Obama's award is from Peres and not from the people of Israel
I'm getting a lot of email asking me how Israel could be awarding its 'highest civilian honor' to the most anti-Israel President of the United States ever, Barack Hussein Obama. Here's some fairly typical coverage from Fox News.
Israel will award President Barack Obama the country's Presidential Medal of Distinction during his upcoming visit.
Israeli President Shimon Peres' office said Monday that Obama will be
recognized for his "unique and significant contribution to
strengthening the State of Israel and the security of its citizens."
Obama is scheduled to visit Israel in March -- his first as president.
Obama has often had a tense relationship with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu over the Jewish state's West Bank settlement policies
and the lack of peace process with the Palestinians.
But Peres and the committee behind the award noted Obama's overall
friendship and backing of the Iron Dome missile defense system.
Israel's Presidential Medal of Distinction is comparable to the France's "Legion of Honor" or the "Order of Canada."
When this story was covered in Israel, it was clear that this was a medal decided upon and awarded by President Shimon Peres and not by any elected representative of the people of Israel. Notice that the JPost headline is "Peres to honor Obama with medal..." and the article makes quite clear that the medal is a quid pro quo for Obama awarding the medal of freedom to Peres last June. This is from the JPost link:
In the business of presidential medals, reciprocity is the name of the game.
President
Shimon Peres will honor US President Barack Obama with Israel’s highest
civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Distinction, just as Obama
conferred the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian
award, on Peres at a presidential dinner in Washington in June.
Peres
will present the medal to Obama next month at a state dinner in
Jerusalem to be attended by senior Israeli public figures and
representatives of the US administration.
...
In fact no one sings Obama’s praises louder and with greater frequency than Peres.
...
The Presidential Medal of Distinction, which came into being at Peres’s
initiative, was awarded for the first time last year. Among the people
on the advisory committee is Israel’s fifth president Yitzhak Navon, who
in addition to his former role, is one of Peres’s lifelong friends,
and, like the president, is a devoted disciple of David Ben-Gurion.
...
Last year when Peres received the Medal of Freedom, there were many
voices raised in Israel and the United States urging him to decline it
until such time as convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, who has spent
more than quarter of a century in an American prison, is released.
After
Peres accepted the medal, there were those who urged him to give it
back for the same reason. Now advocates for Pollard are protesting the
awarding of a medal to Obama at a time when Pollard’s period of
incarceration is approaching 10,000 days.
Peres giving the award to Obama (and to Henry Kissinger last year) says no more about what Israelis think than Obama presenting a medal of freedom to Toni Morrison said about what Americans think.
But Peres presenting a medal to Obama says even less than Obama presenting a medal to Peres. Obama was at least 'elected' by the 'American people' (the scare quotes are my acknowledgement that some people may have voted more than once). Peres, who has never won a popular election in this country, was elected by the Knesset in a political deal because they had some confidence that he was old enough that he would keep his pants on... unlike our previous President.
If Peres had any morals and convictions, he would decline that medal
unless Obama releases Pollard, thereby forcing Obama to choose between
Jews and Israel - on the one hand - and the heirs of the meshumad
(destroyer) Caspar Weinberger - Yimach Shmo v'Zichro (may his name and
memory be obliterated) - on the other hand.
We Israelis cannot stop Shimon Peres from presenting a medal to whomever he pleases, and the Prime Minister will - probably much to his chagrin - have to show up to the dinner. But trust me on this: This medal has even less meaning than the Nobel Peace Prize that Obama got for his 'future contributions to peace.'
Will Slimy Shimon be the next President of Israel?
In his autobiography, Yitzchak Rabin called Shimon Peres "an unyielding subverter" and said that he deemed it a first rate moral blemish that the Labor party nominated him to be Prime Minister. In her autobiography, Golda Meir wrote that she conditioned her participation in the government on Peres' being kept away from any sensitive security position. And in his diary, Moshe Sharett wrote that he would rend his garments in mourning the day that Shimon Peres becomes a minister in an Israeli government. He said that he saw Peres' rise in standing as "a most accursed moral flaw." But unless Shas' MK's fail to follow their leader's orders on Wednesday, it is highly likely that Slimy Shimon Peres will become Israel's ninth President.
One has to wonder what the Labor MK's are thinking. Peres abandoned Labor for KadimaAchora two years ago, but now he's pressuring Labor's candidate - Colette Avital - to drop out of the race so that he can win it in the first round. At the very least it appears that if Avital does not make the third and final round - which is likely - she will throw her support to Peres:
The sources said Peres has become increasingly frustrated with MKs who have told him that they intend to vote for Avital in the first round of voting and then support him against Likud MK Reuven Rivlin in later rounds held among the top two candidates. Peres has told the MKs that if they want him to be president, they should support him from the start of the voting.
"We still hope Colette quits before the race begins," a source close to Peres said. "Maybe whoever wins the Labor race will be able to knock some sense into her. [Peres] is angry at people voting for Colette in the first round. It doesn't make sense to him."
Avital's associates responded with outrage, accusing Peres of employing countless tricks in a fruitless attempt to harm her.
"Peres left the party and caused it great damage just because he didn't win the election for Labor leader in 2005," an Avital associate said. "It would be chutzpa for him to appeal to the leader of Labor with such a request after he abandoned the party."
In 1981 Peres, then opposition leader, nearly placed Israel in danger of nuclear annihilation by working to undercut then prime minister Menachem Begin's plan to attack the French and Italian-built Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak.
Begin was forced to delay the air strike which denied Saddam Hussein the wherewithal to obliterate the Jewish state for a number of months after Peres, who had been leaked knowledge of the planned attack, confronted Begin and implicitly threatened to leak the ultra-secret operation to others.
One of the factors that weighed on Begin's decision to attack was the fear that were Peres to win the then approaching 1981 Knesset elections and replace him as premier, Peres would enable Iraq to acquire the means to wipe Israel off the map and assert its hegemony over the global oil market.
...
As foreign minister in Yitzhak Rabin's government, Peres knowingly subverted Rabin's policy of not negotiating with the PLO by sending his own emissaries to Oslo behind the back of the prime minister to negotiate with senior PLO terrorists. Peres then rammed the accord down Rabin's throat, dragging along an unwilling public.
As usual, Peres - this time assisted by Ehud K. Olmert - has run such a dirty campaign that even the normally mild-mannered Ruby Rivlin - his main opponent - has lashed out:
Rivlin lashed out on Monday at Olmert, his strategists and the press for putting undue pressure on MKs to vote for Peres. He joked that the press had almost convinced him to vote for Peres against himself, and he told sources close to him that Hadash MK Muhammad Barakei would be "butchered" if he admitted that he supported him.
Following meetings with more than 60 MKs in one day on Monday, Rivlin sent a letter to every MK decrying the pressure and threats his supporters were facing and accusing Peres of making a mockery of the Knesset by trying to change the law to try to guarantee his victory and by denying for a year that he would run.
"I wanted to write you directly to go above all the entertainers, propagandists, wealthy people, image consultants, PR people and strategists who have been drafted in a last-ditch effort in which everything is kosher and legitimate," Rivlin told the MKs.
Labor officials revealed that Rivlin's only open supporter in the party, MK Shelly Yacimovich, had set up meetings between Rivlin and several Labor MKs to try and sway their votes.
Ironically, Rivlin, who is the right wing candidate, may only be able to win the Presidency on the strength of the Arab vote:
In a meeting with the United Arab List faction, Rivlin received a compliment from MK Ahmed Tibi, who praised Rivlin's father, Prof. Yoel Rivlin.
"There are four MKs here who know the Koran more or less but only one whose father translated the Koran to Hebrew," Tibi said.
Does it matter if Peres wins? Caroline Glick thinks that it does:
It has been argued that since the office of president is largely ceremonial, a President Peres will be able to do little damage to the country.
But this assertion ignores the fact that Peres has never seen himself bound by the formalities of office. As foreign minister under Rabin he overstepped his authority when he directed illegal negotiations with the PLO in Norway. As foreign minister under Sharon, Peres used his office to undermine President George W. Bush's call for a reform and democratization of Palestinian society.
As head of the Peres Center and international conference circuit star, he worked to undermine the international credibility of the Netanyahu government. It beggars belief to say that as president, Peres would limit his actions to accrediting ambassadors and signing pardons for criminals.
Signing pardons for criminals? Including for Marwan the Murdering Moron Barghouti? This election could actually mean something. Unfortunately, only 120 people have the power to vote. And because we have not taken to the streets to throw this corrupt government and Knesset out, those 120 people may stick us with Slimy Shimon Peres for the next seven years. As the Talmud says, you get the leadership your generation deserves. Ours is pretty lousy.
Abu Mazen earns praise for plan to attend Peres funeral, but Fatah says he's 'destined for hell' and Hamas calls for 'days of rage'
'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen is drawing praise from the Israeli Left for his plan to attend Shimon Peres' funeral. Peres was the man who brought the 'Palestinians' in from the cold.
But Israel's Arab MK's are being criticized for ignoring Peres' death, while Abu Mazen's Fatah faction has described Peres as 'destined for hell' and his Hamas rivals are calling for 'days of rage' in response to Peres' death.
This is the second link from the above paragraph.
On the day after former Israeli
President Shimon Peres passed away, Fatah demonized Peres as a murderer
about to enter Hell. In a cartoon on Fatah's official Facebook page
(shown above) Peres is shown trembling and handcuffed as the Grim Reaper
shows or reads to Peres from an English language scroll the long list
of "crimes" that the PA-Fatah accuse Peres of committing. In the
background flames are seen, representing the fires of Hell that,
according to Fatah, are awaiting Peres.
Likewise, official PA TV's "Israeli
affairs expert" spoke about Peres. The "expert," an Israeli Arab named
Fayez Abbas, described Peres as a man of war who should have been tried
in the International Criminal Court, and as "the greatest fraud in the
history of the Zionist movement." The essence of his message about Peres
was that he succeeded in deceiving the entire world when he talked
about peace:
The Hamas terror group urged Palestinians to hold a “Day of Rage” on
Friday, coinciding with the state funeral of former Israeli president
Shimon Peres, which will be held in Jerusalem on that day.
The call is meant to mark the one-year
anniversary of the beginning of a wave of terror attacks, including
stabbings and car-rammings throughout the West Bank and in Jerusalem,
that launched in September 2015.
Hamas’s call follows a Wednesday statement by the group’s spokesman in Gaza that expressed happiness at Peres’s death.
A spokesman for the group, Sami Abu Zuhri,
told AP on Wednesday that “the Palestinian people are very happy at the
passing of this criminal who caused their blood to shed.”
He added, “Shimon Peres was the last remaining
Israeli official who founded the occupation, and his death is the end
of a phase in the history of this occupation and the beginning of a new
phase of weakness.”
Meanwhile, Abu Mazen expressed sorrow over Peres' death... at least in English.
In a statement, Abbas said he has sent a condolence letter to Peres’s family expressing “sorrow and sympathy.”
He called Peres a partner in reaching a “peace
of the brave” with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and prime
minister Yitzhak Rabin. The three men shared the 1994 Nobel Peace prize
for reaching the Oslo interim peace accord.
Abbas said Peres “exerted persistent efforts to reach a just peace from the Oslo agreement until the final moments of his life.”
Once again the 'Palestinian Authority' is speaking from both sides of its mouth.
Likud calls Peres remarks about Abu Mazen 'regrettable'
The problem with making Shimon Peres President from the start was that the President of this country is meant to have an above the fray, non-political position, and Peres' nature was never such. In fact, the only President we have had who was even in the same ballpark as Peres in terms of politicizing the office was Ezer Weizmann. Now, with Peres nearing the end of his term, and realizing that there will be little he can do about the 'peace process' once that term is over, Peres' frustration is pouring out. That's what you saw in the al-Jazeera interview I posted on Sunday.
But Peres continues to live in his dreamworld, insisting that 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen is a 'partner for peace.' On Sunday, after Peres repeated his claim that Abu Mazen is a 'partner for peace' to 160 foreign diplomats, the Likud reacted, releasing what I am sure is pent-up frustration over the feeling over the last four years that they cannot fight the angelic Shimon Peres.
Likud said in a statement it is "regrettable that the president
chooses to express a political opinion that is detached from the Israeli
public's position regarding Abbas, who refuses to make peace."
They
continued to say it is "even more regrettable that the President
chooses to present [these opinions] in front of foreign diplomats, a
political stand that encourages condemnation for Israel in the
international community," adding that the prime minister has
consistently called on Abbas to return to the table, but that Abbas has
failed to even condemn the firing of rockets on Israeli citizens by
Hamas.
"It is a shame the president did not explain to the foreign diplomats
how his comments on Abbas reconcile with the fact [Abbas] did not even
condemn the firing of rockets on Israeli citizens," the statement said.
The
response follows remarks by Peres on Sunday in his address to some 160
diplomats. Peres said he differed from the view of Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu who repeatedly says there is no partner on the other
side, and said that he has known Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) for thirty
years and is convinced that he is the only Arab leader with whom Israel
can conclude an agreement.
Peres acknowledged that not everything
that Abbas says and does is beyond reproach, but the fact is Peres
underscored, that Abbas is the only Arab leader who has come out openly
and said that he wants peace and is opposed to terrorism. Moreover,
Peres continued, Abbas has shown commendable courage in preventing
terror – even at the risk of his life.
Peres invited the
ambassadors to place themselves in Abbas's position, and asked whether
they too would be prepared to forfeit the return to their birthplaces.
Abbas, who was born in Safed, has stated that he will not return there, Peres pointed out.
Israelis are interested in peace, said Peres, but not all are convinced that it is attainable.
Peres
emphasized that if Israel wants to have any influence in the Middle
East, it must complete a peace agreement with the Palestinians without
delay. A bi-national state, he warned, endangers the Zionist enterprise
as well as the Jewish and democratic character of the State of Israel.
Reviewing
the turmoil and transition throughout much of the region, Peres said
that it was impossible for Israel to influence the Arab world in which
nearly every country is engaged in some kind of struggle "which has
nothing to do with us".
Peres attributed the changing tide of the
Middle East to being part of a global revolution in which what occurs in
the city square is more important than what happens in the seat of
government.
I suspect we're going to see a lot more of Shimon Peres in this election cycle - more than we have ever seen from an Israeli President. I suspect he will endorse either Labor or the Tzipi Livni party. But don't worry. Peres never won a popular election in this country. Called an underminer by former bosses Moshe Sharett and Yitzchak Rabin, Peres may be one of the least popular politicians Israel has ever had, even if he is still viewed by many as untainted by corruption.
'Moderate' 'Palestinian President' Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen must be a very frustrated man. No matter how many times he says "no," some Israelis continue to hear yes. Take Shimon Peres, for instance. Shimon Peres lives in his own world and his has own 'reality.' The problem with Shimon Peres' 'reality' is not so much that Peres himself believes it: It's that the Olmert-Barak-Livni government apparently believes it too.
This morning I reported that Abu Mazen had said "no" to 'exchanging' Israeli territory with an Arab population for the areas of Judea and Samaria in which many Jews reside. Abu Mazen made that statement yesterday. And yet, Shimon Peres, in an interview later yesterday with the Japanese newspaper Nikkei Business Daily insisted that by the fall, Israel will reach the principles of a 'settlement' with the 'Palestinians.' Unless Peres has in mind going back to the 1967 borders (in which case he wouldn't be talking about needing time to work out "the geographical outline of a future Palestinian state"), Abu Mazen isn't interested. In which case, I don't see how we're going to reach any 'principles' by the fall. But there are more delusional statements in Peres' interview:
"I think we have a good chance now because the whole world is supporting (Palestinian president Mahmoud) Abbas," he told the paper.
Except for Hamas, all of the Arab countries and the Europeans - all of whom would rather see Abu Mazen and Haniyeh have a sulha and otherwise think Israel should be negotiating with Hamas.
"To work out the details (of the political if not the geographical outline of a future Palestinian state) will take more time, but (as for) principles, yes, we can achieve an agreement" before the autumn peace conference, he said.
What are the 'political details' in this case if not geographical? Does Peres plan to insist that Fatahstan be 'democratic'? And if so, how does he think he will enforce that agreement? As to the 'geographical' outline, see above.
Improved economic conditions in areas governed by the Palestinian Authority will lead to a greater likelihood of it accepting the idea of peaceful coexistence with Israel, Peres said.
"We shall go in a policy of two tracks, economic development and political negotiations, one complementary to the other but not dependent upon it," he said.
This may be the biggest delusion of all: If the 'Palestinians' have prosperity, they will give up on their desire to kill the Jews and destroy Israel. The 'Palestinians' have never shown any interest in anything economic. Money won't solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. It's not about money any more than it's about land: It's about Israel's existence. The sooner that we wake up to that reality and shout it to the world, the sooner there's even the slightest chance that the world will stop listening to 'Israeli President Shimon Peres.'
He filed the request, but don't expect him to give up his medal
Bowing to public pressure, President Shimon Peres filed a request with President Obama for the immediate release of ailing Israeli citizen Jonathan Pollard. The request was quickly denied by the White House. But I hope that none of you will expect Peres to decline his medal of freedom from President Obama as a result. That won't happen unless there are massive demonstrations outside the President's residence - and maybe not even then. Besides, Peres must figure that Pollard may God forbid be dead by June, and then it won't matter, will it? This is from the second link.
The White House announced Monday that the US administration has rejected President Shimon Peres' request to grant convicted spy Jonathan Pollard clemency.
"Our position has not changed in this case," National Security Council Spokesperson Tommy Vietor said.
The Obama Administration "has no intention to release Pollard," he added.
Earlier, Peres sent a personal letter to US President Barack Obama in which he asked him to pardon the convicted spy on humanitarian grounds.
The Justice for Jonathan Pollard association claims that US President Barack Obama did not refuse Peres' request and that no official response has been received as of yet, contrary to the statement by the National Security Council.
The association said that the statement reflects the administration's current position but does not reflect the president's response to Peres' bid. The group stressed that the president is the only person who can give a pardon.
And this is from the third link.
But Peres's office said he had not received an official response from the White House and that Vietor's statement was issued before Obama had made a decision.
...
The heads of the Pollard caucus in the Knesset, MKs Ronit Tirosh (Kadima) and Uri Ariel (National Union), urged Peres to reconsider accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama is he rejects his request for Pollard's freedom.
Tirosh said she had been brought to tears by Vietor's statement, because she had hoped that Peres could succeed due to his close ties with Obama.
"The White House's answer is disappointing," Tirosh said. "Pollard is apparently just a political card for them. If I were Peres, I might not take the medal. I can't understand such wickedness."
Ariel said the quick response from the White House's spokesmen indicated that their behavior was "insensitive and borderline cruel." But he said he still had hope that Obama's official response would be positive.
Obama is giving Peres that medal of freedom because he feels that it will help him with the Jewish vote - and more importantly, with Jewish contributors to his reelection campaign. If Peres had any morals and convictions, he would decline that medal unless Obama releases Pollard, thereby forcing Obama to choose between Jews and Israel - on the one hand - and the heirs of the meshumad (destroyer) Caspar Weinberger - Yimach Shmo v'Zichro (may his name and memory be obliterated) - on the other hand.
The poster pictured above appeared in my neighborhood last week.
There's a presidential election in the Knesset next Wednesday and there are three candidates: Labor MK and former New York consular officer Colette Avital, Likud MK and former Knesset speaker Ruby Rivlin and LaborKadimaAchora MK and Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Most people here believe that it will come down to a third ballot with the lowest polling candidate being dropped, and that the third ballot will be between Rivlin and Peres. As you all know already, Peres has never won a national election (neither have the others, but they have never run in one).
Presidential elections here are unusual because they are done by secret ballot in the Knesset. In the 2000 Presidential election, Peres lost to Moshe Katzav because a lot of MK's who promised to support him did not do so. The fact that the ballot is secret also means that there is no coalition discipline - no one knows for sure who voted for whom. Peres tried to get the ballot opened because he felt he would have a better chance to win with an open ballot, but that effort failed.
You may recall that in the article linked above, MK Marina Solodkin said that much of KadimaAchora may switch their loyalties from Peres to Colette Avital on the second ballot. In an interview on Israel Radio at the end of last week, Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz implied that the Labor party would not vote for anyone who deserted the party on any ballot. That would mean that Labor MK's will not vote for Peres even if it's Peres against Rivlin. On the other hand, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is leaning towards ordering Shas' MK's to vote for Peres. According to Israel Radio, Rabbi Yosef has found a way of assuring that his MK's vote the way he wants them to: He wants them to take an oath.
Rabbi Yosef's support for Peres has raised some eyebrows and more in the religious community - and not just in Shas' (ultra-Orthodox Sephardi) corner of it:
A group calling itself The Committee for Jewish Holiness has disseminated a poster in hareidi-religious neighborhoods, reminding MKs of anti-Jewish statements made by Peres and calling on them not to vote for him. [This is apparently not the same poster I photographed last week. I have not seen this poster yet. By the way, every ultra-Orthodox neighborhood has one or more "Committees for Jewish Holiness" and no one knows who is a member of them. CiJ]
The poster reads: Don't lend your hand to him who would assimilate the Nation of Israel!
Dear Knesset Member,
When you stand behind the curtain to vote for the president, remember the words of blasphemy that Shimon Peres has said. A sampling of quotes from his words:
"What King David did was not Jewish." (Yediot Acharonot, Feb. 15, 1994)
"Partitions between the Jewish Nation and the goyim must be eradicated." (UNESCO conference 1994)
"There is nothing to be proud of in Jewish history." (UNESCO conference 1990)
"Jewish youth must divorce our past." (UNESCO conference 1999)
"The rabbis are deceivers." (Yediot Acharonot, April 15, 1990)
This Wednesday, you must proudly fulfill what it says in the Torah reading (Korach) of this week: 'Take leave of the tents of these evil people... lest you be destroyed as a result of their sins.'
Another famous Peres quote, not cited in the poster, is this from 1996, the day after he lost the national election to Binyamin Netanyahu: 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.
Peres also told the UN General Assembly on Sept. 28, 1993, after the signing of the Oslo Accords, "As a Jew, may I say that the essence of our history since the times of Abraham and the commandments of Moses have been an uncompromising opposition to any form of occupation, of domination, of discrimination."
There are also voices in opposition to Peres from several other corners. These include parents of soldiers who were killed in this past summer's war in Lebanon, Johnathan Pollard, and the parents of Zecharia Baumol, who say that "Shimon Peres was never among those who tried to bring back the MIAs. He is therefore not worthy of representing the nation. In a few days it will be 25 years since they have been missing, and Peres did not do a thing." Baumol has been missing in action since the Battle of Sultan Yaqub during the first Lebanon War in 1982.
Next Wednesday afternoon should be interesting. Stay tuned.
A black day for Israel: The inaugurationcoronation 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 inaugurationcoronation 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.
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.
Shimon Peres - Shimon Peres!?! - undermines Obama?
"MJ" Rosenberg accuses Shimon Peres (SHIMON PERES!?!) of 'undermining' President Obama's attempted 'outreach' to Iran on Friday morning (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
Peres, who is an uberhawk on Iran, suddenly sends "greetings" to the Iranian people urging them to rise up against their government at the same moment that Obama respectfully addressed the "Islamic Republic of Iran" with the most conciliatory US message in decades. Coincidence? Maybe.
Of course, the Iranians would not view it that way. They would see America and Israel playing "good cop, bad cop," diminishing the effect of Obama's remarkable overture.
I hear that the White House is furious.
Today's Times reports that when asked about the Israeli move, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, "I know we notified our allies about our message last evening," saying he did not know if the Israelis had been notified.
Of course, they were. No other ally is as concerned about Iran as Israel so Jerusalem must have been at the top of the list of those notified.
Did it respond with a hasty and insulting message in order to kill the effect of President Obama's? If so, it was a serious breach. If the shoe was on the other foot, Jerusalem would go ballistic.
Shimon 'New Middle East' Peres is an 'uberhawk' on Iran? Just who does Rosenberg think ordered the now non-politician Peres to send such a message? Ehud Olmert, who will be out of office in two weeks? Binyamin Netanyahu who has no influence on Peres whatsoever?
Why does Rosenberg assume that this administration - which seems to hate Israel with a passion - would have given anyone in Israel any indication that Obama was going to pull this stunt? And even if it did know, why should Israel be forbidden from running its own foreign policy - even to counteract the foreign policy of an 'ally' that is acting against our interests? Are we not an independent state? Are we required to bow before the god known as Barack Hussein Obama? Are we his vassal?
As to Obama's stunt, I think David Warren did as good a job as anyone I have seen to sum it up in a paragraph:
The video to Iran is the latest catastrophe. Mr. Obama simply does not understand how his "olive branch" will be received, not only by the mullahs in Iran itself, but wherever else on the surface of the planet the United States has enemies. It "reads" -- to people who do not share anything like America's aspirations -- as an unambiguous confession of weakness. He has moved the American position towards Iran from offensive to defensive, for no defensible reason.
If Shimon Peres did what Rosenberg accuses him of doing, he did a mitzva (a good deed).
Oy... Pollard family hoping Peres of all people will push for his freedom
One cannot help but wonder what Shimon really thinks of the pleas he is getting on behalf of Jonathan Pollard. Peres, who may have been responsible for Pollard's imprisonment, was already being asked to use the opportunity of a trip to the White House in June to help Obama's reelection campaignreceive a medal of peace, to plead for clemency for Pollard. Now, with Pollard being hospitalized again and apparently in serious condition, Peres was asked on Sunday by one former and two current Chief Rabbis (Rabbis Ovadia Yosef, Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar) to do all he can to bring about Pollard's release. Their calls joined a call from Pollard's wife to save Pollard's life while it is still possible.
Esther Pollard, the wife of the convicted American Naval Intelligence analyst who has spent 27 years in prison for spying for Israel, on Sunday entreated President Shimon Peres to act immediately to try to secure her husband's freedom before it is too late.
Esther was accompanied by MKs Uri Ariel and Ronit Tirosh who head the Knesset lobby for the release of Jonathan Pollard, along with members of The Committee for the Release of Jonathan Pollard. "I am the wife of Jonathan Pollard. I do not want to be the widow of Jonathan Pollard," she said her voice trembling with emotion and her face crumpling with anxiety.
...
Peres, who sat grave-faced as she spoke, told her that he can imagine the agony that she is currently undergoing, and reminded her that it was Casper Weinberger, the late US Secretary for Defense who had insisted on a life sentence for Pollard for what Weinberger had claimed to be security reasons.. It was Weinberger who posed the greatest problem, said Peres. "But he retracted," came the chorus from those who had accompanied Esther Pollard to the meeting.
Peres said that at this stage it was important to focus on the humanitarian aspect of the Pollard case, and promised to make it a top priority.
Esther apologized for being slightly repetitious, saying that because she was so concerned about her husband, she found it difficult to concentrate on anything else and she was also sleep deprived as a result of worry.
She implored Peres to do everything in his power to bring Pollard to Israel. No other Israeli has as much influence and respect in Washington as Peres said Pollard, which was the main reason that she was begging him to act immediately. It was time to end the nightmare, she said, adding that 27 years was a long time in which to live in a hostile, anti-Semitic environment to be without proper food, without proper rest, without proper medical care and without family and friends.
...
Ariel presented Peres with a letter to Obama that has been signed by 80 MKs who ask the US president to grant Pollard clemency. The letter was to have been presented in June when Peres is due to fly to the US to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but Ariel realized that an appeal to Obama could not wait that long and said that he joined in Esther's plea. Esther said that she had received a telephone call from Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger on Saturday night, who prior to the start of Pessah had called on the public to pray for Jonathan Pollard. Metzger had contacted her in order to give her moral strength and to tell her that the season represented a time of grace, a holiday of freedom, a symbol which the Americans understand.
Coming from America herself, Esther is well aware of this and told Peres of the case of a Cuban who had been released from prison and allowed to go home because his brother was dangerously ill. Under such circumstances, she could not understand why her husband who is severely ill should still be incarcerated.
In this administration, it's because the Cuban is a Cuban and Pollard is an Israeli. Isn't that obvious?
Peres pledged to explore every possibility and said that he would consult with others, but promised to take action not later than Monday. "We don’t want to make any mistakes at this stage," he said.
It was important for him to also convey that he had seen and spoken to Esther because this was yet another dimension of the humanitarian side of the case.
Speaking to reporters after emerging from the meeting with Peres, Esther said that she had no doubt that he was "very sympathetic and very committed to doing whatever he can as quickly as possible." She was also convinced that he understood that time is of the essence and that he must act now. "It's very clear that he's very devoted to bringing Jonathan home," she said.
Asked by The Jerusalem Post if she had been given more reason for hope this time around than on previous occasions, Esther's reply was "Jonathan is alive."
The fact that the Pollards are now dependent on the graces of Shimon Peres to bring him out alive is outrageous. But waiting for the holiday in the US to end on Monday night isn't likely to help much: American Jewry is largely afraid to speak up for Pollard.
During a meeting with Jonathan Pollard's wife on Sunday, President Shimon Peres said he may file an official request later this evening with his American counterpart Barack Obama to pardon the convicted spy.
Pollard was admitted to a hospital in North Carolina after his condition deteriorated over the weekend.
Peres is expected to receive the presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama in June, but a petition signed by more than 10,000 Israeli citizens, including artists and political figures, urged the president to work towards securing Pollard's release beforehand.
If Peres is actually responsible for Pollard's imprisonment, this is his chance for atonement. Let's hope he at least uses it.
The offices of both Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert and President Shimon Peres are denying a Haaretz report - which had allegedly been confirmed by Peres' office - that Israel is going to offer the 'Palestinians' a statereichlet on the equivalent of 100% of the land area of Judea and Samaria by means of an exchange of land and populations. Let's start with the Haaretz report:
Aides to President Shimon Peres confirmed Tuesday a Haaretz report that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is examining a new framework for peace, in which Israel will propose transferring to the Palestinian state areas equivalent to 100 percent of the territories conquered in 1967.
According to the aides, the proposal was formulated while Peres was vice premier, and presented to Olmert a few days after he entered the President's Residence.
The PMO, however, denied the existance of the proposal Tuesday. "We do not know of any plan as described in the [Haaretz] article," the prime minister's office said in a statement. "We would like to clarify that such a plan has not been considered, nor is it being raised for discussion in any forum."
The proposal includes a timetable for negotiations for the final status agreement and implementing it, similar to the framework of the Peres-Abu Ala agreement reached at the end of 2001.
Israel will suggest to the Palestinians to conduct negotiations for adequate territorial compensation from Israel's sovereign territory, in exchange for settlement blocs amounting to about 5 percent of the West Bank's area.
Israel is also examining various options of exchanging settlement blocs with Arab community blocs within Israel, in agreement with the residents. An agreement on this issue would enable Yisrael Beiteinu, headed by Avigdor Lieberman, to remain in the coalition.
And here's the JPost denial:
The offices of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres vigorously denied a report in Tuesday's Ha'aretz newspaper alleging that they crafted a plan to establish a Palestinian state on the equivalent of 100 percent of the land in the West Bank.
"We are not aware of any such plan described in the article," Olmert's office said in the most strongly worded denial the office has ever issued. "It is not being considered or discussed. We are amazed by the false report, which was published without asking for a response or checking whether it was true."
According to the plan, Israel would maintain settlement blocs totaling five percent of the West Bank and compensate the Palestinians with land inside pre-1967 Israel from blocs of Arab communities, with the residents' acquiescence. The paper said Peres presented the plan to Olmert after he became president.
Olmert said at a Kadima event two weeks ago that he would welcome Peres's involvement in diplomatic issues, but Peres's associates said the plan published fits more with the ideology of Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
A similar plan is the diplomatic platform of Lieberman's Israel Beiteinu party. But even he distanced himself from the report in a statement released Tuesday.
"I welcome the acceptance of my idea of population exchanges, because there is no other solution," Lieberman said. "The solution must include all of the settlement blocs and leave Jerusalem united under Israeli sovereignty. But there is no sense in talking about a Palestinian state until the PA proves itself.
This is the kind of 'trial balloon' that Ariel Sharon used to use Olmert to float.
My gut reaction to this is that it is true, except for the part about population exchanges which, as Peres points out, is part of Avigdor Lieberman's platform and which will in any event never be agreed upon since it says "with the residents' acquiescence." The Arabs in Wadi Ara (the territory that Lieberman was thinking about - it's east southeast of Haifa) are not stupid enough to believe their leaders' rhetoric and choose to live in 'Palestine' rather than Israel. For that matter, their leaders aren't that stupid either.
But the rest of it is right in line with Ehud Barak's attempts to trade the Halutza area of the Negev for 'settlement bloc' area at Taba in January 2001 with the difference that they are apparently now guaranteeing the 'Palestinians' that they will be 'compensated' on a 1:1 basis. No one really knows what went on in Taba other than those who were there, but there have been accusations that Barak was trying to trade land at a much higher ratio in favor of Israel. Olmert and Peres are apparently now saying that they won't make that 'mistake' again.
But the timetable, for example, which would absolve the 'Palestinians' of fulfilling their agreements, has Shimon Peres written all over it. The 5% they allegedly want to keep is actually less than the approximately 8% that are supposedly being coopted into Israel as a result of the 'security fence.' And it's not clear what is meant to happen in Jerusalem. Note that it is only Lieberman above who refers to a 'united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty. Olmert has already said that he will divide Jerusalem.
With Olmert clinging to power and Bush essentially a lame duck trying to ensure his legacy, these are very dangerous times for the Jews of Israel.
Convicted American spy Jonathan Pollard, who has been held in American prisons for more than twenty years, is claiming this evening that Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential candidate Shimon Peres is largely responsible for Pollard's being where he is today.
(Hat Tip: NY Nana)
"Twenty-two years ago, Peres chose self-interest and personal power over his legal and moral obligation to rescue an Israel agent in peril. He deliberately, knowingly sold out an Israeli agent who had faithfully served the security needs of the state. That agent was me," said Pollard from his prison cell in Butner, N.C.
Peres was prime minister when Pollard, an Israeli agent who worked as a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy, was arrested in 1985 on suspicion of passing classified information to an ally, Israel.
Pollard says on the night of his arrest, Peres denied any knowledge of the Israeli spy operation in a phone call to then-U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, claiming to Shultz that Pollard was a "freelancer."
Peres then proceeded to hand over hordes of incriminating documents Pollard had secured at the direction of top Israeli government officials – including Peres himself, Pollard said. The documents reportedly formed the basis of the U.S. case against Pollard.
The Eban Commission, a committee appointed in 1987 by the Knesset to investigate the Pollard affair, slammed Peres for handing to the U.S. documents it said "constituted the basis for the conviction and life sentence Pollard received."
Assistant U.S. Attorney John R. Fisher wrote in court filings it was "only after government attorneys and investigators returned from Israel with additional evidence of [Pollard's] guilt" that Pollard began to cooperate with the prosecution and opted to enter into a plea agreement.
...
Testifying before the Eban Commission, Peres claimed he supplied to the U.S. the incriminating documents only after securing a commitment from the U.S. not to use those documents to prosecute Pollard.
"As soon as the documents were returned to America, the U.S. immediately used them against me, and there was no protest from Peres or from Israel," said Pollard.
"If such a commitment not to prosecute with the documents did exist, why is it that Peres did not inform me at the time so that I could protect myself legally? I did not learn of this supposed commitment until the year 2000 when I finally obtained a copy of the Eban Report," Pollard said.
...
In 2005, Pollard filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court to compel the Jewish state's government to press for his release on the basis of the commitment which Peres claimed he received that America would not use the incriminating documents. But the Israeli government replied to the court there was no evidence of any such agreement with the U.S.
"In other words, the state of Israel had no shame in telling the court Peres had lied under oath in order to justify his having returned the documents to the U.S. without first negotiating the safe return of Israel's agent. This is criminal negligence for which Peres has yet to answer," charged Pollard.
"In the years since my arrest, Peres has had no pangs of conscience for callously incriminating me and then abandoning me. His sole motive for selling me out was to protect his own personal reputation and his career," Pollard charged.
Pollard said Peres "deliberately transferred all of the blame [for my operation which was run by Peres' government] to me by returning the documents and having the Israeli team submit false affidavits against me ... . These were nothing but frantic efforts by Peres to distance himself from the operation so that his career ambitions and personal fund-raising abilities in the U.S. would be protected.
If even half of this is true, Peres is despicable slime.
You can find more details of the Eban Commission here. Here's the part of an independent commission report that relates to Peres:
23. The prime minister (S. Peres), the vice prime minister and minister of foreign affairs (Y. Shamir) and the minister of defense (Y. Rabin) acted in this manner as a united team which decided jointly on all lines of action. [I have said many times that Peres has never won a national election. In 1984, there was a tie between the right bloc led by the Likud and the left bloc led by Labor. At the time, Peres was Labor's candidate for Prime Minister and he and Yitzchak Shamir of the Likud rotated being Prime Minister, serving two years each between 1984 and 1988. In 1988, the Likud won and formed a national unity government that included Labor. CiJ]
24. The political level did not make a sufficient report to determine the necessary facts, in order that they might serve as a basis for decisions taken which were pertinent to the matter.
25. However, the decision in itself, which was taken at that time, to cooperate with U.S. authorities in investigating the case, appears to us as reasonable.
26. The professional team which was entrusted with dealing with the issue, questioned a part of those involved but did not consider that it was charged with the task of carrying out a complete debrief of the affair.
27. It is for this reason that, within the framework of the agreement reached on this matter, the team passed incomplete facts (for lack of sufficient information) to the U.S. authorities and thus damaged our credibility. [Does this mean that the Eban Commission said that they government should have admitted that Pollard was working for Israel? Possibly. But not clear why the failure to do that would have resulted in Pollard's conviction. CiJ]
28. The criticism we have concerning the three ministers lies in the fact that they did not take sufficient care to determine the facts before they were passed on to the U.S. authorities.
29. However, it should be emphasized that this was the result of pressure of time, the shock of the affair and the utter surprise with which it caught the political level, coupled with the sincere desire to cooperate with U.S. authorities within understandable security constraints [That's a nonsense excuse. No one was threatening to start bombing Israel if it didn't cooperate immediately. CiJ].
MEQ: I would like to read you a section of the Eban Commission Report on the Pollard Affair4 titled "The Decision to Cooperate with the U.S." which tells how the Israeli authorities turned over the documents they had received from Pollard on two conditions, one of which was "the consent of the Americans to the fact that the documents returned would not be used to convict Pollard." Those documents were then used against Pollard. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney John R. Fisher, the "defendant agreed to enter a guilty plea and cooperate only after government attorneys and investigators returned from Israel with additional evidence of defendant’s guilt."5 What do you think about this?
Schumer: I conclude from it that the animus against Pollard is very deep. At first, I thought it was just [former defense secretary] Caspar Weinberger, who was known as anti-Israel; many observers had doubts about his motivation in this episode. Now I know that the matter goes much deeper. [The document cited by Middle East Quarterly is not the 'independent' commission report I cited above, but the report of a separate Knesset subcommittee that also looked into the affair. Eban was a member of the Knesset committee and it is known as the Eban Commission. CiJ]
There's more evidence to substantiate Pollard's claim in this 2005 blog post:
Pollard, himself, insists that he started his spying in July, 1984. Loftus and Aarons have him identifying an arms shipment in April of 1984. That would make the Hersch/Ben Menashe claim that Pollard began his clandestine work in 1981, more plausible. But once one excuses the inconsistencies, a very consistent story emerges. Pollard thought he was helping Israel protect itself and that his material would fall into honest, trusted hands. Sadly for him, it fell into the grimy paws of Shimon Peres and he used it to create a crime empire, broadly called Iran Contra. It is the fear of exposing Peres and his cronies, that is the real reason why the Israeli government has made no sincere effort to free Jonathan Jay Pollard.
It's a fairly complicated story and I will lead you through it by way of other people's research. When I comment you will see three stars *** at the beginning and end of the commentary. For instance:
*** In 1987, a government commission of inquiry headed by Abba Eban issued its report on the Pollard Affair. It concluded that the man most responsible for the fiasco was Shimon Peres, who became Prime Minister in late May, 1984. He was not only apprised of Pollard's intelligence, he read it daily. Receiving smaller portions of blame were Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir. This long buried report is, naturally, long forgotten because Peres spent a good week denying every word in it and arranging the end of Eban's political carrer. But let us not forget, the official investigation conducted by the Israel government concluded that Peres was the chief culprit.***
LEADING THE COVERUP
Amir Oren, Haaretz, 1998: "Shimon Peres was almost as concerned about domestic policies as he was about the American reaction. He was proud of the fact that he, Rabin and Shamir refrained from mutual recriminations and how that prevented the media from turning it into an Israeli Watergate. Peres worked hard to prevent public discussion..."
Zeev Segal, Haaretz 24/10/95: "One body that studied the subject was a committee headed by then MK, Abba Eban. In a report published in May, 1987, the committee... totally rejected the claim of the government of Israel, which stated that the Pollard affair was a 'rogue' operation."
Washington Report On Middle East, Jan/Feb 2003: "Eban disappeared from political life after 1987 (for) a report criticizing Labor Party leaders Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin for using American Joanthan Jay Pollard to spy on the United States. Both rebuked him and the next year his name was left off the candidates for parliament."
Seymour Hersh, The Samson Option, Random House, 1991: "The Israeli Officials most tarnished by the scandal were Rafi Eitan and Aviem Sella, but Eitan did not suffer financially. He was subsequently named to a high administrative position with Israel Chemicals, the largest state-owned enterprise in Israel. His surprising appointment was authorized by none other than Ariel Sharon, who had been named Minister of Trade and Industry in 1984." [By the way, Eitan is an MK and a member of the government right now. CiJ]
*** And Sharon is not the only high present official involved in the coverup. Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein was the legal attache to the Washington Embassy Pollard was ejected from, and later tried out a coverup tactic that Washington attorney Leonard Garment found odious. Such details must be presented in a wider-ranging future report. For now let us get to the heart of the matter at hand...Iran Contra. ***
IRAN CONTRA
Federal Government Watch Discussion List: "The back channel came alive under Vice-President Bush from 1984-91. The channel was used to direct the laundering of American money to the PLO. Although Pollard didn't know it, when he warned the Israelis that a PLO arms shipment was going through Greece in 1984, he inadvertantly blew the whistle of the White House's first transaction of arms to Iran... In the summer of 1984, Pollard noticed a pattern of vessels going back and forth from Greece to Yemen, where the PLO had a major base. Pollard passed the tip to the Israelis. In the summer of 1984, the Israelis tipped off the Greek authorities who seized an entire shipload of arms believed destined for the PLO. Neither Pollard nor the government of Israel was aware that they had smashed George Bush's first shipment of arms to Iran. Pollard never realized that he had busted the most secret White House operation of modern times. The summer of 1984 Greek shipment was a dagger over George Bush's head."
Loftus, Aarons, The Secret War Against The Jews: "Pollard notified the Israelis, who passed word to the Greeks, who raided the arms ship. None of the players knew that this shipment was directly connected to an event two months previous, in which US hostages had been kidnapped in Lebanon. The ship had not been commissioned by Arafat but by US Vice-President Bush [That's not the current President - it's his father. CiJ] and was ultimately destined for the patron the of Lebanese kidnappers, Iran. The shipment marks he true beginning of the infamous Iran Contra scandal.
Winston Mideast Analysis And Commentary 8/13/99: "Pollard inadvertantly exposed the first shipment of arms-for-hostages in what became the Iran Contra scandal. As he was in the Naval Intelligence Anti-Terrorism Unit, he saw this shipment, one year earlier than is generally known, and believing it to be arms for the PLO or Iraq, revealed it to the Israelis. This alone would make it imperative for the Iran/Contra planners to keep him locked up forever."
*** Enter Peres. Pollard provided the data that exposed Bush's arms for hostages operation. Of course, a moral Prime Minister would have demanded that Bush put an end to this arming of Israel's worst enemies. But Peres is not remotely moral, so he saw the bigger potential of this nascent crime. He wanted in and the crime expanded into what we know as Irangate. How do we know this? Because when Pollard discovered the arms ship, Israel had no role in paying America's enemies off with arms for releasing hostages in Lebanon. But by September, Peres had sent a team to Washington consisting of Yaacov Nimrodi, the former Ambassador to Iran, Al Schwimmer, former head of Israel Aircraft Industries, and David Kimche, chairman of the Israeli branch of the Council On Foreign Relations.
After that, Israel was right in the middle of the operation. This is basic indisputable logic. Israel joined the operation only after Pollard's intelligence exposed the existence of it. That means Peres wanted a piece of the pie and must have used Pollard's data to get his cut of the action. The easiest way in would have been threatening to expose the arms for hostages operation and bring down Bush and his team. We call such a threat, blackmail. And that's how Pollard's good intentions were used. And not for the last time. Shortly after Pollard's capture on Non.22/85, the Peres team of Kimche, Schwimmer and Nimrodi all quit the operation.
In laymen's terms, they hauled ass out of there. But Peres didn't want to give up all the goodies that came with Iran Contra. So in January 1986, he replaced the team with his anti-terrorism advisor Amiram Nir. He was murdered in 1989 in Mexico shortly before he was to testify to the Senate Committee investigating Irangate. Lest one think Iran Contra wasn't worth the trouble, look how much just one member of Peres' team brought in for his effort and then consider what Nir knew. Finally, note who else quit his post in the wake of Pollard; the American National Security Advisor, Bud McFarlane, who resigned in Dec. 85. ***
Joel Bainerman, Crimes Of A President, SPI Books, NY, 1992, raw notes and final text: "In June l991 an Israel police investigation was opened to determine if Nimrodi withheld profits from the sales from the Defence Ministry. A month later Nimrodi made a public declaration in a Tel Aviv court stating that he had acted on his own behalf in his arms dealings with the Iranians and thus all the profits from the deals were his. He claimed he earned $37 million from the Iranians, but after paying for the missiles and other expenses, he says he took a loss on the deal of nearly $750,000. (Inside Israel, August, l993)
Those same bank records in Switzerland could have become a nightmare for some Israeli government officials, namely Prime Minister Peres, even shedding light on why the Israeli government never allowed Nir (or Schwimmer and Nimrodi) to testify before Congressional investigations. Was Peres perhaps worried that Nir would disclose that it was his role in the diversion of money from the Iranian arms sales to the Contras or that he personally authorized the establishment of the fund to initiate covert anti-terrorist operations? Indeed Nir knew a great deal about U.S. and Israeli arms sales to Iran because he was the roundabout via everyone's activities passed through. He must have known who set up the Swiss accounts, who controlled them, and how much went to the Contras and how much to middlemen like Ghorbanifar and Secord's pockets? He sat in on crucial meetings in Teheran, Frankfurt, Washington, Tel Aviv and London. He knew of all covert operations and where the money originated from to fund them. In an interview with YEDIOT ACHRONOT after leaving office in March l987 Nir said that Shamir went out of his way to protect his name and reputation, in Israel and in the U.S., while Peres simply "left him to the dogs" adding that "the moment you need support from him (Peres), he vanishes."'
For those who have managed to read this far, there's lots more. Read the whole thing.
Israel's President is supposed to a non-political senior statesman-like figure, who is above the fray. That was the case with all of Israel's Presidents until Ezer Weizmann. Weizmann, a former air force pilot and nephew of the country's first President Chaim Weizmann, was the first President to get involved in politics and although he was never indicted, he was eventually forced to resign due to financial scandal.
His successor, Moshe Katzav, disgraced the Presidency as no one before him. Katzav, whose criminal case is still not entirely resolved, pleaded guilty to an 'indecent act' to avoid a rape charge of which much of the country thinks he is guilty. As Israel's first 'religious' President (Katzav was the first to insist on a synagogue being placed within the President's residence), Katzav's tenure has been particularly difficult for the country. When Shimon Peres was elected, many people hoped that at least he would restore the royal Presidency.
Before he was elected President, Shimon Peres fed those hopes by promising that he would be the 'President of all the people.' But before Peres was even installed in office yesterday, that promise was forgotten in an interview with al-AP:
In a half-hour interview with The Associated Press, Peres — praised by his supporters as a visionary but ridiculed by foes as a hopeless dreamer — pledged to fight poverty and global warming, and even expressed hope of making peace with archenemy Iran.
"After such a long career, let me just say something: My appetite to manage is over. My inclination to dream and to envisage is greater," he said, looking vigorous in a dark blue suit, light blue tie and crisp shirt and discounting his age as a factor that could slow him down.
...
But until last month, Peres had never won an election, an embarrassing blemish on an otherwise illustrious career.
"I don't think there was any person who was so much attacked and criticized in these last 60 years like myself. But the fact that after 60 years of criticism, of terrible remarks, they decided to elect me as the president," Peres said. "I didn't expect it."
Under Israel's parliamentary system, political power is concentrated in the hands of the prime minister. The president plays a largely ceremonial role, representing the government at official functions and serving as a unifying figure in a country riven by deep political divisions, especially over how to pursue peace with the Palestinians.
Peres has long been among the most dovish members of the Israeli leadership. While aware of the constraints of the new job, Peres said he would not halt his crusade for peace with the Palestinians. He said that would require Israel to withdraw from significant pieces of territory captured in the 1967 Mideast War — a position still opposed by large parts of the Israeli public. "We have to get rid of the territories," he said, referring to the West Bank, insisting that this is the majority view in Israel today.
He said he would use the presidency to "encourage" the government to take steps for peace, offer advice to the nation's leaders and "speak to the people."
"In public life, you don't use swords. You use words. You talk to people. You have dialogue. That's what I'm going to do. I don't have any force but the force of my conviction," he said.
MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) responded with anger at Peres' remarks. "I wanted to accept Peres as the President of the entire country," Eldad said, "but he decided to begin with divisiveness and discord. To say so derisively that Israel must 'get rid' of area and, consequently, a quarter of a million people who live there... This is not the way to start."
Peres is famous for having a way with words and unique comparisons. As Jerusalem Post editor David Horowitz wrote on Friday about a recent Peres speech, "Peres was full of clever aphorisms that sometimes seemed rather less wise when they sunk in."
...
In May 1997, Peres told the Jerusalem Report, "In Argentina, the home of the tango, you know that in order to dance well, you have to close your eyes and let the romance begin... Peace is a romantic process."
Closing our eyes - to reality - is the only way there can be a 'peace process' right now. And closing our eyes to reality is too big a risk to take.
The saddest part about this Caroline Glick column is that most of the world still sees Slimy Shimon Peres as an angel in disguise and not as the sleaze bag he really is. Shimon Peres' legacy is a nuclear-armed Iran.
Peres’s legacy will be Iran’s nuclear arsenal.
For years, many Israelis as well as Israel’s supporters in the US, the
Sunni Arab states in the Persian Gulf and even the French have been
scratching their heads wondering why Israel hasn’t struck Iran’s nuclear
installations yet. Over the past few months, we received our answer.
The ongoing police investigation into allegedly illegal conduct by
then-IDF Chief of Staff Lt.- Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi has revealed the source
of Israel’s paralysis.
Apparently led by Peres, the triumvirate of security chiefs serving
between 2008 and 2011 – Ashkenazi, then-Mossad director Meir Dagan and
then-Shin Bet director Avi Dichter – colluded to undermine Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s and then-defense minister Ehud Barak’s
legal authority to order Israel’s security forces to take action against
Iran.
According to a Haaretz report on Wednesday, between 2008 and 2011, the
four men leaked plans and discussions of possible Israeli strikes on
Iran to the media in order to prevent them from being carried out. The
four men opposed an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear installations and
stridently rejected any Israeli operation not coordinated with the US.
Ashkenazi and his associates are being investigated by the police for
crimes associated with criminal insubordination to Israel’s elected
leadership. Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein ordered the police probe
in January after information unearthed by the media and by the State
Comptroller’s Office raised strong suspicions of a conspiracy led by
Ashkenazi to usurp the powers of the government.
According to media reports of the investigation, the police have
discovered tape recordings of numerous telephone conversations between
Ashkenazi and Peres. According to Channel 1 and Haaretz, Peres’s
attorney requested that Weinstein prohibit the publication of the
details of phone conversations.
Haaretz’s report didn’t specifically state that the conversations in
question related to actions by Peres and the security chiefs to prevent
military operations against Iran’s nuclear weapons program. But the same
day the report appeared, Amir Oren, Haaretz’s senior commentator,
published an article praising Peres for preventing Israel from attacking
Iran.
Oren wrote, “Peres’s involvement in blocking the Iranian adventure
[i.e., a military attack against Iran’s nuclear installations] is… the
most important action he took as president.”
As Amnon Lord wrote last December in Makor Rishon, Peres’s role in the
security chiefs’ conspiracy to prevent Netanyahu and Barak from ordering
a strike against Iran’s nuclear installations was to provide
“pseudo-constitutional and pseudo- moral support” for their unlawful
subversion.
The four men were very likely not acting by themselves. Lord argued
that the Obama administration was a fifth partner in this criminal
conspiracy.
The US was represented in its efforts by the then-chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen. Mullen visited Israel almost every
month during this period and constantly praised Ashkenazi’s leadership
publicly.
As Lord noted, these trips were reciprocated by Ashkenazi and
then-Military Intelligence commander Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin who flew
regularly to Washington.
For the Americans, Lord wrote, the point of cultivating these ties was
“to influence the IDF’s high command and cut it off from the political
leadership of Israel.”
In the case of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, as in the case of the
phony peace process, Peres’s motivation, like that of Ashkenazi, Dichter
and Dagan, was clear and crass. He wanted power.
The facts already established by the Ashkenazi et. al. conspiracy
probe reveal that from his earliest days as chief of staff, Ashkenazi
was preparing the ground for a post-IDF run for prime minister. His will
to rule distorted his perception of his place in the chain of command.
Instead of viewing Netanyahu and Barak as his commanders, as the law
stipulates, he saw them as his political rivals, and behaved
accordingly.
As for Peres, he had been searching for a leftist politician who
could defeat Netanyahu. Ashkenazi was his knight in shining armor.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
