A warrior for peace

The world will remember Shimon Peres, the Israeli leader who died Wednesday at 93, as the architect of the now-moribund Oslo Accords that turned administration of the West Bank and Gaza over to the Palestinian Authority pending a permanent settlement. Though Peres’ push for peace failed, it was worth a try based on conditions at the time, and Peres should be remembered for his determination and courage in the effort.

Terror attacks resumed. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat mounted a second “intifada” or uprising. The Palestinian leadership maintained its goal of ruling “from the river to the sea,” that is, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea — which includes all of Israel. Peres was for a time reviled by many Israelis.

Peres, one of the founding generation of the Israeli state, held almost all the major government jobs (he was three times prime minister). He became convinced, in advance of most Israelis, that the only solution to the conflict with the Palestinians was the formation of a Palestinian state. It was his drive that produced the signing of the accords on the White House lawn in 1993.

This was quite a switch for a man who had been Israel’s chief arms buyer after the founding of Israel in 1948 and, among other things, the leader of Israel’s unacknowledged nuclear weapons development.

“As our land is small, so must our reconciliation be great,” Peres said at the White House. He told Newsweek, “It’s not that I changed my character. I found a different situation.” He shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, then prime minister of Israel.

What was the situation? The Palestinians suddenly had every incentive to deal. Arafat had backed the losing Saddam Hussein in the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War, prompting Saddam’s Arab enemies to cut subsidies to Arafat. At the same time, Communist rule in Russia collapsed, ending Russian aid.

It’s not Peres’ fault that the Palestinian leadership proved unwilling to deliver.