Peres Birthday Bash Strikes Wrong Chord With Some Israelis
In the social context, while Israeli citizens struggle with economic cuts and the polarization of society, President Shimon Peres' 90th birthday celebrations seem out of line.
President Shimon Peres has come a long way from being a denigrated politician, an "inveterate schemer" as the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin called him, and a "loser" as he was dubbed by his own partisan members — until emerging into a popular and beloved Israeli icon.
For more than a decade, Peres has been the poster boy of the “beautiful and sane Israel” around the world, mainly during times of ostracizing and boycott. Even the "die-hard Likudniks" [Likud party members], who in the 1980s threw tomatoes at him during his election campaign when visiting the markets, have made an about-face to become his staunch admirers.
We — the citizens of Israel — did not need this over-the-top spectacle that Peres organized for his nonagenarian birthday to know that he has reached this status.
It is hard to recall any other event that was so out of touch with reality of the Israeli experience as Peres' 90th birthday party. A year in the making, it was orchestrated by a well-oiled public relations and money machine. A lot of money.
