(ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 10 - Today's images show both
smiling amid snowmen and snowballs in a Jerusalem whiter than it
had been for years; however, this may very well be the only
thing the two Israeli leaders have in common. Today, 12 days
short of the January 22 Israeli elections, the president has
launched an attack at the prime minister from the columns of the
New York Times. Peres claims that Netanyahu is leaving Israel
open to the risk of another intifada due to his delaying tactics
- if not actual filibustering - as concerns the eternal dossier
of talks with Palestinians.
After a previous heated exchange with the head of the
government on the possibility of a military attack on Iran,
Peres has once again lashed out at him against the backdrop of
an election campaign in which Netanyahu (at the head of the
right-wing Likud-Beitenu list) is courting ever more the
far-right settlers of the Occupied Territories, despite the fact
that this increases tension with the Palestinian Authority (PA)
under Mahmoud Abbas and irritates its vital ally, the US. This
attitude, in the eyes of the almost ninety-year-old head of
state, reflects the temptation to engage in a dangerous
rejection of diplomacy as an option. And this, in turn, will
sooner or later spark more violence and terrorism, within a
situation in which Israel is ever more isolated.
In an interview granted to the NYT - leading to an immediate
reaction in Israel itself - Peres claimed that Netanyahu is not
able to convince US president Barack Obama that he sincerely
wants peace. ''The idea that history is a horse which can be
held by the tail is stupid,'' he said, adding that ''the
tranquility that Israel has enjoyed over the past few years will
not last'', that ''conflict may be sparked once more'' and - in
this latter case - ''the situation would spin out of control''.
The message seems clear: not engaging in dialogue with Mahmoud
Abbas (criticised today once again by Netanyahu for having
resumed ''reconciliation'' talks with Khlaed Meshaal, leader of
the Hamas radical Islamic faction, in Cairo) simply means hiding
the dispute under the rug and letting the consequences be dealt
with by whoever comes afterwards. The comments were seen by the
prime minister as going beyond the institutional prerogatives of
Peres, putting the blame once more on Palestinian Authority
leaders for the lasting deadlock in negotiations.
However, Peres (an important Zionist leader and champion of
longevity in the political arena) is not the only one to
criticise Netanyahu and the nationalist-led coalition supporting
him. Criticism of the government's handling of the Palestinian
issue have poured down over the past few months even from
top-level former military and intelligence leaders. (ANSAmed).
