Is Peres’ peace legacy turning to ashes?
Akiva Eldar and Daoud Kuttab reflect on the legacy of former Israeli president Shimon Peres, who Eldar says offered a "bit of hope" for peace; Al-Monitor credited for breaking news on delisting of Iranian banks.
Akiva Eldar and Daoud Kuttab this week reflected on the legacy of Shimon Peres, one of Israel’s most acclaimed statesmen, who died Sept. 28.
Eldar credits Peres’ many contributions to Israel’s becoming a regional military powerhouse, world leader in high tech industries and “an island of stability in the heart of a stormy Middle East.” Peres was an architect of the Oslo Accord with the Palestinians, which led to his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, and to the peace agreement with Jordan in 1994.
Despite these achievements, “Peres did not live to translate this power into peace,” Eldar writes. “The negotiations Peres conducted with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in 1996, after Rabin’s assassination, led to a dead end. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was the one who led Israeli troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005. Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert were much closer than Peres ever was to a permanent status agreement with the Palestinian side.”
Eldar laments that Peres’ final peace efforts were marked by “bitter disappointment,” as the former Nobel Prize winner served as an envoy for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “trying to explain the policies of Israel’s right-wing governments.”
