Peres Cultivates a Cult of Personality
August 16, 2005
by The Perescope
Guess who celebrated a birthday on August 16? Madonna did, but so did another international pop star.
In case you didn't remember the megalomaniacal gala at Tel Aviv's Mann Auditorium two years ago on that date, attended by the likes of Bill Clinton, Kofi Annan and Mikhail Gorbachev, which cost the indulgent celebrant and the hard-pressed Israeli taxpayer hundreds of thousands of shekels, you would have been reminded by an advertisement on the front page of the August 16th edition of Ha'aretz, the Hebrew daily that arrogantly proclaims itself to be the newspaper for "people who think" -- a self-flattering and overly-generous euphemism that Israeli leftists apply to themselves.
Ran Rahav, a celebrity Israeli PR guru, took out the expensive ad to wish a happy birthday to his friend Shimon Peres. Although he didn't find it necessary to level with Ha'aretz readers by admitting in the ad that he's Peres's long-time buddy, Rahav did pay for enough ink and column inches to thank Peres for his role (or, more accurately, what Peres claims to have been his role) as the father of Israel's nuclear program.
Now we're not talking here of an ad placed by Madonna's PR agent on the front page of Variety. This was an ad signed by one of Israel's leading image makers on the front page of what likes to think of itself as Israel's version of The New York Times.
When was the last time you saw a personality cult like this in a democratic country? The custom of publishing an ad on the front page of a newspaper to wish The Great Leader a happy birthday used to be something worthy of Pravda. The tradition undoubtedly continues with Kim Jung Il in the so-called Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and, for all I know, maybe even with Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. The custom of holding an expensive birthday bash broadcast on TV, like Peres did two years ago, otherwise probably died out with Nicolae Ceaucescu, if not with Stalin himself.
Nowhere in the Western world does a political leader cultivate this sort of cult of personality. What's particularly repugnant in this unique case, however, is that the newspaper for "people who think" doesn't criticize it editorially. Instead, it lends its front page to panegyric expressions of flattery and puff. When it comes to The Great Leader, Ha'aretz, like Pravda, prefers for its readers not to think at all. Would they be as slavishly subservient to Madonna?
Shimon Peres
An obstacle to peace
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Peres's "victims of peace"
Finally, he finds the time to pay his respects to the dead
August 7, 2005
by The Perescope
A terrorist dressed in an Israeli army uniform opened fire with an automatic weapon on innocent passengers in a bus last Thursday afternoon. The driver and three passengers, two of whom were sisters, were killed. The terrorist was lynched by the angry crowd that gathered outside the bus when his ammunition ran out.
All told there have been tens of thousands of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians since Shimon Peres launched his Oslo fiasco in 1993. As of last Thursday, a total of 1,329 Israelis had lost their lives in the years since Yasser Arafat and the PLO "renounced" terror.
As a sign of solidarity with the bereaved families, it is customary for a minister in the government to attend the funeral of every victim of terror. Ministers take their turns in this solemn responsibility. Shimon Peres has been a minister for over eight of the twelve years since he initiated his Oslo debacle. But he had never attended even one funeral among the 1,329 that took place as a direct result of his diplomatic failure. Not one.
Two consecutive presidents of Israel has made it their responsibility to visit every bereaved family during its period of mourning, but Shimon Peres has never deigned to visit even one such family, much less all of them. It's just been beneath him. The many dead that Oslo left in its wake have been mere details for a busy, traveled statesman like Shimon Peres, who has preferred to brush them off like dandruff. "Victims of peace" is the contemptuous, Orwellian term he once coined for them.Until now.
Why now? Because the terrorist who opened fire in that bus last week was a Jew, and his four victims were Israeli Arabs. For the first time since the Palestinian terror war against Israeli civilians began five years ago, a single Jew (albeit an AWOL soldier with a psychiatric record) murdered innocent Arabs. So Shimon Peres broke with his coldhearted precedent and paid a condolence call on the elders of the Israeli-Arab town of Shfaram, together with his protégé, Interior Minister Ophir Pines (pronounced not like the tree, but like a certain human organ, believe it or not). It's not clear if Peres actually visited with the bereaved families themselves, but he did make himself available to television cameras as he called upon local dignitaries to reassure them of his commitment to peace and reconciliation between Arabs and Jews.
Meanwhile, the families of Peres's other 1,329 "victims of peace" are still waiting for him to console them and admit responsibility for the disaster that he unleashed on the citizens of the entire country, Jews and Arabs alike.
August 7, 2005
by The Perescope
A terrorist dressed in an Israeli army uniform opened fire with an automatic weapon on innocent passengers in a bus last Thursday afternoon. The driver and three passengers, two of whom were sisters, were killed. The terrorist was lynched by the angry crowd that gathered outside the bus when his ammunition ran out.
All told there have been tens of thousands of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians since Shimon Peres launched his Oslo fiasco in 1993. As of last Thursday, a total of 1,329 Israelis had lost their lives in the years since Yasser Arafat and the PLO "renounced" terror.
As a sign of solidarity with the bereaved families, it is customary for a minister in the government to attend the funeral of every victim of terror. Ministers take their turns in this solemn responsibility. Shimon Peres has been a minister for over eight of the twelve years since he initiated his Oslo debacle. But he had never attended even one funeral among the 1,329 that took place as a direct result of his diplomatic failure. Not one.
Two consecutive presidents of Israel has made it their responsibility to visit every bereaved family during its period of mourning, but Shimon Peres has never deigned to visit even one such family, much less all of them. It's just been beneath him. The many dead that Oslo left in its wake have been mere details for a busy, traveled statesman like Shimon Peres, who has preferred to brush them off like dandruff. "Victims of peace" is the contemptuous, Orwellian term he once coined for them.Until now.
Why now? Because the terrorist who opened fire in that bus last week was a Jew, and his four victims were Israeli Arabs. For the first time since the Palestinian terror war against Israeli civilians began five years ago, a single Jew (albeit an AWOL soldier with a psychiatric record) murdered innocent Arabs. So Shimon Peres broke with his coldhearted precedent and paid a condolence call on the elders of the Israeli-Arab town of Shfaram, together with his protégé, Interior Minister Ophir Pines (pronounced not like the tree, but like a certain human organ, believe it or not). It's not clear if Peres actually visited with the bereaved families themselves, but he did make himself available to television cameras as he called upon local dignitaries to reassure them of his commitment to peace and reconciliation between Arabs and Jews.
Meanwhile, the families of Peres's other 1,329 "victims of peace" are still waiting for him to console them and admit responsibility for the disaster that he unleashed on the citizens of the entire country, Jews and Arabs alike.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Shimon the hypocrite says
Shimon Says: Papers are papers and realities are realities. We cannot judge the PLO and its leader just by what he is saying. Would we do so, we would be completely wrong and we would be in troubles. [Heritage, Los Angeles, June 3, 1994]
Then Shimon Says: You cannot sit down, reach an agreement and then go around and declare different things. You govern by words and respect for words. If you devalue a word or an agreement, you kill the peaceful solution. [ibid]
Shimon Says: No doubt that Israel's next goal should be to join the Arab League. [Lecture at the Islamic College in Western Galilee, quoted in Ha'aretz, December 21, 1994 and in The Jewish Press, December 30, 1994]
Then Shimon Says: (Asked about the Secretary of the Arab League's response that Israeli Jews had to become Moslems before they could join the Arab League) Well, that also shows that it belongs to the past. The Arab League is part of the past. There is no room for an Arab League. [Middle East Quarterly, March 1995, p. 77]
Shimon Says: Syria is likely to attack Israel even if a peace agreement is reached. [Yediot Ahronot, October 5, 1994]
Then Shimon Says: President Assad has the opportunity to have something extra because he and we can really bring belligerence to a total end [The New York Times, November 23, 1995, p.6]
Shimon Says: [Asked about the wisdom of a deal with the then-dictator of Syria, Hafez al Assad] Well, the system of government is transitional, peace is permanent. [Middle East Quarterly, March 1995, pp. 77-78]
Then Shimon Says: We have learned there is no stable peace unless it is based on relations between democratic states. [Knesset speech, January 25, 1993]
Shimon Says: We shall not recognize the PLO unless it amends the Palestinian Covenant and renounces terrorism. [Knesset speech, August 30, 1993]
Then Shimon Says: The Arabs used to say: "If you recognize the PLO, you will be recognized by the Arab world." We recognized the PLO but we have not been recognized. They also said, "We will put a stop to terrorist actions." I observe that they continue. [Agence France Presse, March 24, 1995]
Shimon Says: We are going to copy a European example which is called Benelux. I hope the relations between the Jordanians, the Palestinians and us will be very much of the same nature that exists in Benelux. [Address to Council of the Socialist International, October 6, 1993]
Then Shimon Says: [There will be] total separation between Israel and PLO-controlled autonomy areas. Check points will be established and the entry and exit of all persons and vehicles in and out of “Israel proper” will be closedly monitored. Anyone, Jew or Arab, violating this, will be punished to the full extent of the law. [from a speech to the nation quoted in The Jewish Press, March 8, 1996]
Then Shimon Says: You cannot sit down, reach an agreement and then go around and declare different things. You govern by words and respect for words. If you devalue a word or an agreement, you kill the peaceful solution. [ibid]
Shimon Says: No doubt that Israel's next goal should be to join the Arab League. [Lecture at the Islamic College in Western Galilee, quoted in Ha'aretz, December 21, 1994 and in The Jewish Press, December 30, 1994]
Then Shimon Says: (Asked about the Secretary of the Arab League's response that Israeli Jews had to become Moslems before they could join the Arab League) Well, that also shows that it belongs to the past. The Arab League is part of the past. There is no room for an Arab League. [Middle East Quarterly, March 1995, p. 77]
Shimon Says: Syria is likely to attack Israel even if a peace agreement is reached. [Yediot Ahronot, October 5, 1994]
Then Shimon Says: President Assad has the opportunity to have something extra because he and we can really bring belligerence to a total end [The New York Times, November 23, 1995, p.6]
Shimon Says: [Asked about the wisdom of a deal with the then-dictator of Syria, Hafez al Assad] Well, the system of government is transitional, peace is permanent. [Middle East Quarterly, March 1995, pp. 77-78]
Then Shimon Says: We have learned there is no stable peace unless it is based on relations between democratic states. [Knesset speech, January 25, 1993]
Shimon Says: We shall not recognize the PLO unless it amends the Palestinian Covenant and renounces terrorism. [Knesset speech, August 30, 1993]
Then Shimon Says: The Arabs used to say: "If you recognize the PLO, you will be recognized by the Arab world." We recognized the PLO but we have not been recognized. They also said, "We will put a stop to terrorist actions." I observe that they continue. [Agence France Presse, March 24, 1995]
Shimon Says: We are going to copy a European example which is called Benelux. I hope the relations between the Jordanians, the Palestinians and us will be very much of the same nature that exists in Benelux. [Address to Council of the Socialist International, October 6, 1993]
Then Shimon Says: [There will be] total separation between Israel and PLO-controlled autonomy areas. Check points will be established and the entry and exit of all persons and vehicles in and out of “Israel proper” will be closedly monitored. Anyone, Jew or Arab, violating this, will be punished to the full extent of the law. [from a speech to the nation quoted in The Jewish Press, March 8, 1996]
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