Israel and the Middle East News Update Friday, September 30 Headlines: NYT Ad: Shimon Peres: A Never-Ending Quest for Peace Obama Remembers Peres as 20th Century Giant for Peace Bibi: Huge Funeral Turnout Testament to Peres’ Quest for Peace Abbas, Senior Arab Leaders Attending Funeral of Shimon Peres Bill Clinton: Peres Was a Dreamer Who Never Gave Up In One of Peres’ Last Interviews: Trump’s View ‘Unbelievable, Ignorant’ Security Chiefs Step Out of the Shadows to Praise Peres Police Arrest Jews, Arabs Ahead of Peres Funeral Commentary: Ma’ariv: “The Man Who Was There” By Alon Ben-David, Military Affairs Commentator, Channel 10 Israel Ha’aretz: “Shimon Peres Was Always Security Minded to the Bone” By Nehemia Shtrasler, Contributor, Ha’aretz S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 www.centerpeace.org ● Yoni Komorov, Editor ● David Abreu, Associate Editor News Excerpts September 30, 2016 New York Times Shimon Peres: A Never-Ending Quest for Peace 2 Times of Israel Obama Remembers Peres as 20th Century Giant for Peace US President Barack Obama paid tribute to former president Shimon Peres at the state funeral on Friday, calling him one of “the giants of the 20th century” who will be remembered for his efforts to make peace with the Palestinians. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s efforts to achieve peace with the Palestinians was the focus of the president’s homage to the last founding father of Israel. During the funeral, the US president sat in the front row, flanked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chemi Peres, the son of the late statesman. Peres saw the need for Palestinian statehood, Obama said, paraphrasing him saying that “the Jewish people were not born to rule another people.” See also, “Obama at Peres Funeral: Abbas Presence Reminds Us of Unfinished Business of Peace” (Jerusalem Post) See also, “Obama Says Goodbye to Peres in Hebrew: Shimon, Toda Raba Haver Yakar” (Ynet News) Ha’aretz Bibi: Huge Funeral Turnout Testament to Peres’ Quest for Peace Eulogizing Shimon Peres as one of Israel's greatest leaders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked world dignitaries on Friday for the large turnout for the late statesman's funeral as a "testament to his optimism, his quest for peace." Netanyahu said at the burial held at Jerusalem's Mt. Herzl cemetery that Peres "built a life of purpose, he soared to many heights. He was a great man of Israel, he was a great man of the world….I want to thank you all for coming today. That so many leaders came from around the world to bid farewell to Shimon, is a testament to his optimism his quest for peace his love for Israel," Netanyahu said in English. See also, “Leaders from 70 Nations in Israel for Nobel Peace Laureate Shimon Peres' State Funeral” (Ha'aretz) See also, “Foreign Dignitaries Amass for Peres Funeral” (Ynet News) BICOM Abbas, Senior Arab Leaders Attending Funeral of Shimon Peres The President of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Jordan’s Prime Minister and Egypt’s Foreign Minister are this morning attending the funeral of Israel’s former-President Shimon Peres. PA President Mahmoud Abbas sent a request yesterday to coordinate his attendance to Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the coordinator of Israel’s government activities in the territories. The request was approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. An unnamed Palestinian official was quoted saying that Abbas wanted to “send a strong message to Israeli society that the Palestinians are for peace, and appreciate the efforts of peaceful men like Shimon Peres”. See also, “Israel Grants Permission to Abbas and 4 Senior PA Officials to Attend Peres' Funeral” (Jerusalem Post) See also, “Obama at Funeral: Abbas's Presence Reminds Us of Unfinished Business of Peace” (Jerusalem Post) Jerusalem Post Bill Clinton: Peres Was a Dreamer Who Never Gave Up Former US president Bill Clinton spoke at the funeral of Shimon Peres, saying he was honored to have known him for the last 25 years. Clinton put the loss of Peres into perspective paraphrasing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tweet that Thursday "was Israel's first day without Shimon Peres." Clinton continued by praising Peres's steadfast commitment to public service, and added he was honored to have shared a friendship with the late president over the last 25 years. See also, “Hillary Clinton: When Peres Spoke, It Was Like Listening to a Psalm” (Arutz Sheva) 3 Times of Israel Peres In Last Interviews: Trump’s View ‘Unbelievable, Ignorant’ In one of his final interviews, Shimon Peres excoriated policy proposals being put forth by presidential nominee Donald Trump, calling them “unbelievable” and “ignorant.” Speaking with Bloomberg Television earlier this month, Israel’s elder statesman, who died early Wednesday at 93, described the Republican candidate as an isolationist who would endanger America’s role in the world. “The idea of Mr. Trump, to isolate America,” said the former Israeli prime minister and president on September 2 in Cernobbio, Italy. “Shall I say, in a nice way, it’s unbelievable, ignorant.” Times of Israel Security Chiefs Step Out of the Shadows to Praise Peres The death of former president Shimon Peres on Wednesday elicited statements from some of Israel’s most secretive organizations. Ze’ev Snir, head of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission, paid tribute to Peres’s “substantive contribution” to the establishment of the Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona, in southern Israel, and to the “founding of Israel’s nuclear policy as a significant plank in ensuring the national strength of the country.” In other tributes to the late former president, Nadav Argaman, head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, eulogized Peres’s “massive contribution to the design and establishment of Israel’s security outlook and its strength.” Arutz Sheva Police Arrest Jews, Arabs Ahead of Peres Funeral Ahead of the state funeral for former President Shimon Peres on Friday, Israeli security forces are ramping up operations to secure the event. With world leaders including President Obama and former President Bill Clinton expected to attend, Israeli police and internal security agencies are taking every precaution – including preemptive arrests of people they have deemed potential troublemakers. Speaking at a press conference Thursday evening, Israeli Police Chief Roni Alshich discussed the preparations underway for what is expected to be the grandest state funeral since Nelson Mandela’s in 2013. During the press conference Alshich revealed that a number of right-wing Jewish activists and Arabs had been arrested over the past day, as part of efforts to ensure that the funeral runs smoothly – and safely. 4 Ma’ariv – September 30, 2016 The Man Who Was There By Alon Ben-David There is something comforting about this people’s ability to remember fondly and to unite around a figure so complex and non-superficial as the late Shimon Peres—a man who was full of contrasts and contradictions, who was larger than life, but who was also as petty as them. A man blessed with talents and many weaknesses, who reached tremendous achievements and suffered scathing failures, and who was exposed to the depths of the hate of Israeli society in most years of his life yet was the recipient of tenderness and love in his later years. There was no one who strove harder than he in the last 50 years, who was as determined and uncompromising, who could see broad horizons and beyond them. But despite his constant striving, his experience that was second to none, and despite the vision that was constantly renewed, he succeeded in reaching the position of top leader only twice and holding on to it for only a short time. The man who was always there, before us all, never earned the Israeli public’s full faith in his leadership. Perhaps it is because of this that it was easy for his admirers from the right and the left to unite around him this week. The man who ensured the fact of our existence here thanks to Dimona, the Israel Aerospace Industries, and Rafael is also the man who with his own hands drove in the stakes of the settlement enterprise, which today threatens our future as a Jewish state. He reinvented himself only a few years later, like the phoenix from the ashes, and became the symbol of the peace camp. There was no individual in the history of the State of Israel who was so productive and whose entire life was a story of inexhaustible passion for action and knowledge. Among his long list of achievements, which has been detailed at length over the last two days, the achievement that could have been the greatest of his life and of the State of Israel was played down—the London Agreement. The agreements that he reached with King Hussein in 1987 could have brought the conflict with the Palestinians and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank to an early end; they could have spared us two Intifadas and who knows how many more waves of terrorism; and they could have placed Israel’s relationship with the region on entirely different levels. It seems to me that this ideal agreement, which was firmly rejected then by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, would be embraced today even by members of the Likud. But Peres bent to Shamir’s refusal, the Intifada broke out within half a year, and the Jordanian option died. As far as he was able to dream, it was his political opponents in the end who made peace agreements—the late Menachem Begin with Egypt and the late Yitzhak Rabin with Jordan.