WHAT SHIMON SAYS Shimon Peres in His Own Words [Excerpt from an interview with Haaretz journalist Daniel Ben Simon the day following Peres' defeat by Netanyahu in the 1996 election for Prime Minister] INTERVIEWER: What happened in these elections? PERES: We lost. INTERVIEWER: Who is we? PERES: We, that is the Israelis. INTERVIEWER: And who won? PERES: All those who do not have an Israeli mentality. INTERVIEWER: And who are they? PERES: Call it the Jews. Compilation, introduction and comments by Roger A. Gerber and Rael Jean Isaac WHAT SHIMON SAYS Shimon Peres in His Own Words Compilation, introduction and comments by Roger A. Gerber and Rael Jean Isaac Published by Americans for a Safe Israel 1623 Third Avenue New York, NY10128 Copyright © 2001 by Roger A. Gerber and Rael Jean Isaac Table of Contents Introduction........................................................................................1 On History..........................................................................................3 On Geopolitics ....................................................................................5 On Judaism .........................................................................................7 On Israel and Zionism..........................................................................8 Spokesman for Arafat ........................................................................ 10 On the “Peace Process” ...................................................................... 18 On Israel’s Relations with Arab States.................................................. 24 On Nationalism ................................................................................. 26 On the Palestinians............................................................................. 27 On Economics................................................................................... 31 On Terrorism ................................................................................... 32 On Negotiations................................................................................. 35 On Military Action ............................................................................ 38 On Himself ....................................................................................... 38 On the New Middle East..................................................................... 41 Afterword ........................................................................................ 43 About the Editors .............................................................................. 44 The great majority of quotations in What Shimon Says are subsequent to March 1996 when we published the first Shimon Says. We have included some quotations from the earlier publication, most of them to illustrate how Peres recycles the same phrases and ignores new realities. Such quotations are identified with a ✱✱. 1 Introduction Early in 1996, we compiled Shimon Says, a collection of utterances by Shimon Peres in the three years following the Oslo agreement. Since then, he has mainly recycled them in his speeches and interviews. Why then do we compile another? The most important reason is that Peres is Israel’s Foreign Minister. One of us (Rael Jean Isaac) has argued that Peres’ role is even more important than his title suggests, because Prime Minister Sharon has been forced to tailor his own policies to those demanded by Peres as the price for a unity government. When we compiled the first Shimon Says, Peres was Prime Minister of a Labor government in the wake of Rabin’s assassination. Little did we imagine that a government led by Ariel Sharon, who had strongly opposed Oslo from its inception and had described Peres, its architect, as the man who “has given Israel away,” would give him a key role in the cabinet. Second, Peres has been a purveyor of delusions to a people desperately grasping for hope. His claim that Oslo would usher in an era of peace in a “New Middle East” has been proven to be chimerical to all but those who refuse to see. After Barak’s final offer at Taba was rejected — basically to return to the truce lines of 1949 — and Arafat embarked on open warfare, even the eyes of most of the Israeli left were opened. Leaders of the mainstream American Jewish organizations also awakened from their illusion of peace. Leonard Fein, a prominent figure of the left and a founder of Americans for Peace Now, to his credit wrote in The Forward (March 16, 2001): “. Our mistake was to allow ourselves to be so carried away by the prospect of peace that we chose to close our eyes to the persistent Palestinian violations of the Oslo accords — and to what those violations implied about Palestinian intentions.” Nonetheless the events of the past eight years have had no discernible impact on Shimon Peres. He parrots the same phrases, has ever more imaginative excuses for Arafat, and doggedly pursues the same illusions. Third, the perception of Peres both in Israel and in the diaspora is as remote from reality as is Peres himself. Akiva Eldar, a political columnist for Israel’s influential daily Haaretz, wrote in August 1999: “Peres is nearly a mythological figure. He is an icon.” Columnist Gideon Samet calls Peres “the only hope of Israeli diplomacy.” (Haaretz, Aug. 10, 2001) And Herb Keinon, a journalist for the Jerusalem Post (International Edition, May 24, 1997) describes Peres as “an intellectual leader of huge stature.” Even former Defense Minister Moshe Arens, a critic of Peres’ policies, writes in the Wall Street Journal (August 2, 2000) “Peres is internationally the best known and most admired Israeli politician.” Jews abroad treat him with reverence. The Israeli daily Maariv (August 18, 1996) reported that, in the year he was out of government following the victory of Benjamin Netanyahu, Peres received $40,000 a speech from admiring Jewish audiences in the United States, and was expected to earn close to $400,000 for the year. In the June 1997 Australia/Israel Review Michael 2 Kapel speaks of Peres as a man “responsible for the broad sweep of history” and praises his “almost Shakespearean grasp of the language.” Only in the past few months have there been occasional more realistic public assessments, for example by Norman Podhoretz, who compared Peres — unfavorably — to Neville Chamberlain (Commentary, October 2001). Fourth, although Peres is a satirist’s goldmine, and Israeli television has no lack of satirists (Po-Politica is the most widely watched), neither TV nor other media exploit the rich Peres mine. Every time Peres produced his trite epigrams and played word games that denigrated his high office (and thus his country), Israeli humorists should have been taking notes in the wings. In doing so, they would have performed a vital public service. Had they made Peres a figure of fun, a wise man of Chelm, he would have been unable to damage Israel to the degree he has done — and still does. Almost half a century ago Moshe Sharett, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Israel, wrote in his diary: “I totally and utterly reject Peres and consider his rise to prominence a malignant, immoral disgrace. I will rend my clothes in mourning for the State if I see him become a minister in the Israeli government.” Sharett was prescient. For the last decade, Peres has consistently treated his responsibilities with contempt. He goes his own way, indifferent to his accountability as a democratic leader. Indeed Peres boasts “I may not know what the people want; I do know what is good for the people.” (Jerusalem Post International Edition, Dec. 23, 1995) As Foreign Minister he has betrayed his obligation to advocate for his own government by continually presenting Arafat’s case to the world media instead. Our section “Spokesman for Arafat,” is so lengthy not by design but because Peres’ speeches, writings and interviews are devoted so overwhelmingly to promoting and defending Arafat. On October 23, 2001, in a CNNinterview, Shimon Peres astonishingly confirmed the Arab canard that the terror attack on America was attributable to the Palestinian-Israel conflict. Despite bin Laden’s own declarations that his principal grievances related to the “infidel” presence in Arabia, “the holiest of [Islamic] territories”, and to the treatment of Iraq, Peres undermined the Jewish community’s vigorous refutation of the Arab propaganda spin. Interviewed by Paula Zahn, Peres was asked to comment on the allegation by Jordanian King Abdullah that the terror attack on America was caused by the Palestinian-Israel conflict. This was the exchange: ZAHN: What do you think of the linkage the King is making to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? PERES: “I think it’s 1 0 0 percent right.” Incredibly, given an international platform to enlighten viewers as to the terrorists’ hatred of the “infidel” West, Peres endorsed — and thereby gave credence to — the dangerous and incendiary Arab propaganda line. For the Foreign Minister of Israel 3 to endorse the libelous Arab campaign to blame his own country for the horrific terror attack on America is without parallel in the tragic annals of Jewish history. And so, because of the failure of Israelis to do the job, we say once again “The emperor has no clothes.” Shimon Peres is Simple Simon — you need only read What Shimon Says. On History General Comment: Peres says that he is totally uninterested in the past and there is nothing to be learned from it — an amazingly anti-Jewish attitude. Professor Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Salo W. Baron Professor of Jewish