Why Hawks Become Doves: Shimon Peres and Foreign Policy Change in Israel by Guy Ziv

Author:Guy Ziv [Ziv, Guy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781438453958
Goodreads: 22150935
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2014-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Support for a Palestinian State

If it took many years for Israeli policymakers to recognize, and agree to negotiate with, the PLO, it took even longer for them to accept the notion—publicly, at least—of an independent Palestinian state. While today even rightist prime ministers such as Benjamin Netanyahu have endorsed Palestinian statehood, this was certainly not the case in the 1990s. This sea change in attitudes can be traced to the direct negotiations with the PLO begun in Oslo. It was only in May 1997 that the Labor Party, no longer in power, formally resolved to accept a Palestinian state (Ben-Ami 2006, 247). At the Sixth Labor Party Convention, which took place on December 7 of that year, Labor Party chairman Peres expressed his support for a Palestinian state “because we cannot carry on our shoulders the economic and social responsibility of three million Arabs, because they are authorized to conduct their lives and say so in a loud and clear voice.”18

Prior to the late 1990s, however, neither Peres nor Rabin, whose peace efforts led to his assassination by a right-wing extremist in November 1995, expressed support for a Palestinian state. In his televised debate with Shamir on the eve of the 1992 elections, Rabin emphasized that there were three points about which he stood firm: “no to a Palestinian state, no return to 1967 borders and a united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty” (Lochery 1997, 214). Following the Oslo breakthrough, however, both Rabin and Peres danced around this delicate issue. On the one hand, they were careful to continue to publicly oppose a Palestinian state so as not to prejudge the outcome of the ongoing negotiations—and, perhaps just as importantly, to keep their fragile coalition intact. On the other hand, their opposition to a state did not appear to be nearly as firm as it had been prior to Oslo. Rabin, when asked about his position on this matter, responded in a convoluted manner:

Whoever reads the Labor party’s election platform will find that there is no support for the establishment of a Palestinian state. However, it should be recalled that the permanent settlement will only be discussed in two years’ time, or not later than another two years, when we will have had an opportunity to examine two stages—“Gaza and Jericho First,” and afterwards stages connected with the transfer of authority, perhaps even elections in all the territories—what the level of the Palestinian system’s capability will be to govern in those spheres which, according to the agreements, have been or will be given to them to govern. (Israel Radio 1994)

Peres, too, expressed opposition to an independent Palestinian state, but did not rule it out. In one interview, Peres was asked if the Palestinians would be given a state of their own, to which he responded: “No, we would prefer to see the solution as a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation which will leave the West Bank and Gaza demilitarized” (CNN 1993). In his book The New Middle East, penned shortly after the historic events

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