10/11/2016

As a peacemaker, Shimon Peres never won over the Israeli public | Anshel Pfeffer | Opinion | The Guardian

As a peacemaker, Shimon Peres never won over

the Israeli public
Anshel Pfeffer
Although a hawk in his early career, his later attempts to forge peace deals with Israels neighbours didnt
equate to electoral success or stand the test of time
Wednesday 28 September 2016 18.48 AEST

wo weeks ago, 13 September, was the 23rd anniversary of the signing of the Oslo
agreement, Shimon Peres diplomatic masterstroke that was supposed to lead to a peace
treaty between Israel and the Palestinians. In the early afternoon, a rocket streaked across
the Mediterranean, clearly visible from the windows of his oce in the Peres Peace Center near
Jaas coastline. It was carrying a spy satellite, made by the Israeli Aerospace Industry that
Peres had founded over half a century earlier. The rocket was a civilian version of the Jericho
missile, reported to be the launcher of Israels nuclear weapon, developed by the project
founded by Peres in the 1950s.
That evening, as he was being rushed to hospital in the early stages of a massive stroke from
which he would not recover, a new $38bn military aid deal was announced in Jerusalem and
Washington. It had been Peres who had signed the rst arms deal with the United States in
1963.
Shimon Peres, who has died at the age of 93, spent the rst half of his public career building
Israels military might and ensuring its security. The second half was focused on increasingly
forlorn attempts to bring peace to his country. The sad irony of his life was that he had been
much more successful in his rst chapter. His eorts to reconcile the Jewish state with its Arab
neighbours failed to achieve similarly lasting results.
If Peres had resigned from frontline politics at the age of 54, as many of his colleagues were
demanding, after having lost the 1977 general election as leader of the Labour party to Likuds
Menachem Begin, he would be remembered as one of Israels most legendary security
hawks. The man who had purchased the arms for Israels army during its early years and
conducted the secret negotiations with France for the supply of the Dimona nuclear reactor.
The rst patron of the Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Instead, most of the eulogies now
being written in his memory are extolling him as a man of peace. For a man who loved to talk
of his own experiences and thoughts, Peres never explained the transformation he underwent
in the wilderness of opposition.
His many detractors said that Peres simply had no choice. With Begin and Egyptian president
Anwar Sadat ending the state of war between the two nations and signing the Camp David
peace agreement, he had no choice but to move leftwards and try to present himself as a better
peacemaker than his Likud rivals. His supporters explained that Peres knew more than anyone
else just how strong and secure Israel had become, and could therefore make concessions and
take risks for peace in its dangerous neighbourhood. Whatever his motives, he failed to
convince the Israeli public with his vision.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/28/peacemaker-shimon-peres-israeli-public-peace-deals

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10/11/2016

As a peacemaker, Shimon Peres never won over the Israeli public | Anshel Pfeffer | Opinion | The Guardian

He led the Labour party in ve general elections between 1977 and 1996 and failed each time
win an outright victory. His best result was a stalemate with Likud in 1984 which meant he had
to share power with his hardliner opponent, Yitzhak Shamir. In two years as prime minister he
was busy mainly with stabilising the economy and pulling most of Israels troops out of
Lebanon. In 1986, he became foreign minister and began secretly negotiating with Jordans
King Hussein. But the London agreement they reached, which could have launched a peace
process including the two countries and the Palestinians as well, was vetoed by Prime Minister
Shamir. Peres simply did not have the political or public support to defy him.
Six years later, he succeeded, once again as foreign minister, in persuading a reluctant and
sceptical Yitzhak Rabin to go along with the Oslo process and shake hands with Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn. The international community recognised the
breakthrough by giving the three men a joint Nobel peace prize, but it was Rabin who had won
the election and sold the agreement to the Israeli public. After Rabins assassination, Peres was
left to carry Oslo on his own and lost yet again. This time by a sliver of a point to Benjamin
Netanyahu. The Oslo process never survived.
There was always something too outlandish, too foreign and detached from reality in the way
Peres spoke of his visions for a new Middle East. While opinion polls showed a majority of
Israelis in favour of his positions, in principle, at the ballot box they preferred a stern
rightwinger in government. They were willing to trust Labour only with a reassuringly tough
retired general leading the party, like Rabin or Ehud Barak. Prime minister Peres simply wasnt
a combination of words that inspired enough condence and security.
Perhaps the nal irony of Shimon Peres life was that his last act in the service of peace,
remains secret and undocumented. As an octogenarian president, he observed the conventions
of the ceremonial oce and refrained from openly intervening in politics. That didnt stop the
commanders of the army and chiefs of the intelligence services turning to him for advice when
they felt their political masters were dangerously wrong. Towards the end of his seven-year
term, he was the secret leader of the faction within the defence establishment that successfully
worked to block the plans of Netanyahu, the prime minister and the defence minister Ehud
Barak to launch a military strike against Irans nuclear installations, before it could build an
atomic bomb.
Ultimately he had to rely on the generals and spy chiefs to avert war. He never convinced
ordinary Israelis to make the same leap of faith he had.

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