On the Palestinians

General Comment: As with Arafat, Peres serves as their spokesman. In this case his condescension is especially marked: the Palestinians "don't understand what they're doing" (in celebrating Bin Laden's assault on the U.S.), can't be expected to handle money competently (and so should be allowed to squander it anyway), "forget" that they originated the violence (and so should not be held accountable for it).

"Today I believe the Palestinians as well as ourselves are extremely angry at each other. Each of us feel deeply disappointed by the policies or attitudes that we're shown. What we can say is: we don't initiate any act of terror; we only react. And what we can say also, that we do not intend to remain the occupier of Palestinian land."
(Interview on CNBC, "Hardball" with Chris Matthews, August 15, 2001, transcript issued by Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

COMMENT: Peres is "even handed", gratuitously portraying Israel as "the occupier of Palestinian land". He should have said that under the Oslo agreements, which Arafat has violated from Day One, all issues were to be negotiated without resort to violence.

[Fifteen months after the Oslo agreements were signed, Middle East Quarterly questions Peres on increasing radicalism among the Palestinians.]

MEQ: Wherever Palestinians had elections, in the Gaza Strip or the territories, during the last several weeks, the extremists won...

PERES: That's not true. No. Just a couple of weeks ago, there were elections near Gaza and the PLO won 76 percent.

MEQ. I beg to differ. I think it was not the PLO but Hamas that won.

PERES: You may beg to differ but it won't change the fact that the PLO won.
(Middle East Quarterly, March 1995)

COMMENT: Peres to the contrary, Hamas won a sweeping victory with its candidates receiving 91.48 percent of the votes. (Maariv, December 6, 1994)

"Because of the Intifada they [the Palestinians] suffered a great deal of loss of life. Although it's their fault, they would accuse us. When they shoot and we react and people are killed, they forgot that they started the shooting."
(Speech to American Jewish Committee, May 3, 2001)

COMMENT: Peres treats the Palestinians as if they were children: they do not ignore where the responsibility lies to suit their propaganda purposes but "forget"they started the shooting.

"I do not believe that we can reach 100% of peace without providing the Palestinians 100% of freedom. That we cannot have 100% of security, without having 100% peace. One depends upon the others."
(Speech to Socialist International, May 18, 1998)

COMMENT: (i) Peres makes the arrogant assumption that Israel can provide freedom to the Palestinians from above (ii) Peres implies that it is up to Israel to achieve "100% peace" without regard to whether the Palestinians seek peace or seek Israel's destruction, and (iii) Peres sets up a straw man of 100% security, which even countries at peace do not enjoy — Israel's security was far greater before it embarked upon its present path to "peace."

[When some European leaders ask what happened to the funds given to the Palestinian authority] "The five billion dollars were not invested in war. It were [sic] invested in history to enable a people to build their own autonomy, to build their own administration, to build their own strength. I think it is not an investment of lesser importance than the investment in war. We have to continue to invest and do it until the Palestinians will be able to reach what they have lost over a very long period of time."
(Speech to Socialist International, May 18, 1998)

COMMENT: Peres again serves as PLO spokesman, defending the PA's squandering (through corruption and ineptitude) billions of dollars in aid. Arafat's war on Israel contradicts Peres' assumption that the aid money was "not invested in war."

"We want to help the Palestinians. The stronger they will be, the better partner they will be."
(Speech to Washington Institute for Near East Policy, quoted by Associated Press, May 2, 2001)

"Good neighbors are more important than good guns and they don't cost so much, and a successful Palestinian state is the greatest promise for peace and understanding."
(Jerusalem Post, March 16, 2001)

"I recognize the Palestinians as partners, and it's better to see the Palestinians in the way of having a partner, than in the way of having a hatred."
(Briefing for foreign press, Sept. 10, 2001, transcript issued by Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

COMMENT: Peres claims that it is better to ignore reality. Shades of Colonel Nicholson in Bridge on the River Kwai.

[Peres chides Prime Minister Sharon for making an analogy between Arafat and the Taliban] "What does he want to do, start bombing the Palestinian cities the way the Americans are bombing Afghanistan?"
(Jerusalem Post, October 21, 2001)

COMMENT: In its editorial in the same issue, the Jerusalem Post points out that this insults both the U.S. and Israel, making it sound as if the U.S. is bombing Afghan cities and Israel is contemplating such a step.

"On the Israeli side, we knew that the Palestinians had expectations regarding the right of return, Jerusalem and the map of Israel. However, I believed [at Oslo], and I still believe today, that problems can be resolved without relinquishing dreams. Not all of our dreams can be realized either."
(Yediot Aharonot, Sept. 17, 2001)

"...we started to negotiate with the Palestinians, their form is to depart from terrorism. They have recognized the State of Israel. They have undertaken to air out our differences in dialogues, in peaceful dialogues. It takes more time than I hoped at that time it would take. But that's not a reason to get lost or to give up."
(Interview on CNBC "Hardball"with Chris Matthews, August 15, 2001)

COMMENT: For Peres (in 2001!) the peace process is alive and well, just a little slower than planned.

[Asked if Arafat controls armed groups such as the Tanzim] "I think he should have. A democracy is where you have many voices, but one control over the rifles. If you have many rifles and one voice it's not a real system. Our hope and our purpose are that Arafat will impose his authority over all the armed people and over all the arms... The Palestinians cannot walk to their independence by three or four armed heads, one shooting at the other. A nation means: one democracy, which is freedom, and one army which is security. And you shouldn't confuse the two."
(Press conference with Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorbjom Jagland, Tel-Aviv, Sept. 24, 2001)

COMMENT: Peres to the contrary, the Palestinians are marching to their independence with plenty of armed heads, all coordinated in shooting at Israel.

[On being asked, following the terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, about the rejoicing in the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority as well as East Jerusalem] "They don't understand what they're doing."
(Interview with Shimon Peres, the Voice of Israel, September 12, 2001)

[Asked what the point was of talking to the Palestinian Authority when it was itself taking part in the terrorism against Israel] "But they themselves say that they want to stop the terrorism. That's what we're talking with them about."
(Radio interview on Voice of Israel, September 2, 2001)

"The first point is to help the Palestinians to build a state of their own. I am saying it as an Israeli, and it is not because I am serving, or representing the Palestinians."
(Speech to Socialist International, Oslo, May 18, 1998)

[After the murder of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi galvanizes the Sharon government to move tanks on several areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority] "It is better to have the Palestinian Authority. I am not a friend of Arafat and I owe him nothing, but it is better to have someone to talk to and to pressure than to have no one."
(Haaretz, October 21, 2001)

COMMENT: Peres doth protest too much. In advocating a Palestinian state, without making any demands whatsoever of the Palestinians, he serves as self-appointed representative of Arafat and the Palestinian Authority.