By Michael Regenstreif
Last issue in this space, I wrote about the long, sometimes bitter, rivalry, and partnership, between Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres that lasted for much of the State of Israel’s history. They both worked hard to achieve a lasting peace for Israel and the Palestinians and their efforts led to a shared Nobel Peace Prize. As I wrote last issue, Peres too, was figuratively shattered when Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish Israeli extremist.
I’m referring back to that previous column, in this Israel @ 60 edition of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, because I’ve just seen an Internet video of an 11-minute speech made by Peres to a group of Israeli technology students. It was one of the most inspiring talks I’ve seen by a politician in many years.
The video isn’t dated so I’m not sure when it was recorded. Peres makes a reference to being in the cabinet, so the speech may have predated his becoming Israel’s president on July 15, 2007. If so, it couldn’t have been too much before because he also makes a brief reference to the Second Lebanon War the summer before he became president.
Peres tells the students to trust in their own abilities, that they know more than they think they know and have abilities beyond what they think they have. He tells them to listen, first and foremost, to themselves and not so much to their parents, teachers and friends.
“Don’t concern yourself with history and the past,” he tells them, it’s the future that’s important. “You mustn’t be afraid to be different and you mustn’t be afraid to dream,” because the future is built by those who’ve had the courage to be different and to fulfil their dreams. He talks about Israel’s great success in areas of the economy and technology and tells the students that those successes came because of individual Israelis who had the courage to dream and to do.
Peres goes on to talk about some of the technological advances he sees coming over the next couple of decades in such areas as green energy, medicine, water desalination and more. Now in his 80s, and despite a career of achievement that spans Israel’s history, Peres shows that he’s very much a man of the future.
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There are some who think that an enduring peace will never be found between Israel and the Palestinians. It seems to me the Jewish people have had worse enemies in our history.
The founding of the State of Israel, whose 60th anniversary we’re celebrating this week, came just three years after the Holocaust, when Germany’s genocidal Nazi regime murdered six million Jews. Today’s Germany, though, is one of Israel’s closest allies. Just two months ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the Knesset, in German, and received a standing ovation. If international friendship can exist between Germany and the Jewish state, and it does, then peace with the Palestinians is surely possible.
At deadline time, there were a couple of hopeful signs in the peace process. There were reports – confirmed by high level sources in both countries – that Israel and Syria have begun negotiating a peace settlement via Turkish intermediaries.
Syria’s main demand is the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the Six Day War in 1967. Israel’s are that Syria severs its ties with Hezbollah and the Iranian regime. Adding Syria to the list of surrounding Arab countries at peace with Israel would be a most positive development.
The other hopeful sign was Hamas suggesting that, under certain conditions, it would accept a peace settlement with Israel that’s been ratified in a Palestinian referendum. Based on Hamas’ track record, they’re a long way from deserving anyone’s trust that they’re sincerely interested in peace with Israel. Their terror campaigns have taken a terrible toll on Israel. We recently heard visitors from Sderot describe the daily routine of rocket attacks from Gaza and the effects – death, injury and psychological trauma – they’ve had on that Negev city.
But as bad as Hamas’s actions have been for Israel, they’ve been devastatingly worse for the Palestinians. Because of Hamas terrorism, the Palestinians in Gaza endure hopeless lives trapped in poverty, and the inevitable and regrettable consequences of being caught in between Israel and the terrorists hiding among them.
Israel’s leaving Gaza presented a tremendous opportunity for the Palestinians to move forward toward a dignified peace with Israel. Instead, Hamas took them backward into greater misery. Perhaps these signals from Hamas indicate that Palestinians themselves understand what Hamas has brought them and that Hamas understands that Palestinians, too, want to live and move forward, in peace.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether either Syria or Hamas are serious. But, as we celebrate Israel @ 60, let us remember that there must be hope when the main greetings in Hebrew and Arabic, ‘Shalom’ and Saalam,’ both mean ‘Peace.’
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