In an astounding development, a Gallup poll commissioned by the daily Ma'ariv newspaper last week has revealed that approximately 20% of Jewish Israelis believe that “such people as Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin, and Uri Savir, who participated in the formation of the Oslo agreements, should be made to stand trial.” And as the noted analyst Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA has observed, “the groundbreaking significance lies in the very fact that this question was included in a poll by the mainstream Israeli media.”
As we enter the New Year, it is apparent that the views about Oslo in the minds of Israelis have radically changed. More and more Israelis are recognizing that Oslo has put Israel in the worst predicament in its history.
Yet the notion that one of its principal architects still serves in an official position in the Sharon government should boggle the mind. Indeed, each day brings fresh reports of Peres' public efforts to undermine the resolve of Prime Minister Sharon to refuse to cave in to Palestinian terror. Even a catastrophe of the magnitude of the destruction of the World Trade Center has not chilled the ardor of this man to pursue his millenialist pipe dreams of reasoning with people who blow up innocents to make a political point. How true are the words of the late Prime Minister Moshe Sharett, who noted that if Shimon Peres ever occupied an official position in the Government of Israel, we would have to tear keriah in mourning for the State of Israel.