By MARTIN SHERMAN
Paradoxically, it was not Peres’s successes – but his failures – that catapulted him to international stardom; it was not his impressive accomplishments that made him a global celebrity but the disastrous fiascoes in pursuit of his wildly unrealistic illusions
Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.
-Gaius Sallustius Crispus, Roman historian and politician, (86 BCE – c. 35 BCE)
It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.
-Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat and politician (1919-2002)
On Wednesday, September 28, Shimon Peres, the 9th and arguably the most high-profile President of Israel, passed away. For all the glare of the public spotlight and scrutiny to which he has been exposed, he remains in many ways, an enigmatic figure, comprised of seemingly impossible contradictions for historians to attempt to decipher.
Sweeping international acclaim: Well-merited or unwarranted?
Peres will be laid to rest on Friday with all the pomp and ceremony that befits the funeral of a former Head of State and public figure of international stature.
The expected attendees include world leaders and renowned celebrities from dozens of countries around the globe. US President Barack Obama, and former President Bill Clinton, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, former British PM Tony Blaire, and Prince Charles are but a few names in the star-studded list of reported dignitaries, who plan to attend the ceremony. Tributes flowed in from far and wide, from Hollywood stars to the British royal family, mourning the passing of the man seen as Israel’s elder statesman.
Of course, all this international attention was not unexpected. After all, during his lifetime, Peres had virtually every major international honor bestowed on him –from the Légion d’Honneur through the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom, to the Nobel Peace Prize.
Yet, to some, all this acclaim and acknowledgment, may seem somewhat incongruous in light of the almost unbroken succession of failures and fiascoes that have dogged much of his career since the late 1970s—both in terms of his personal electoral defeats and of his policy debacles—particularly the disastrous implosion of his flagship endeavor to resolve the conflict with the Palestinian-Arabs, and the evaporation of his vision of a peaceful and prosperous “New Middle East”.
The enigmatic conundrum
As mentioned earlier, despite the fact that Peres was exposed to public scrutiny for almost seven decades, there in still much about him that remains a puzzling conundrum, comprising a tangled web of seemingly irreconcilable paradoxes. For many, his passing may well appear to be an appropriate juncture to begin addressing the intriguing challenge of unravelling the enigmatic kaleidoscope of events he traversed on his route to the pinnacle of international esteem.
To be sure, Peres’s extraordinary ability, passion and energy are beyond dispute. But so, it would seem, was his unbridled ambition, making the caveats in the introductory excerpts highly relevant in evaluating the breathtaking volte face in his professed political credo.
There can also be little dispute that, as President, he managed, to restore an aura of dignity to the office, so severely tarnished by the unfortunate scandals that plagued the incumbency of his predecessor.
Even his fiercest critics cannot deny Peres’s huge contribution to the nation’s security, particularly in the first decade-and-a-half after independence.
As a young protégé of David Ben-Gurion, Peres is credited with playing a leading role in setting up much of the foundations for the nascent nation’s military infrastructure that has been so crucial in ensuring its survival and its technological edge – including Israel Aircraft Industries (today Israel Aerospace Industries), acquisition of advanced combat aircraft from France and the establishment of the nuclear facility in Dimona.
As defense minister at the time of the Entebbe raid in 1976, many identify him as providing the political will to push through the decision to carry out the now legendary operation.
The fruits of failure?
However, perversely, it has not been Peres’s successes – but his failures – that have catapulted him to international stardom. It was not his impressive accomplishments in the service of his nation that brought him global celebrity status, but the disastrous fiascoes in the pursuit of his wildly unrealistic illusions.
Thus, it was the disastrous Oslo Accords—which have long since imploded into bloody ruin—that brought him the 1994 Nobel Peace prize.
Likewise, it was his lofty vision of a “New Middle East” – with peace and prosperity stretching from the Maghreb to the Persian Gulf – that caught the imagination of so many- but now, with the descent of today’s Middle East into carnage and chaos, appears nothing but a ludicrous delusion.
Accordingly, it was not his considerable contributions to Israeli security that made him such a sought after figure on the global stage, but rather his adoption of the role of supranational statesman on a noble quest for regional peace, a quest that precipitated nothing but death and devastation.
Moreover, since the late 1970s, by most accepted standards, Peres would have been considered a failed politician. Yet repeated electoral defeats, even at times when victory seemed almost certain, appear to have left his stature undiminished.
Snatching defeat from jaws of almost certain victory
Indeed, Peres never won a national election and lost numerous internal elections for party leadership.
Between 1977-96, he led the Labor party unsuccessfully in five general elections, losing four of them and tying in one of them (1984)’ resulting in a 2 year rotation arrangement, with Likud’s Yitzhak Shamir.
The razor-edge loss of the 1996 election to Benjamin Netanyahu, which he was widely expected to win, was particularly humiliating- given the waves of public sympathy his party enjoyed following the assassination of his predecessor, Yitzhak Rabin.
No less humiliating was the failure of his first bid to win the presidency in 2000, in which he was surprisingly defeated by the unimpressive and un-presidential Moshe Katsav.
Peres was also regularly defeated in elections for the leadership of the Labor party, by Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, and even lack-luster Amir Peretz. It was shortly after his defeat by Peretz, that Peres abandoned the Labor party and joined Ariel Sharon’s newly formed Kadima faction. In 2007, Kadima, which today no longer exists, appointed Peres as its candidate for President—after considerable hesitation due to doubts as to whether he could win. This time, however, Peres won the vote, thus becoming President…on behalf of a party soon to disappear.
It was from this inauspicious start the Peres managed to choreograph his presidency into an international “hit” on a global scale.
Metamorphosis from hawk to dove
Peres was always obsessed with “Tomorrow.” In many ways he appropriated it as his professional trademark, in an endeavor to brand himself as a future-oriented statesman. And while there was much to substantiate that image in his earlier hawkish era, his predictive acumen seems to have deserted him in his later dovish years.
Peres’s transformation from hawk to dove seems to have taken place around the mid-80s, when one Peres morphed into an almost diametric opposite Peres (hence the dichotomy in the title). Indeed, as Anshel Pfeffer wrote this week (Guardian, September 28): “ If Peres had resigned from frontline politics at the age of 54, as many of his colleagues were demanding, after having lost the 1977 general election…he would be remembered as one of Israel’s most legendary security “hawks”
It was around then that Peres, as foreign minister, began to embrace the land-for-peace doctrine and, largely behind Prime Minister Shamir’s back, attempted to secure a deal with Jordan’s King Hussein over the fate of Judea-Samaria. Given the precarious plight of the Hashemite regime today, and the growing ascendancy of radical Islamist elements in the monarchy, it is difficult to be charitable as to the foresight such a proposal entailed.
Calculated cynicism or well-informed confidence
Referring to this puzzling transformation, Pfeffer observes: “Peres never explained the transformation he underwent in the wilderness of opposition”.
He offers two possible explanations, one of calculated cynicism, the other of well- informed confidence: “His many detractors said that Peres simply had no choice. With Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat … signing the Camp David peace agreement, he had no choice but to move leftwards and try to present himself as a better peacemaker than his Likud rivals”; while. “His supporters explained [referring to Israel’s alleged nuclear capabilities]that Peres knew more than anyone else just how strong and secure Israel had become, and could therefore make concessions and take risks for peace in its dangerous neighbourhood.”
While some may baulk at the former, the latter is entirely unpersuasive.
For as we shall see, and as hawkish Peres himself warned, the most immediate threats to Israel’s security today are those of enhanced and ongoing attrition rather than cataclysmic invasion by Arab armies. Accordingly, because of the diffuse nature and close proximity of the sources of these threats to Israeli population centers, the country’s alleged nuclear capabilities are largely irrelevant in dealing with them.
Yesterday’s view of ‘Tomorrow’
As mentioned previously, Peres was always enamored with the “Tomorrow” theme. One of his first forays in to “Tomorrow-territory” was a programmatic book entitled “Tomorrow IS Now”, which he authored as chairman of the Labor Party, just after it had lost power to Menachem Begin’s Likud. Published in 1978, it laid out Peres’s prescriptive vision for the future conduct of the affairs of the nation.
In many ways, the book – available only in Hebrew – is an astonishing document.
For those who are only familiar with the post-Oslowian dovish version of Peres, it offers some staggering surprises.
For the citizens of Israel –indeed anyone concerned with the fate of the Jewish state – it raises deeply disturbing questions regarding the judgment, credibility and integrity of those who have served in positions of senior leadership, and serious doubts as to the credence that can be placed in their pronouncements to the nation.
For, in virtually every aspect, the book negates precepts underlying the rationale of the Oslo Accords—including the validity of the land-for-peace doctrine, the desirability of a Palestinian state and the value of any agreements with the Arab world – particularly concerning demilitarization. Likewise, it strongly endorsed Jewish settlements across the pre-1967 Green Line including Judea-Samaria, the Jordan Valley and the Golan. Indeed, it would not be far from the truth to say that Peres was in fact the founding father (or at least, godfather) of today’s much maligned settlement project.
Peres’s past prescriptions; precise predictions
I have written extensively elsewhere of the incisive insights of Peres’s past prescriptions and the precision of his past predictions of the perils that would befall Israel were it to adopt the kind of policies that he later advocated. (see here and here). I pointed out how hawkish Peres forewarned of the very realities the dovish Peres endorsed, and how these were precisely the realities that precipitated the IDF’s Operation Defensive Shield in Judea-Samaria (2002) – and later operations in Gaza: Cast Lead (2008/9); Pillar of Defense (2012); Protective Edge (2014).
He warned of the dangers of relinquishing the highlands of Judea-Samaria to Arab control and how that would allow “the most extreme terrorist forces…equipped with anti-tank and anti-aircraft shoulder-launched rockets, [to] endanger not only random passers-by, but also every airplane and helicopter taking off in the skies of Israel and every vehicle traveling along the major traffic routes in the coastal plain.”
He argued that the greater range, mobility and firepower of modern weaponry only enhance the strategic importance of territorial depth and that relinquishing Judea-Samaria would “create compulsive temptation to attack Israel…” (p.255).
He cautioned against placing trust in agreements with the Arabs, since “The number of agreements which the Arabs have violated is no less than the number which they have kept” (p.255).
Which Peres do we mourn?
But perhaps most significant was his endorsement of the settlement project and his call “to create a continuous stretch of new settlements; to bolster Jerusalem and the surrounding hills…by the establishment of townships, suburbs and villages – Ma’ale Edumin, Ofra, Gilo, Bet-El, Givon…to ensure that the capital and its flanks are secured…the settlements along the Jordan River are intended to establish the Jordan River as [Israel’s] de facto security border; however, it is the settlements on the western slopes of the hills of Samaria and Judea which will deliver us from the curse of Israel’s “narrow waist”; the purpose of the settlements in the Golan is to ensure that this territorial platform will no longer constitute a danger, but a barrier against a surprise attack…”(p.48)
So which Peres do we mourn? The dour hawkish Peres, who got it right? Or the internationally-acclaimed dovish Peres, who got it disastrously wrong?
Dr. Martin Sherman (www.martinsherman.org) is founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies (www.strategic-israel.org)
Felix Quigley Said:
But, what would Yeats thought of my Dad??? Or for that matter Joyce???
Honeybee
Nice what your dad thought of Yeats…well done
Ted please remove Bernard Ross’s name from post. I mistakenly and ignorantly posted it.
@ honeybee:
People receiving the email notifications will identify me with that foul comment instead of quigley… whenever you quote someone elses quotation of a third party you can change the name before you send it, usually I dont care but I definitely do not want that associated with me in anyones mind. YOu can email ted and ask him to change your post or maybe he will see this conversation and change it.
bernard ross Said:
How ???? Sorry !!!!!
@ honeybee:
Quigley said that… please remove my name from the post.
Felix Quigley Said:
Wading, caring a baby on ones back and picking up shell fish.
Felix Quigley Said:
My Father rather like the Irish after all the trauma. He read Joyce and Yeats. Loved the music had many Irish friends. But he approached them with caution.
Felix Quigley Said:
Been there ,done that !!!!!
Felix Quigley Said:
How can I preform an act of which I am physically incapable.??
Were the postings a record for digression
Felix Quigley Said:
Here is where you went wrong….. try and figure it out and act accordingly…. I can help you with the highlight quote button but I cant hold your hand forever. How do you expect to sell trotsky when you cant even figure out the smallest things in life. Here is a clue which might help your perception:
“it is better to keep quiet and appear a fool than to open ones mouth and remove all doubt”
good luck
Felix Quigley Said:
of course you are correct, but that is not what is going on here. Like so many of your political analyses here you miss the reality because you are steeped in ideology which clouds your judgment and your vision.
Felix Quigley Said:
smartest words you wrote here… however… like clinton/obama your words are misleading as I note that you still did not master the “highlight and quote” button.
I understand that prior to putting those buttons on websites WordPress has them tested in the chimp section of the bronx zoo, and the chimps passed with flying colors. I wonder how the aquatic ape would fare?
I commend you on your persistence and tenacity.
Those who raised the Aquatic Ape argument explain its relevance in the argument of significance of upright gait…Second time I have asked
Yamit and Honeybee
Irish antisemites attack you
This happened some time ago but is being done all the time today in BDS so is topical and a critical issue today
Instead of understanding that you then take it up and run with it yourself. From being the abused you have become the abuser.
Result negative for Jews and Irish
Honeybee and Yamit
just imagine somebody saying the equivalent against Jews what would you call them?
Need to break out of the racism…
I was not there
I was not responsible
Nor am responsible
I oppose racismm and anti-Semitism
But you and Yamit do not learn the lesson but perpetuate racism.
You absorb the abuse and recreate it
No future for anybody at all in that.
s
yessir three bags full sir
Felix Quigley Said:
Felix Quigley Said:
Not what smut is calling a child a ” Christ Killer”. Address that comment.
Felix Quigley Said:
Smut is being beaten by Irish Catholic bullies and called a “Christ Killer”.
Felix Quigley Said:
I wonder who this guy quigley is addressing, or perhaps he is engaged in inner dialogue?
Although improved by using the blockquoting tool you have still not mastered the simple instructions I gave you using the “highlight and quote” button just under the name of the poster whom you are quoting.
Curiously, it appears that all those whom you call idiots have long since mastered that simple task and you have been here quite a while.
It would help other posters as use of that button automatically inserts the name of the poster and also serves in your new post as a link back to the specific post being quoted.
In that way we can distinguish between actual conversation with others and you criticising yourself or just shouting at the world.
Your’re welcome.
I would like to see the “Aquatic Ape” theory placed in some sort of historical setting. How was it acccepted for starters?
frank Adam
T
Read what I wrote. I commended you not swore at you. You got that all wrong.
Those doing the peer reviewing are total idiots like your good self
How awful for Israpundit and for the great Jewish people that it harbours smuts like you
There is the smut right there you nut case.
Frank Adam
“Swearing at knowledge new to you will not improve understanding nor problem solving!”
You address that to me!!! Why???
Ease off…I did not do that to what you wrote.
Maybe you see an easy target of a bully.
@ yamit82:
You think so fast.
honeybee Said:
Same thing happened to me but when they cornerd me with same accusation I REPLIED; ‘WHO IS CHRIST???” stunned them long enough for me to get away. Stupid Irish Catholics
Felix Quigley Said:
The Irish I knew growing up were mostly dumb Micks with some exceptions. What is apparent is that you are one dumb Irish Commie,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6RbfaoX5Hw
Frank Adam Said:
Only leaves ? No fruits ?
Felix Quigley Said:
Felix, my boyo, find on, just one post where I use obscene language to attack someone.
Do I dislike the Irish, ya betcha, I spent my childhood running from redhead, pink faced bully named Casey. Who, it seemed, held me responsible to the death of Christ.
@ Felix Quigley:
Perhaps, if the Irish kids in the neighborhood didn’t call him a “Christ Killer” and attempt to beat the “sh-t” out of him he might of felt differently.
Ref figs: in April 1966 I was tickled on my first visit to Israel to see that the insignia of officers of field rank – majors and colonels – were 1,2 or 3 fig leaves. At that level of schematic design they could be vine leaves but no matter, the mystique of authority is so ephemeral.
Honeybee wrtes
Did he really say that? How sad for you to have had such a Father.
Thankfully you or your Father do not represent in the slightest degree the aspirations of the great Jewish people.
The great Jewish people point the way forward in many ways for humanity today but you and your Father only to the dregs of abhorrent racism. And the worst kind…anti-Irish racism, second only to anti-Jewish racism.
YOU are the smut mouthed bully not me…mind like a sewer and ethnic type bully for sure
yamit82 Said:
I’ll bring the whole tree just for you , Cowboy.
@ honeybee:
You found a fig leaf big enough???
@ Frank Adam:
Did you watch the PBS program Wednesday evening , The Journey of man”?
Felix Quigley Said:
B. Ross language abilities are so far beyond yours, like comparing a hod carrier to Shakespeare.
My Father use to say,” Thank G-d for the wheel barrel it taught the Irish to walk”.
Felix Quigley Said:
Ah scratched your skin and what is found ???? Another smut mouthed Irish bully ,common as mud.
yamit82 Said:
Sorry, I forgot the use fig leaves.
Felix Quigley Said:
Yes totally. Like all materialist Commies you can’t defend your crazy notions when confronted with scientific facts.
honeybee Said:
who was naked???/ This is a family friendly blog.
bernard ross Said:
True but the Jews are willing victims if not outright aiders and abetters. Jews today are a product of 2000 years of unnatural national history. “And Judah too, shall fight against Jerusalem…” (Zechariah 14)
@ Felix Quigley:
Like all ideological fanatics it’s you Commies who are confused. I am arguing anti-neo DARWINISM from a strictly peer reviewed scientific position. Call it a challenge from me to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmIc42oRjm8
The Emperor Franz JOSEPH was an unrepentant conservative who stymied every proposed reform he could which is why the Habsburg Empire fell apart. The person proposing reform by devolution of internal state rights to nations within the domain was the heir Franz FERDINAND who was assassinated in 1914 so setting off the international crash that was WW I. Swearing at knowledge new to you will not improve understanding nor problem solving!@ Felix Quigley:
The anti-Darwin people who use the expression that humans descended from apes (and monkeys) have misunderstood the Darwinian interpretation. Prof Stephen Jones Desmond Morris and other biologists and geneticists hold that both apes and humans have a common ancestor and so in a manner of speakingare cousins not direct ascendants and descendants. We have then developed divergently according to our environments. Humans apparently spent a long time beachcombing living off shell fish and spreading round the World by following coastlines. This explains several distinctive questions about us. Wading about on beaches turned us bi-pedal and dropped our fur. A woman’s hair turns extra thick and long in the last trimester of pregnancy and our children are born in “vernex” grease like seals etc. All aquatic mammals including ourselves and elephants have developed relatively bigger brains and more elaborate language for three dimentional existence than the varieties that remained entirely land dwelling – usually forested.
Ross uses this method every time he is challenged. He abuses totally the blockquote facility and engages in nears and reams of stuff which is so boring it is unreadable.
But he does so because his politics is essentially flaky…my word and descriptive idea of Ross was totally correct.
I re-emphasise the word “globalism” has become an antisemitic meme.
The discussion is about no more than that.
Honeybee you are an idiot now fuck off