The death of former Israeli president and prime minister Shimon Peres last
week marks the last of the Zionist "old guard" who successfully fought for
a UN mandate to establish the state of Israel in what was formerly British
Palestine. Much has been written about Peres since his death. He was a peacemaker.
He was a warrior. He was brutal. He was complex. It is possible for all of
them to be accurate at the same time.
Was Peres a warrior? That is without question. Israel was established in bloodshed
and Peres played an important role in that fight. Also, the brutal Israeli
attack on a Palestinian refugee camp at Qana in 1996 took place under Peres's
command. In that attack more than 100 women and children were killed.
But history, and especially Middle East history, can be quite complex. Shimon
Peres was above all in favor of trying to find a way for Israelis and Palestinians
to live side-by-side. He was right there in spirit when Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin had a famous 1993 handshake with Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat.
Rabin paid for his efforts with his life, as a right-wing radical assassinated
him in 1995.
Shimon Peres was in favor of real negotiations with the Palestinians and he
several times inserted himself into the process to urge the hawkish Benjamin
Netanyahu to start talking rather than saber rattling. In 2012, for example,
Peres made it known again that he favored a two-state solution and that Palestinian
leader Mahmoud Abbas was a suitable negotiating partner. He also urged Netanyahu
to open up direct talks with Hamas if certain agreements could be made beforehand.
But perhaps his greatest move to avert war only came known with his passing.
Former Jerusalem Post editor Steve Linde wrote a fascinating article last week
in his old newspaper detailing a meeting he and the Post's managing editor
had with Shimon Peres in 2014. According to Linde, Peres was asked what he
thought was his greatest legacy. He replied that he had personally intervened
to stop Netanyahu from ordering a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear sites.
Asked by the journalists when they could report this revelation, Peres responded,
"when I'm dead." So it came to pass last week.
How much for the worse things have become in Israeli-Palestinian relations
with the passing on of anyone preferring negotiations to violence. There is
little interest among current Israeli leadership to take steps toward negotiation
or peace. Innocent Israelis and Palestinians will continue to be killed and
injured as long as no compromises are considered. Sadly this position is reinforced
in Washington, where the Obama administration just agreed to grant Israel the
largest military aid package in US history.
There is much to admire in those who work for peace, even those with stains
on their record. I remain convinced that Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts
would be much closer to bearing fruit if the US government would stop inserting
itself into the process and subsidizing either side. Left alone, both sides
would likely produce more leaders interested in ending bloodshed and conflict.
