SHIMON PERES, FORMER PRESIDENT AND VETERAN ISRAELI STATESMAN, DIES AT 93
Elli Wohlgelernter
Jerusalem Post, Sept. 28, 2016
Shimon Peres, former president, former prime minister, former defense minister, former foreign minister, former minister of eight other ministries, the last surviving member of Israel’s founding fathers, and winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize died Wednesday after suffering a stroke two weeks ago. He was 93. Doctors said Peres suffered severe organ failure Tuesday, as well as irreversible brain damage caused by the massive hemorrhagic stroke he sustained on September 13.
The longest serving of all of Israel’s public servants, Peres was a person about whom it could rightly be said: The history of the State of Israel is the history of Shimon Peres. A lifetime searching for peace with Israel’s Arab neighbors was rewarded on December 10, 1994, when Peres – along with then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat – received a Nobel Peace Prize. The award recognized their work as the architects of the 1993 interim peace deal known as the Oslo Accords – a pact that to Peres’s dismay never hardened into a lasting treaty.
In a career spanning nearly 70 years, Peres was considered a servant of the state who was intimately involved in every aspect of the country’s history since before its founding. In his 48 years in parliament – from the fourth Knesset in 1959 through the 17th in 2007 – Peres served in various parliamentary groups, including Mapai, Rafi, Labor, the Alignment, Labor, One Israel, Labor-Meimad, Labor-Meimad-Am Ehad and Kadima. His main affiliation was serving as chairman of the Labor Party.
Peres’s string of government roles included two stints as prime minister – from 1984 to 1986 as part of a rotational government, and for seven months in 1995 and 1996 after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin – as well as minister of immigrant absorption, transportation, information, defense, communications (or posts and telegraphs as it was known at the time), internal affairs, religious affairs, foreign affairs, finance, regional cooperation, and development of the Negev and Galilee, serving in some of those positions more than once. He also served several times as acting prime minister, deputy prime minister and vice prime minister. Ironically, though Peres ran for office five times from 1977 and 1996, he never won a national election outright.
Peres was born August 2, 1923, in Wiszniewo, Poland, as Szymon Perski, and immigrated to Palestine with his family at the age of 11. He grew up in Tel Aviv, attending the Balfour and Geula schools in Tel Aviv, and the agricultural high school in Ben Shemen. He spent several years at Kibbutz Geva and Kibbutz Alumot, of which he was one of the founders. In 1943, was elected secretary of the Labor-Zionist youth movement.
At age 24, he worked with David Ben-Gurion and Levi Eshkol in command of the Hagana, responsible for manpower and arms. During and after the War of Independence, Peres served as head of the naval services. In 1952, he joined the Defense Ministry and, a year later at the age of 29, was appointed its director-general – the youngest ever in Israel’s history – playing an important role in developing the Israeli military industry and promoting the development of Israel Aerospace Industries.
Peres was elected a member of Knesset in 1959, and served until his election as president in June 2007. Among his achievements as deputy defense minister from 1959 to 1965 were the establishment of the military and aviation industries, and the promotion of strategic ties with France, which culminated in strategic cooperation during the 1956 Sinai Campaign. Peres also was responsible for establishing Israel’s nuclear program. For three years following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Peres again played a central role in the country’s security as defense minister. In that role, he revitalized and strengthened the IDF and was involved in the disengagement negotiations that led to the 1975 Interim Agreement with Egypt. He also was instrumental in the planning of the 1976 Entebbe rescue operation.
Peres briefly served as acting prime minister following the resignation of Rabin in 1977, and later served his first tenure as prime minister in the national unity government from 1984 to 1986, based on a rotation arrangement with Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir. From November 1988 until the dissolution of the National Unity Government in 1990, Peres served as finance minister, focusing his energies on the failing economy and the complex situation resulting from the 1982 war in Lebanon. He is credited with reducing the annual inflation rate from 400% to 16% and was instrumental in the withdrawal of troops from Lebanon and the establishment of a narrow security zone in southern Lebanon.
After the return to power of the Labor party in the 1992 elections, Peres was again appointed foreign minister and he initiated and conducted the negotiations that led to the signing of the Declaration of Principles with the PLO in September 1993. Peres’s second term as prime minister came in the wake of the assassination of Rabin on November 4, 1995. The Labor Party chose Peres as Rabin’s successor, and the Knesset confirmed the decision with a vote of confidence supported by both coalition and opposition members. Despite polls showing him far ahead, Peres lost to rightist Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu in the election on May 29, 1996, by fewer than 30,000 votes.
In October, 1997, Shimon Peres created the Peres Center for Peace with the aim of advancing Arab-Israeli joint ventures. He was also the author of 12 books. When he was sworn in as Israel’s ninth president on July 15, 2007, Peres was the first former prime minister to do so. He was two weeks shy of his 91st birthday when he completed his seven-year term in 2014. Peres’s wife, Sonia, died in 2011. The couple had three children, eight grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.
Contents: | Weekly Quotes | Short Takes | On Topic Links
Eight Years Later, Obama Has Learned Nothing About the Israeli-Palestinian Dispute: Mitchell Bard, Algemeiner, Sept. 27, 2016
Obama’s November Surprise: Gregg Roman, The Hill, Sept. 26, 2016
Russia’s Quest for Great-Power Status, By Way of Syria: Robert Fulford, National Post, Aug. 26, 2016
Israel’s Victory Over Drought: Barbara Kay, National Post, Sept. 20, 2016
WEEKLY QUOTES
“President Obama has previously vetoed anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations, though, and [he] said in his speech [this past week at the UN] that peace will not be achieved through statements. We can only hope that this will continue to remain the consistent approach of the Americans until the end of his presidency.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu said in an interview that he hopes U.S. President Barack Obama continues to use America’s veto power in the UN Security Council to back Israel until the end of his tenure next January. (Jewish Press, Sept. 25, 2016)
“How does increasing the number of settlers indicate an attempt to create a Palestinian state? …The status quo is not sustainable. So either we mean it and we act on it, or we should shut up…If we really want to get serious about a two-state solution, we need much more than just one-time agreements and improvements. We need to fundamentally change the dynamic by resuming the transition to greater Palestinian civil authority in Area C, which was called for in prior agreements…Either we reverse course and take serious steps on the path to a two-state solution, or the momentum of existing actions will carry us further toward an intractable one-state reality that nobody wants and nobody really thinks can work.” — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry reportedly took Israel to task last Monday over its policy in Judea and Samaria. Kerry’s comments came at a closed meeting of ministers representing the countries providing financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority. Kerry emphasized that Israel and the PA are moving in the direction of a binational state rather than a Palestinian state alongside Israel and are also headed toward war. (Arutz Sheva, Sept. 26, 2016)
"Present in this hall today are representatives of governments that have ignored, facilitated, funded, participated in or even planned and carried out atrocities inflicted by all sides of the Syria conflict against Syrian civilians…Many groups have killed innocent civilians — none more so than the government of Syria, which continues to barrel bomb neighborhoods and systematically torture thousands of detainees." — Ban Ki-moon. Taking the world stage for the last time as UN secretary-general, Ban unleashed years of pent-up anger at leaders who keep "feeding the war machine" in Syria, violate human rights and prevent aid deliveries to starving people. The U.N. chief said that "powerful patrons" on both sides in the Syrian conflict "have blood on their hands." (NBC, Sept. 20, 2016)
“It was four airplanes that kept attacking the position of the Syrian troops for nearly one hour, or a little bit more than one hour. You don’t commit a mistake for more than one hour. … It was definitely intentional, not unintentional as they claimed.” — Syrian President Bashar Assad, on a U.S.-led airstrike that killed over 60 Syrian troops in the country last week. Regarding the U.S.’s credibility with regards to Syria’s war, Assad said: “I would say whatever the American officials said about the conflicts in Syria in general has no credibility. Whatever they say, it’s just lies and, let’s say, bubbles, has no foundation on the ground.” On whether he has the support of the Syrian people, Assad said: “You cannot withstand for five years and more against all those countries, the West, and the Gulf states, the petrodollars, and all this propaganda, the strongest media corporations around the world, if you don’t have the support of your own people.” (Washington Post, Sept. 22, 2016)
“We are living on the last of the aid, and the last of the vegetables that came from the countryside…There is no milk, no cheese, nothing…None of us have cooking fuel. . . so we make bonfires outside.” — Om Majed Kamran, a resident of Aleppo, Syria. Hundreds of strikes have recently pounded Aleppo, leaving scores of people dead. The offensive dealt a fresh blow to efforts to revive the nationwide cease-fire, which was sponsored by Russia and the U.S. According to the U.N., as many as 275,000 people remain in east Aleppo, which is under rebel control. The residents have been under siege for more than a month, cut off from fresh food, water, electricity, and fuel. (National Post, Sept. 23, 2016)
“The initial perception in Moscow is that we were making a complete mess of the Middle East, beginning with the invasion of Iraq, and then the invasion of Libya, and our giving (Egyptian president Hosni) Mubarak a push…In the Russian reading of all this, the end result of American action is always to exacerbate the chaos and to empower radical jihadist forces who are hostile to Russian interests as well as to American interests…We ended up tying ourselves in knots in Syria. We committed ourselves unambiguously at first to the prospect that Assad had to step down, but we didn’t provide the force that would require him to do that…So our initial policy was pretty much a failure. As the conflict has dragged on and our options have looked less and less palatable, we’ve begun accommodating ourselves to the Russian view.” —Jeffrey Mankoff, deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. (National Post, Sept. 23, 2016)
"Iran wasted no time in continuing its efforts to undermine the security of the region, through aggressive rhetoric, blatant interference, producing and arming militias, (and) developing its ballistic missile program." — Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates. Al Nahyan accused Iran of playing "the greatest role in causing tension and instability" in the region. He pointed to Iran's "expansionist regional policies, flagrant violations of the principles of sovereignty and constant interference in the internal affairs of its neighboring countries." Iran has been backing Syria’s Assad and Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, and the minister said its interference in Iraq's internal affairs "has exacerbated … division among its people." (Ynet, Sept. 25, 2016)
“Jewish people across Europe are increasingly being targeted and killed by terrorists, who often attempt to justify their actions by demonizing Israel…It is therefore particularly sad to see a church in London demonizing and singling out Israel’s defensive actions against terrorism.” — Lord Carey of Clifton, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. Lord Carey criticized a Methodist church in London for demonizing Israel through a reconstructed Israeli border checkpoint exhibition. “I am sad to learn that Hinde Street Methodist Church are planning an exhibition that portrays Israel as oppressors of victims…The methods used by democracies to defend their civilians should not be undermined by religious leaders in places of worship and brotherhood,” he said. Coinciding with the World Council of Churches’ World Week for Peace in Palestine, the Hinde Street church created a replica of an Israeli security checkpoint called, “You cannot pass today,” to display to allegedly portray daily life for Palestinians, who cross the border between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. (Breaking Israel News, Sept. 21, 2016)
“I am pro-business, pro-NATO, pro-EU, pro-America and of course pro-Israel. Corbyn and his pals are 180 degrees opposed: they are hard left socialist – they hate business and they loathe America and Israel. His praetorian guard, the Momentum movement, is almost Stalinist in its desire to humiliate, vilify and harass non-believers. For middle of the road MPs, deselection is their weapon of choice… my choice is now clear. How can I, a Jew and a Zionist, remain in a party where the leadership is so clearly hostile to Israel (even to its very existence) and which also flirts with antisemitism?” — Lord Parry Mitchell. Mitchell has resigned from the Labour Party as he vowed to do last month, should Jeremy Corbyn win re-election as leader of the party. The veteran Labourite is a member of the House of Lords and a former frontbencher under Ed Miliband. Corbyn was re-elected as UK Labour leader on 24 September. (Jewish Press, Sept. 26, 2016)
SHORT TAKES
ISRAEL CONSORTIUM SIGNS 15-YEAR, $10B GAS DEAL WITH JORDAN (Amman) — An Israeli gas consortium signed what Israel called a “historic” $10 billion deal with the Jordan Electric Power Company to supply the Hashemite Kingdom with natural gas for 15 years. The agreement will provide Jordan with a total of approximately 45 billion cubic meters of gas from the Leviathan offshore gas field, turning Israel into its largest gas supplier. Leviathan, discovered in 2010, is estimated to hold 18.9 trillion cubic feet (535 billion cubic meters) of natural gas. (Times of Israel, Sept. 26, 2016)
ISRAEL DEPLOYS DRONES ALONG SYRIAN BORDER (Jerusalem) — Israel has purchased and is now deploying drones along its northern border to assist in monitoring and addressing various threats from Syria. According to a report, the drones can serve as a crucial tool in observing and preventing spillover from warring factions on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights and terrorist attacks against — or infiltrations into — the Jewish state. The Syrian side of the Golan Heights has become a region of virtual anarchy, with many different jihadist groups flooding the area. (Algemeiner, Sept. 26, 2016)
JORDANIAN WRITER SHOT DEAD AFTER BEING CHARGED WITH INSULTING ISLAM (Amman) — A prominent Jordanian writer was shot dead by a suspected Islamist gunman outside the courtroom where he was due to stand trial for offending Islam by sharing a cartoon on Facebook. Nahed Hattar, a 56-year-old intellectual from Jordan's Christian minority, was gunned down on the steps of a courthouse in Amman in what appeared to be a religiously motivated attack. The gunman was arrested at the scene and a Jordanian source identified him as Riyad Ismail Abdullah. The high-profile murder is a fresh blow to Jordan's image as a bastion of stability amid the sectarian violence that is wracking much of the Middle East. (Telegraph, Sept. 25, 2016)
HOMA HOODFAR RELEASED FROM IRANIAN PRISON: REPORTS (Tehran) — Iran’s state-run news agency is reporting that Canadian-Iranian professor Homa Hoodfar has been freed from prison and flown out of the country. IRNA said she was freed on humanitarian grounds. Hoodfar, 65, was questioned and barred from leaving Iran in March after travelling to the country. Her family said she was imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin Prison since June. Hoodfar until recently taught anthropology and sociology at Montreal’s Concordia University. (Montreal Gazette, Sept. 26, 2016)
CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR SIGNS ANTI-BDS BILL INTO LAW (Sacramento) — California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a measure that prevents companies that boycott or discriminate against any sovereign state, including Israel, from doing business with the state. The State Senate approved the bill by a vote of 34 to 1 on August 24, and the State Assembly passed it by 69 to 1 on August 30. An earlier version of the legislation banned the state from making contracts worth over $100,000 with companies boycotting Israel. In order to satisfy critics, who said it violated the constitutional right to boycott, the bill was modified to include reference to other countries. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 25, 2016)
POSTERS DEMONIZING JEWS CROP UP ON UC BERKELEY CAMPUS (Berkeley) — Antisemitic posters have been appearing around the University of California, Berkeley campus ever since a course exploring how Israel might be destroyed was first suspended and then reinstated early last week. The syllabus, titled “Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis,” was decried by a campus watchdog group as “a classic example of antisemitic anti-Zionism.” One of the posters referred to the coalition of 43 Jewish, civil rights and educational organizations that had written an open letter expressing concern about the course, calling the groups “advocates for a foreign state.” who “seek to control our freedom of speech and academic expression.” UC Berkeley said it rescinded the suspension of the course last week after its syllabus was purportedly changed. However, a close examination of the new syllabus found that the same anti-Zionist literature will be studied as previously listed. (Algemeiner, Sept. 25, 2016)
FORMER ANTISEMITIC HUNGARIAN MP TO MAKE ALIYA (Budapest) — Csanad Szegedi, a one-time MP for Hungary's extremist right-wing and antisemitic Jobbik party, who quit when he discovered he was Jewish, is now making aliya to Israel. Prior to discovering his Jewish roots, Szegedi was known for his extremist positions and antisemitic statements as a member of Jobbik. He was one of the founders of the Hungarian Guard, an extreme nationalist group whose members see themselves as the descendants of the Hungary's fascist Arrow Cross Party, which collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. After discovering his roots, he quit all of his posts in Jobbik. He has become an activist against antisemitism in Hungary. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 25, 2016)
FORMER CHIEF RABBI OF FRANCE, JOSEPH SITRUK, PASSES AWAY (Paris) — Former chief rabbi of France Rabbi Joseph Haim Sitruk died Sunday at the age of 71. Born in Tunis in 1944, Sitruk moved to France, where he was ordained in 1970 and was appointed rabbi of Strasbourg. Before taking on the top rabbinical role in the country, Sitruk became chief rabbi of Marseille. Sitruk served as France’s chief rabbi from 1987 to 2008, when he was replaced by Rabbi Gilles Bernheim. He also served as the president of the Conference of European Rabbis for 12 years. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 25, 2016)
EUROPEANS TURN TO ISRAEL TO SPUR LAGGING ECONOMIES (Jerusalem) — About 60 ministers of education from a range of OECD countries gathered in Jerusalem for a three-day program to explore Israel’s culture of entrepreneurship. Participants in the Global Education Industry Summit, hosted by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, said that Europe’s business culture has largely stagnated in recent years. They added that for economies looking to develop tools for a rapidly changing technology marketplace of, Israel provides a model. (Jewish Press, Sept. 25, 2016)
AHEAD OF JEWISH NEW YEAR, ISRAEL’S POPULATION STANDS AT 8.585 MILLION (Jerusalem) — As Israel prepares to ring in the Jewish New Year, the Central Bureau of Statistics released a report estimating its population on the eve of Rosh Hashana at 8.585 million. According to the report, there are 6.419 million Jewish residents – 74.8 percent of the total population – and the Arab Israeli population stands at 1.786 million, or 20.8% of the country’s inhabitants. The additional 4.4%, approximately 380,000 people, are non-Arab Christians or people of other religions. In 2015, 27,908 people made Aliya, an increase of 16% compared to 2014, and a rate of 3.3 olim for every 1,000 residents, the report found. The majority of new olim, 6,886 were from Ukraine, 6,632 from Russia, 6,628 from France and 2,451 from the United States. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 27, 2016)
Eight Years Later, Obama Has Learned Nothing About the Israeli-Palestinian Dispute: Mitchell Bard, Algemeiner, Sept. 27, 2016—President Obama’s failure to learn anything in the last eight years about the Palestinian-Israeli dispute was evident in his final speech to the UN General Assembly. In the mere 31 words that he devoted to the subject, he laid bare his ignorance: “Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel,” he said. “But Israel recognizes that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land.”
Obama’s November Surprise: Gregg Roman, The Hill, Sept. 26, 2016 —With last year’s Iran nuclear deal appearing less and less likely to go down in the history books as a legacy foreign policy achievement, there is growing speculation that President Obama will spring a diplomatic surprise on Israel during the interregnum between the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8 and his departure from office in January.
Russia’s Quest for Great-Power Status, By Way of Syria: Robert Fulford, National Post, Aug. 26, 2016—A year ago next month, when Bashar Assad’s brutal struggle against his people had already made him the most hated dictator in the world, Russia decided to enter the Syrian civil war on his side. It was one of the most unpleasant surprises of our time, and one of the hardest to understand.
Israel’s Victory Over Drought: Barbara Kay, National Post, Sept. 20, 2016 —I am grateful to have been born in Canada, and for a multitude of reasons, not least because we control most of the world’s fresh water. Water shortages can and do lead to wars. Wars create refugees. Drought creates migrants.
