Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Shimon Peres' Peace Offensive

Whereas your Iranians, being Iranians, don't just want to wipe Israel off the map, but, if you really want to know, the entire world (if not the universe itself!), your Israelis, which is to say your real people, people with a heart and a soul and a conscience and an eternal yearning for peace, are torn - TORN! - over the matter of whether to save us all from the dreaded Iranians.

I mean take your Israeli president, Shimon Peres, for example. This bloke's even got his own peace centre! And wherever he goes, oil miraculously pours onto troubled waters and doves descend to rest on his shoulders.

No, I'm not making this up. As Uzi of The Times says:

"Mr Obama was due to meet Israeli President Shimon Peres, a leading opponent of a military strike, overnight. Mr Peres, 89, has said privately it would be madness for Israel to go ahead with an attack. Like Mr Netanyahu, Mr Peres believes Iran poses a threat to Israel's survival. But Mr Peres believes it is a problem for the world to solve, not for Israel alone." (Obama urges Israel to hold its fire on Iran until after November poll, Uzi Mahnaimi, The Sunday Times/The Australian, 5/3/12)

Thanks, Uzi.

Yeah, and when this saintly peacenik spoke to AIPAC, Israel's peace-seeking arm in the US, quite by happenstance just before Obama spoke to them on Sunday, his every word was a ringing, heartfelt cry for peace. In fact, being such a nice bloke he even had a few conciliatory words for the Iranians:

"CNN reports that Peres said that while 'peace is our first option... if we are forced to fight, trust me, we shall prevail'. Peres minced no words, declaring Tehran 'an evil, cruel, morally corrupt regime... based on destruction. It is an affront to human dignity'. Of US-Israeli relations, he aid, 'There is no space between us. Our message is clear: Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon'. Further, 'Iran's ambition is to control the Middle East, so it can control a major part of the world's economy', Peres said. 'It must be stopped. And it will be stopped'." (Israel's Peres: Iran 'Will be stopped', Polly Davis, newser.com, 4/3/12)

And, again quite by happenstance, Israel's leading dove met Obama after the AIPAC peace conference for a friendly chat in an effort to prevent him from lashing out at the Iranians:

"It was an excellent meeting with President Obama', Peres said. 'He reinforced the things he said in his speech and went into more details. I left with the feeling that he is determined to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and he is very serious. Obama told me that Israel's security is an American national security interest. I didn't find him to even stutter. He is sharply clear and is not playing politics. I am sure that [Netanyahu] will be received very warmly in the White House tomorrow'." (Netanyau welcomes Obama's statements on Israel's right to self-defense, Barak Ravid, Haaretz, 4/3/12)

Then he phoned his peace offensive partner, Israeli prime minister Netanyahu to say - what else? - shalom.

An amazing bloke, is old Shimon, or, as I prefer to call him 'Shalom'.

Who would have thought that this venerable snow-white dove of doves was the same man as the red-blooded thirty-something back in the fifties who, whilst sowing his wild oats as young men will, ended up fathering his country's very own hush hush nuclear weapons program?

Yep, say what you like, but no country produces peace advocates quite like Israel.

1 comment:

Peter D said...

Saw an awful report on the channel 9 11am news - a British female reporter telling us about an Israeli who has made a short film depicting the terror the Jews in Israel will experience if/when the Iranians bomb them with nuclear weapons. 10 or more full seconds of this footage was shown in the report, Israelis screaming in terror, huddled together in corners, bombs falling all around them. And the reporter took it all perfectly seriously.