World leaders mourn Peres and his dream

JERUSALEM: From across the ocean and across the Green Line, they came to the mountaintop sanctuary of Mt Herzl to bid farewell to Shimon Peres, marking what one called the “end of the era of giants”. But the question of the moment was whether it was a funeral for a man or for his dream.

Twenty-three years after Peres helped negotiate the Oslo Accords heralding peace between Israelis and Palestinians, US President Barack Obama and other leaders from around the world paid homage to his tenacious search for reconciliation. And yet the memorial service made clear how elusive that idea has actually become in this part of the world.

The funeral brought together Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, something no mediator has been able to do in recent years, and the two men shook hands and exchanged brief pleasantries. But the encounter went no further and the momentary pause in their war of words seemed unlikely to last beyond the interment.

In his eulogy, Mr Netanyahu welcomed by name many of the foreign figures in attendance without mentioning Mr Abbas. It was left to Mr Obama to acknowledge the Palestinian leader, saying that his “presence here is a gesture and a reminder of the unfinished business of peace”.

For his part, Mr Abbas, in a move perceived by some analysts as a jab at Mr Netanyahu’s government, brought along an adviser, Muhammad al-Madani, who was barred by Israel last summer for “subversive” activities. No Arab ruler, president or prime minister came, although Egypt sent its foreign minister and others sent lower-ranking officials.

Amos Oz, the famed Israeli author and friend of Peres’, gave voice in his eulogy to what others were thinking, wondering about the fate of peace in a new era. With Israelis and Palestinians sharing a small piece of the world, he said, the only solution is the creation of a Palestinian state that Peres supported.

“In their heart of hearts, all sides know this simple truth,” Oz said as Mr Netanyahu and Mr Abbas listened. “But where are the leaders with the courage to come forward to make it come to pass? Where are the heirs to Shimon Peres?”

Mr Obama, who has been pressing the two sides to rejuvenate a peace process, made a similar point less directly. “Shimon never saw his dream of peace fulfilled,” he said. And so, he added, “Now this work is in the hands of Israel’s next generation, in the hands of Israel’s next generation and its friends.”

The funeral drew delegations from 75 countries, including former US president Bill Clinton, President Francois Hollande of France, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico, Prince Charles and former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron of Britain, and King Felipe VI of Spain.

About 4,000 mourners gathered underneath a tent on a warm, cloudless day at the national cemetery overlooking Jerusalem. Security was tight as 8,000 police officers flooded Jerusalem and closed streets.

Peres, who died last week at 93, embodied the history of the Israeli state. A protege of David Ben-Gurion, the founding prime minister, he had a role in most of Israel’s major moments from its independence in 1948. He served as prime minister, foreign minister, defence minister and, until two years ago, president.

He helped build the nation’s military and was instrumental in developing its nuclear programme. Critics, especially Palestinians, castigate him for promoting the construction of settlements in territories seized in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 and for launching military operations that led to civilian deaths.

He was remembered on Friday mainly for his pursuit of peace that resulted in the Nobel Peace Prize he shared in 1994 with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Mr Obama, who flew overnight to attend the funeral and finished writing his eulogy only as Air Force One landed, offered an especially personal tribute to Peres. This was only the second time in nearly eight years in office that he had travelled overseas for the funeral of a foreign leader, after Nelson Mandela, and indeed, he compared Peres to the South African leader.

The president tried to explain the unlikely friendship that developed between an African-American from Hawaii and a child of the shtetl who grew up to lead Israel.

“We shared a love of words and books and history and, perhaps like most politicians, we shared, too, great a joy in hearing ourselves talk,” Mr Obama said. “But beyond that, I think our friendship was rooted in the fact that I could somehow see myself in his story and maybe he could see himself in mine.”