Jerusalem – Unfettered by the office he held for seven years, former president Shimon Peres has lashed out at the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying they have moved Israel further away from peace and security.
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“Do you remember the slogan that Bibi used in the past [in the 1996 elections versus then prime minister Peres] that said something like ‘since Peres does not deliver peace, does not deliver security, and brings us fear…we have to change Peres.’ I suggest he reread what he said back then,” Peres said last week in an recent interview with The Jerusalem Post ahead of his appearance next week at the Post’s annual Diplomatic Conference in Jerusalem.
“The challenge that Israel faces is to understand that peace will not come to us. We have to go to peace. Muhammad did not come to the mountain. The mountains will not come to Muhammad.
We have to be the initiator of peace and not say ‘since they don’t do, I shall not do,’ he added.
In the interview, the 91-year-old Peres hinted that he supported early elections by dismissing the idea that had been briefly raised in recent weeks of establishing a national-unity government to combat the wave of terrorism that has swept the country.
“In order to have a national-unity government you must have a united policy. With all due respect to the prime minister, asking other parties to enter his government and accept his ideas is not going to happen – it’s as simple as that,” he said.
“On that basis, you cannot make a national-unity government – you need a national policy. But you cannot build a national-unity government based on the policy of one party when there are different views,” he added.
Last month, at the annual memorial for slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Peres’s partner in the Olso Accords, the former president made an only slightly veiled reference to Netanyahu’s policies in regard to the uptick in violence and last summer’s Operation Protective Edge.
“We have all sorts of so-called smart people who talk about ‘managing the conflict’ instead of peace. Take a look at what happened in Gaza over the summer and what is happening in Jerusalem as of late. That is what ‘managing the conflict’ looks like,” he told the crowd.
In his interview with the Post, Peres said Netanyahu’s declaration of support for a two-state solution with the Palestinians had to be backed up with action.
“We have to execute what we say. We cannot declare that we are for two states and not act accordingly,” said Peres. “Clearly you cannot have a two-state solution without a territorial compromise.”
Regarding whether PA President Mahmoud Abbas is still a partner for peace in his eyes, Peres referred to the assessment last month by Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yoram Cohen to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Abbas was not inciting Palestinians against Israel.
“Yoram Cohen doesn’t have any other interest but to tell the truth. He is not in politics. He doesn’t have alliances,” Peres said.
“Abbas has said some things which have been provoking, and he is mistaken.
On the other hand, he has constantly fought against terror. He has a force and he gave them an order to prevent terror and to cooperate with us.
“So, okay, he is also in politics. But on the basic issues, I do believe that we could have achieved peace with him, and I still believe that we can achieve peace with him. I know maybe I am a minority. That doesn’t change my mind. Between being a majority and being right, all my life I preferred to be right even if it makes me part of a minority.”
Peres will be speaking at the Post’s diplomatic conference along with President Reuven Rivlin, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and Interior Minister Gilad Erdan.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
With all due respect Mr Peres, it wasn’t your business then when you were president to muddle into politics, it’s much less your business now.
You had a chance and for those who remember you weren’t too much of a popular politician back then. You got lucky towards the end of your life that you were admired as an elderly statesman. But many haven’t forgotten your dismal years in politics. To criticize the prime minister who is doing his level best in the face of so much pressure I think is not just plain wrong but disgusting.
Snake in the grass
He has more disdain for Netanyahu than for Abbas. It’s exactly this rhetoric that emboldens the Palestinians. Withdrawing from territory is not ‘going towards peace’.
The old man needs to be put out to pasture, and give his Nobel money to victims of Oslo terror.
And there will be peace if there is a two state “solution”?
Peres has no understanding or ignores the facts on the ground abbas is no partner he wants israel like arafat and with no partner on the other side why should israel offer consessions to the arabs hamas abbas fata are all the same! Best think to do is fight terrorism
Bibby is the only one who can hold these savages by the throat,and know how to react to their lies.
Peres will give back everything he can as he foolishly believes these savages want a truthful peace.
Peres was a big part of the problems we have today, with his stupidity & bowing to US pressure. How did THAT work out, Shimon, huh?
Are we safer since your days, old man?
While in graduate school in 1972, as part of theses research, I interviewed Afrikaner diplomats in NY on issues of Apartheid and South Africa’s then political system…these diplomats clearly could not envision any situation where their world might be overturned.
While I am not…repeat not…drawing any parallels between Apartheid and Israel, I do see a dangerous parallel in the denial of the very real and potent threat of a diplomatic abyss.
I am afraid that the war-party Likudnikim are going to go down in history as the destroyers of Israel if they don’t change…and it’s already happening. If Israel does not seriously negotiate with these “savages” and “animals” the only alternative would be the status-quo…until the international community gets sufficiently impatient with what is approaching that status-quo’s 48th anniversary…and imposes a one-state solution.
that peres told arafat what to say and has caused our problems today. peres is a slef hating Jew and has done much to destroy peace in Israel