Israel Matzav

Peres: 1000 Jewish lives worthwhile price to recognize pre-1967 borders

President Shimon Peres, the architect of the Oslo disaster, said today that the Oslo accords were a "great achievement" because they enabled the recognition of the State of Israel within the June 4, 1967 borders (i.e. the day before the Six-Day War). Some 1000 Jewish Israelis have lost their lives - and thousands of others have been wounded - as a result of 'Palestinian' terror spawned by the Oslo accords and the expectations they created in the 'Palestinians.' No, this is not a parody:

Recognition of the 1967 borders began with the Oslo accords, President Shimon Peres said on the 60th anniversary of the UN decision to partition Palestine into two states.

"This is one of the greatest achievements. Without it, there would be no chance for peace. This is the great achievement of Olso, which set the groundwork for peace," he said.

In an interview with Army Radio, Peres described the first moments after the historic UN vote in 1947: "I was next to [Israel's first prime minister, David] Ben-Gurion. That night, when all the streets were filled with dancing and rejoicing, he said that tomorrow there would be bloodshed. I wasn't sure he was right… but he was in a very grave mood."

Peres recounted how a few months later, Ben-Gurion had presented a list of Israel's meager weapons supply - only 5 million bullets that would last five days of fighting.

"After the terrible Holocaust, there remained only a few thousand Jews who came out of the camps weighing 30-40 kilograms. We had to set up a state, and there was no other choice… Ben-Gurion stood at the edge of the abyss. He decided to take a chance - and he was right."

As usual, regarding 1947, Peres is corrupting history. Recall what Caroline Glick said on Monday about the UN vote that took place sixty years ago today:

Both the 1947 UN resolution and the Annapolis conference are dedicated to the task of forcing the Jewish people to compromise their rights in a bid to appease Israel's neighbors who still 60 years on maintain their refusal to accept the right of the Jewish people to sovereignty over their land. And both are presented as diplomatic achievements by the Israeli government.

...

ON NOVEMBER 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly passed resolution 181. As a General Assembly resolution, 181 had no force of international law. The international legal basis for the Jewish state was the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine which charged the British government with administering the area earmarked as the future Jewish state.

Indeed, if anything, resolution 181 sought to legitimize illegal moves taken by Britain throughout the term of its mandate. As the League of Nations mandate made clear, Britain was supposed to preside over the territory of the Mandatory Palestine and to foster the establishment of a Jewish state which would eventually replace the British mandatory government. Yet almost from the get-go the British did just the opposite. They established the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan on the majority of the land slated for the Jewish state. Moreover, they took all possible steps to prevent the Jews from establishing a state on the remainder of the land. They blocked Jewish immigration and limited the right of Jews to purchase and settle the land to a tiny portion of the territory - which they believed would be too small to sustain a sovereign state.

It was due to the British failure to destroy Zionism and block the Jewish people from establishing their state that the UN partition plan was brought into being. That is, far from establishing a Jewish state, 181 simply accepted an already existing national entity. Despite the best efforts of Britain, the Jews had already established their state in 1947. It would have existed even if the resolution had not passed.

I could tolerate his corruption of history. But his continued delusional defense of the Oslo accords is beyond the pale.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:28 PM