Shimon Peres optimistic on peace in Middle East

Martin Kuz

Friday, June 26, 1998 | 10:57 a.m.

It was the handshake that shook the world. Three years ago, after signing a peace accord to end the violence between their people, Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat turned toward one another as they stood on the White House lawn. At President Clinton's gentle urging, each man, after what seemed a lifetime, extended a hand toward the other.

The moment was awkward, breathtaking, and quickly became a symbol that peace in the Middle East would move, at long last, beyond rhetoric. But what everyone saw, no one heard. Just after the historic handshake, Rabin turned to Shimon Peres, his foreign minister, and whispered, "Now it's your turn."

The implicit message -- unity is within our grasp -- has become even more urgent since Rabin was gunned down by an assassin in 1995, Peres said.

"We have to (abandon) the old habits of fighting, belligerence, of trying to win glory for the sake of glory, and try to make peace," he said.

Peres, Israel's prime minister from 1984 to 1986, and for seven months following Rabin's death, made his remarks during the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention Thursday evening. In an interview with the Sun earlier in the day, Peres, 74, said the recent renewal of Mideast tensions has left him no less optimistic that peace will prevail.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, whose involvement in Israel's political affairs stretches back a half-century to the reign of its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, said the rekindling of hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians will cost lives, but not at the expense of hope.

"I was engaged in many of the most important enterprises and experiences of Israel. And I know one thing: that anything, which is great, does not move swiftly or smoothly. Every great achievement has its setbacks, its faults, its failures, its disappointments. And maybe five minutes before you win, you think you have lost.

"I think the same about peace. In spite of all the mistakes of the present government, nobody can stop the march of history, nobody can interrupt the process of peace."

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been criticized for his hard-line stance toward Arafat and the Palestinians. In recent weeks he has come under fire for wavering on a U.S. proposal that Israel withdraw troops from the West Bank, a plan that would give 13 percent of the territory to the Palestinians.

Peres, narrowly defeated by Netanyahu in the race for prime minister two years ago, stopped short of blaming his successor for unraveling the work of Rabin and Arafat. But he said had Rabin lived -- or if he had defeated Netanyahu -- Israel would have achieved peace with both Palestine and Syria.

"I believe that what we could have done yesterday would be much better than what we are doing today. It is not a lost cause, but it became more complicated and more demanding," Peres said.

In pursuit of that elusive harmony, Peres earlier this year established the Peres Center For Peace in Tel Aviv. Despite the strongly held belief among some Israelis, including former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, that ceding Jewish territory cannot be justified, Peres said public opinion polls show broad support for the 1993 and 1995 Oslo accords to give up land to the Palestinians.

This year's celebration of his country's 50th anniversary of statehood has convinced Israelis they must extend an olive branch to those they have fought with for centuries, Peres said.

"...We are ready to negotiate peace and pay the price of peace: To give back land, to give back authority and to help our neighbors stand on their own legs and to build their own prosperity and to gain their own freedom."

When asked about his political future and whether he would consider challenging Netanyahu for his old job, Peres would only say, "I should be very careful not to fight for power. I should be very determined to act for peace. So whatever will be necessary for peace, I shall do."

But without peace -- and a permanent home for the Palestinians -- Peres fears for the future of the Middle East.

"If there won't be two states -- a Jewish state and a Palestinian state -- there will be one state, which will be binational," he said. "And it will become a binational tragedy like in Bosnia."