Britain's wartime leader Winston Churchill once called Clement Atlee who succeeded him as prime minister “a sheep in sheep’s clothing”. For all his thirst for Arab blood, fiendish killing instinct and lack of any trace of humanity, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has the virtue of consistency and transparency. He is no pretender and wears no mask. He must be feeling more embarrassed than some of President Bush’s close advisers everytime the US leader calls him “a man of peace”. Sharon is really a wolf in wolf’s clothing and makes no attempt to disguise it. But how would one describe Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres?
First some basic facts. Peres is the architect of Oslo peace accords and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. He belongs to the Labor party in Israel which unlike the Likud is supposed to be moderate in its polices and committed to an eventual settlement with Palestinians and Israel’s Arab neighbors. Agency reports unfailingly describe him as “dovish.”
But none of this stopped him, while prime minister, to order the “Grapes of Wrath” operation which rained death and destruction of an indescribably horrible type on Lebanon. He has repeatedly turned a blind eye whenever the spirit of Oslo was being systematically emasculated by successive Israeli prime ministers, both Likud and Labor. He was part of these governments, more often as foreign minister where the world was his stage and he could be at his charming best. The more uglier and bloodier an Israeli government turned out to be, the more Madison Avenue flair he would bring to his job to convince the world that Israel still has an heart and it was at the right place.
The great conman that he is, Peres can assume various guises to suit the occasion. Now that the whole world feels outraged by “one of our great successes” (Sharon’s description of the slaughter of innocents in Gaza) last Tuesday, Peres knows the usual sophistry and claptrap about terrorism will not do. So the best thing is to show some signs of contrition. This he did to so great an effect that Palestinians Authority’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat was moved by this “apology.” In his interview (to be published today) with German news magazine Der Spiegel, Peres said the dropping an one-ton bomb on a densely populated area to kill Hamas leader Salah Shehada was a “100 percent mistake.”
Now this is the government with the worst war crimes record in Israel’s history. This was the case even before the Gaza massacre. Now that Sharon has added one more feather to his blood-stained cap, would Peres resign? Peres’ reply to the German magazine: “As long as I can serve as a balancing factor, I will stay.” This was Peres’ stock answer after Jenin. He said much the same thing when Sharon unleashed a reign of terror on Palestinians and reoccupied all Palestinians towns.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry headed by Peres has suspended an Israeli Embassy employee in Ireland who wrote a letter condemning Tuesday’s bombing raid on Gaza. In the letter, published Friday in the Irish Times, embassy press officer Dr. Noreen O’Carroll called the raid “an atrocity.” Milder words compared to what her boss has been saying about Gaza. Peres even said (but later retracted) that Sharon was no more committed to peace. Still Sharon would not fire Peres. Why?
Herein lies a great deception to which the world is yet to open its eyes. What is going on in Israel is a neat division of labor under which Sharon will do all the worst things and Peres will utter all the right words to convince or fool the world while the great horror show goes on in the occupied territories. Sharon and Peres are two sides of the same coin. The only difference is that Sharon can’t deceive Saeb Erekat (and the world) while Peres can. Sharon may not bother with anesthetic while dealing with his Palestinian patients. Peres will wear them thin. Only Peres can have Hitler’s conquests as well as Mahatma Gandhi’s halo.
Some people say if there was no Hitler, Israel would have invented one. Much the same thing can be said about Peres’ usefulness for Sharon. If there was no Peres, Sharon would have invented one.
