Israel Matzav

A black day for Israel: The inauguration coronation of Shimon Peres

Every morning between 5:00 and 6:00 AM, Israel Radio has a program where the host reads the headlines from newspapers in Israel, and occasionally from other locations. I've had a radio hanging in the shower for a number of years now, and since I shower before going to sunrise prayers most mornings, I'm usually in the shower listening sometime between 5:00 and 6:00. Today was no exception.

The first two papers the host read this morning were Haaretz and Yediot, both of which, he said, led with stories describing the pomp of this evening's inauguration coronation of Shimon Peres as the 9th President of the State of Israel. You will note that as of now, neither of the stories linked is the lead item on either web site, but they may well be in the print editions, which I don't have. At that point I shut off the radio.

Shimon Peres, the dreamer of the 'New Middle East' symbolizes everything that is wrong with the State of Israel. He is the architect of a fantasy in which the Arab lions will lie down with the Jewish lamb in peace and harmony. He is limitless in what he is willing to do to promote that fantasy, including branding as 'enemies of peace' those who point out that the Arabs are still living in the old Middle East of itabach al Yahud (slaughter the Jew). And yes, he is corrupt too. His Peres Center for Peace has been taking money under the table from the European Union for years.

In April 2002 for instance, Peres, as foreign minister in Ariel Sharon's government, gave a lone defense of Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process.

In the wake of the brutal battle between Palestinian terrorists and IDF soldiers in Jenin refugee camp during the course of Operation Defensive Shield, Larsen played a key role in disseminating the libel that Israel had committed a massacre in the camp. Standing in the UN-managed terror camp, Larsen said "Israel has lost all moral ground in this conflict."

A week later Makor Rishon revealed that in 1999 the Shimon Peres Center for Peace had given Larsen and his wife, Norwegian ambassador Mona Juul, a cash payment of $100,000. Larsen was then a board member of the Peres Center and the Norwegian government was one of the center's major donors.

Investigative reporter Yoav Yitzhak at the time reported statements by Labor party members claiming that the payment to Larsen and Juul was a kickback for their intervention on Peres's behalf with the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in 1994.

It is Peres' 'New Middle East' that the Winograd Commission found to be the cause of last summer's defeat in Lebanon:

19. The IDF was not ready for this war. Among the many reasons for this we can mention a few: Some of the political and military elites in Israel have reached the conclusion that Israel is beyond the era of wars. It had enough military might and superiority to deter others from declaring war against her; these would also be sufficient to send a painful reminder to anyone who seemed to be undeterred; since Israel did not intend to initiate a war, the conclusion was that the main challenge facing the land forces would be low intensity asymmetrical conflicts.

20. Given these assumptions, the IDF did not need to be prepared for ‘real’ war. There was also no urgent need to update in a systematic and sophisticated way Israel’s overall security strategy and to consider how to mobilize and combine all its resources and sources of strength – political, economic, social, military, spiritual. cultural and scientific – to address the totality of the challenges it faces.

21. We believe that – beyond the important need to examine the failures of conducting the war and the preparation for it, beyond the need to identify the weaknesses (and strengths) in the decisions made in the war – these are the main questions raised by the Second Lebanon war. These are questions that go far beyond the mandate of this or that commission of inquiry; they are the questions that stand at the center of our existence here as a Jewish and democratic state. It would be a grave mistake to concentrate only on the flaws revealed in the war and not to address these basic issues.

It is Peres, more than anyone else, who has led Israelis on the delusion that they can seek peace when what they should be seeking is security. It is Peres who has chosen to ignore history - something a Jew does at his peril - and to pretend that Jewish security can be left to the gentiles. It is Peres says that land is 'not important'; why not make the country into an artificial island or a web site? It is Peres who, despite being descended from Rabbi Chaim (Berlin) of Volozhyn and having been blessed by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (the Chafetz Chaim) of Radin, purposely chose the last name Peres, vulture, which is a non-Kosher bird, when David Ben Gurion insisted that he hebraicize the name Perski.

And so it is perhaps fitting that Peres' 'festive coronation' will take place this evening, on the first day of the Jewish month of Av, as we enter into the nine-day morning period leading up to the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple on the Ninth of Av. Indeed it is fitting that on the day of his coronation the Jews - as Peres famously referred to those who voted against him after losing an election for Prime Minister to Bibi Netanyahu in 1996 - are in mourning, while the Israelis - as Peres called those who voted for him - are celebrating.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:22 AM