Situation is now bleaker
SHIMON Peres was a complex character and one of the most prominent players in Middle East politics. For nearly as long as there has been an Israel, there has been a Shimon Peres at the heart of its politics, wars and peace plans.
An odd assortment of statesmen and celebrities yesterday paid tribute and celebrated the life of the man who did just about every major job in Israeli public life.
The former Israeli president and elder statesman died yesterday aged 93, in a hospital near Tel Aviv, after he suffered a stroke two weeks ago. His death prompted President Barack Obama to mourn: “A light has gone out, but the hope he gave us will burn forever.”
Peres, a long-time campaigner for Middle East peace, shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with the late former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for reaching an interim peace deal in 1993 which never turned into a lasting treaty.
So how does one judge his career, and his contribution to Israel and the Middle East?
On one level he failed. From an Israeli perspective, the Jewish state is still not secure, and its borders are constantly questioned. In a regional context, too, he has been unable to convince Israelis of the merits of peace. I
In 1996, for example, as acting prime minister after the assassination of his great friend and political rival, Rabin, he lost an election to Benjamin Netanyahu, and with it went any lingering hope that the Oslo accords might lead to a lasting deal.
Peres, who pointed out that he expected to see peace with the Palestinians in his lifetime, was a passionate supporter of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to get the two sides back around the negotiating table. This proved to be a titanic struggle, and that was before the big issues – the fate of Jerusalem, of Jewish settlements, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees to name but three – were even considered.
While Peres was in later life regarded as Israel’s peacenik-in-chief, early in his career he was considered a hawk and was an early enthusiast for the settlement project in the West Bank, which many now regard as the single biggest obstacle to peace. The settlements, built on occupied Palestinian land, are considered illegal under international law. Speak to visiting foreign ministers and diplomats, and the settlements are never far from the top of their agendas.
But to conclude that Peres’ career was a failure, or that he was a malign influence on the Middle East process, would be both wrong and grossly unfair.
It was he who met Arafat in secret before the Oslo accords in 1993; he who tried in vain to convince Israelis that the whole thing was still worth fighting for after Rabin’s death; it was he who warned Israel that a failure to find a peace deal was bad for everyone, including Israelis themselves.
Without a Shimon Peres, the situation in the Holy Land is much bleaker.