Ladies and gentlemen of the Israel Labor Party:
As a citizen of the State of Israel, I want a strong, powerful Labor Party, well respected by the people of Israel for placing the concerns of the people of Israel before all else and because the Party is so obviously a guardian of the peace and tranquility of the people of Israel.
But you must see that is not the case today. The people of Israel have learned over the last thirty years that the policies pursued by Labor have brought them nothing but pain, sorrow, maimed children and all too many dead.
The political fallout from the '73 war sent many of those who had voted Labor into the arms of the new Likud Party, which offered a home to the right wing, religious and Labor Zionist voters. With the victory of the Likud in the general elections of 1977, Peres found himself at the head of a Labor Party in the opposition.
Peres looked to the far left for support, including the Arab parties. He simply abandoned the Middle Israel voters. In doing so he caused an ever-growing rift between the people of Israel and the Labor Party. The people of Israel saw this, and voted with their feet. They moved to Shas, to Gesher, to Tsomet, to the Likud, any place but Labor.
On 5 June 1982 (during the Peace for Galilee war in Lebanon), Shimon Peres, concerned that the Likud would achieve a complete victory in Lebanon and sign its second treaty with an Arab nation (the first was with Egypt), falsely accused Ariel Sharon of having failed to inform Menachem Begin of the true aims of the war. The truth, according to a 1984 Ma'ariv report, was that "two months before the war, Begin and Sharon revealed the 'Big Plan' to the Labor leadership - Peres, Bar-Lev and [Rabin]."
Peres crippled the Likud government during and after the war with false accusations and brought tremendous pressure to bear on the Begin government through the Peace Now demonstrations. It was not to ensure peace, but to prevent the government of Menachem Begin from successfully destroying the PLO in Lebanon and securing Israel's northern border. To ensure his own political standing, Peres could not allow the Likud any benefit from the successful pursuit of the war.
In 1990, Peres was Minister Of Finance in a unity government headed by Yitzhak Shamir. He created a crisis over the James Baker peace plan and called for a vote of confidence in the government of which he was a part. Peres bought off Shas and had them vote against the government (his "Stinking Maneuver"), which fell.
To win the national elections of 1992, Peres sent a letter to Arafat and other PLO leaders in Cairo. In which he promised Arafat a withdrawal from the ?Occupied Territories and Gaza? in return for Arafat using his influence on the Israeli Arab population so that they would vote for the Labor Party in the elections (Labor now regularly receives 95% of the Arab vote). Also in 1992, Gonen Segev and Alex Goldfarb were elected to the Knesset as members of the right-wing Tsomet Party. However, after the elections, Segev and Goldfarb left Tsomet, joined the Labor Party, and became stalwart supporters of Oslo. Segev became Minister of Energy, and Goldfarb received a new Volvo. Segev and Goldfarb gave Labor a parliamentary victory on the Oslo Accords. That victory has brought the hell of the Oslo War to the people of Israel, bought and paid for by Peres.
In May 1994 the local weekly newspaper Shishi revealed that Peres had made a proposal to the Vatican, offering the Catholic Church sovereignty over the Old City of Jerusalem. According to the newspaper, Arafat signed the Oslo Accords after accepting this proposal. This offer to the Vatican and Arafat was in contradiction to all of the assurances given to the people of Israel regarding the future of the Old City of Jerusalem. He was willing to rip the heart out of the Jewish people in pursuit of his own agenda. The people of Israel know this, do not trust him and cannot trust the Labor Party.
Peres was behind the repeal of the law against negotiating with the PLO and in bringing Arafat and his men into Gaza and providing them with weapons. He has traveled the world in order to ensure that the Palestinian Authority received loans from donor nations. He has worked ceaselessly to ensure that the PA economy was well provided with industrial parks, investment capital and the unwavering support of the Labor Party.
No clear thinking Israeli voter will have anything to do with the Labor Party while its policies provide clear and unambiguous support for the PA and its gangs of murderers.
Mr. Burg, Mr. Ben Eliezer: if you wish to rebuild the Labor Party, to return to the days when Labor truly ruled Israel, you must publicly, loudly and often disassociate yourselves and the Labor Party from Shimon Peres and his disastrous policies. No one in Israel has seen the peace, security and tranquility that we were promised would come from the Oslo Accords. All we have seen is the bloody murder of thousands of Jews and Arabs.
Shimon Peres is not seen to be an honorable man whose policies serve the best interests of the People of Israel. He has never been elected to public office simply because the voters cannot and do not trust him. Shimon Peres and his policies have brought death and mutilation that has touched nearly every family in Israel. Only an idiot will vote for Labor in the next general election and I contend that Israelis are not idiots.
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Gary Showalter writes on Middle East political and socio-cultural issues.
He lives and works in Israel.
As a citizen of the State of Israel, I want a strong, powerful Labor Party, well respected by the people of Israel for placing the concerns of the people of Israel before all else and because the Party is so obviously a guardian of the peace and tranquility of the people of Israel.
But you must see that is not the case today. The people of Israel have learned over the last thirty years that the policies pursued by Labor have brought them nothing but pain, sorrow, maimed children and all too many dead.
The political fallout from the '73 war sent many of those who had voted Labor into the arms of the new Likud Party, which offered a home to the right wing, religious and Labor Zionist voters. With the victory of the Likud in the general elections of 1977, Peres found himself at the head of a Labor Party in the opposition.
Peres looked to the far left for support, including the Arab parties. He simply abandoned the Middle Israel voters. In doing so he caused an ever-growing rift between the people of Israel and the Labor Party. The people of Israel saw this, and voted with their feet. They moved to Shas, to Gesher, to Tsomet, to the Likud, any place but Labor.
On 5 June 1982 (during the Peace for Galilee war in Lebanon), Shimon Peres, concerned that the Likud would achieve a complete victory in Lebanon and sign its second treaty with an Arab nation (the first was with Egypt), falsely accused Ariel Sharon of having failed to inform Menachem Begin of the true aims of the war. The truth, according to a 1984 Ma'ariv report, was that "two months before the war, Begin and Sharon revealed the 'Big Plan' to the Labor leadership - Peres, Bar-Lev and [Rabin]."
Peres crippled the Likud government during and after the war with false accusations and brought tremendous pressure to bear on the Begin government through the Peace Now demonstrations. It was not to ensure peace, but to prevent the government of Menachem Begin from successfully destroying the PLO in Lebanon and securing Israel's northern border. To ensure his own political standing, Peres could not allow the Likud any benefit from the successful pursuit of the war.
In 1990, Peres was Minister Of Finance in a unity government headed by Yitzhak Shamir. He created a crisis over the James Baker peace plan and called for a vote of confidence in the government of which he was a part. Peres bought off Shas and had them vote against the government (his "Stinking Maneuver"), which fell.
To win the national elections of 1992, Peres sent a letter to Arafat and other PLO leaders in Cairo. In which he promised Arafat a withdrawal from the ?Occupied Territories and Gaza? in return for Arafat using his influence on the Israeli Arab population so that they would vote for the Labor Party in the elections (Labor now regularly receives 95% of the Arab vote). Also in 1992, Gonen Segev and Alex Goldfarb were elected to the Knesset as members of the right-wing Tsomet Party. However, after the elections, Segev and Goldfarb left Tsomet, joined the Labor Party, and became stalwart supporters of Oslo. Segev became Minister of Energy, and Goldfarb received a new Volvo. Segev and Goldfarb gave Labor a parliamentary victory on the Oslo Accords. That victory has brought the hell of the Oslo War to the people of Israel, bought and paid for by Peres.
In May 1994 the local weekly newspaper Shishi revealed that Peres had made a proposal to the Vatican, offering the Catholic Church sovereignty over the Old City of Jerusalem. According to the newspaper, Arafat signed the Oslo Accords after accepting this proposal. This offer to the Vatican and Arafat was in contradiction to all of the assurances given to the people of Israel regarding the future of the Old City of Jerusalem. He was willing to rip the heart out of the Jewish people in pursuit of his own agenda. The people of Israel know this, do not trust him and cannot trust the Labor Party.
Peres was behind the repeal of the law against negotiating with the PLO and in bringing Arafat and his men into Gaza and providing them with weapons. He has traveled the world in order to ensure that the Palestinian Authority received loans from donor nations. He has worked ceaselessly to ensure that the PA economy was well provided with industrial parks, investment capital and the unwavering support of the Labor Party.
No clear thinking Israeli voter will have anything to do with the Labor Party while its policies provide clear and unambiguous support for the PA and its gangs of murderers.
Mr. Burg, Mr. Ben Eliezer: if you wish to rebuild the Labor Party, to return to the days when Labor truly ruled Israel, you must publicly, loudly and often disassociate yourselves and the Labor Party from Shimon Peres and his disastrous policies. No one in Israel has seen the peace, security and tranquility that we were promised would come from the Oslo Accords. All we have seen is the bloody murder of thousands of Jews and Arabs.
Shimon Peres is not seen to be an honorable man whose policies serve the best interests of the People of Israel. He has never been elected to public office simply because the voters cannot and do not trust him. Shimon Peres and his policies have brought death and mutilation that has touched nearly every family in Israel. Only an idiot will vote for Labor in the next general election and I contend that Israelis are not idiots.
------------
Gary Showalter writes on Middle East political and socio-cultural issues.
He lives and works in Israel.