near the Jewish community of Eli which wounded three Israelis by nearly burning them alive, to numerous “rock” assaults in such places as Issawiya, on Route 443, Luban al-Sharqiya, Hizma, Makel, Zeita, Gush Etzion, the A-Tur neighborhood of Jerusalem, Beit Ur al-Tahta, Abu Dis, Ofer, and Shuafat, to IEDs targeting IDF forces in Nur Al-Shams, there have been more than 30 terrorist attacks.
All of these attacks are a direct outgrowth of Oslo and the utterly failed “vision” of Rabin and Peres.
Remember their “visionary” idea of Palestinians recognizing the Jewish state of Israel?
It has never happened, and if one is to believe Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies in the PLO, it will never happen.
Today, at his funeral, Shimon Peres should be eulogized for his huge contributions to the state of Israel. He should be applauded for his support of Israeli youth and society through education and innovation. He should be remembered for his strategic thinking that led to the formation of Israeli nuclear power and the raid on Entebbe.
But should Peres be remembered for his vision of peace?
Your humble servant thinks not.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.