On Military Action

General Comment: For Peres, wars, like borders, represent "the past."

[Arguing military action is not a viable option] " The most important lesson we have learned is that you can't put out a fire with fire."
(Jerusalem Post.com Edition, March 7, 2001)

"Today's armies cannot conquer wisdom nor can they defend science. There is an entirely new challenge, and an entirely new life."
(Speech at Yale, quoted in Connecticut Jewish Ledger, Feb. 21, 1997)

COMMENT: Peres tilts at windmills. What armies have ever attempted to "conquer wisdom" (whatever that means) or "defend science" (equally nebulous)? Never one for understatement (he is constantly finding a "new era," a "New Middle East"), Peres now gives us "an entirely new life."

"We cannot solve anything with force."
(Speech to Washington Institute for Near East Policy, quoted in Associated Press, May 2, 2001)

COMMENT: It is his persistence in this view that has prevented Israel from properly defending itself against its attackers.