Tourism Minister Benny Elon demanded today that Prime Minister Sharon fire Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, following the latter’s speech in the United Nations yesterday. Asked if he can continue to be a member in a government whose representatives express public support for a Palestinian state, Elon said, “At present, I can, yes - but not if I see that Sharon gives Peres full backing, or does not call him to order, or violates his public promise to our Knesset faction that he will not hold any negotiations with foreign elements [about a new diplomatic plan], including even U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, before a Cabinet meeting on the matter. At present, I have no reason to believe that he is violating this promise, but I demand that he call Peres to order and fire him.”

Peres’ speech in the UN began as follows:
“Humanity woke up happy to welcome the 21st century. We turned and looked around and there was brightness and freshness in the air. We had departed from the traditional history that was written with red ink - wars, skirmishes, conflicts, murders - many of them arising because human existence was dependent upon land and natural resources. We had to protect our own lands. [But] modern science emerged to supersede land, opening new horizons of limitless opportunities. Science [made] borders become marginal, old prejudices and distances began to dissipate from our mind. Technology created a new interdependence. No longer were our connections dependent upon land or sea, namely, upon distances…”

Regarding a Palestinian state, Peres said,
“Yesterday, you would hardly find, for example, support for a Palestinian State. And although this is not yet a formal policy of the Government of Israel, there is support for Palestinian independence, support for a Palestinian state.” The first part of the second sentence was added after a series of last-minute calls yesterday between the Prime Minister’s Office and Peres’ aides in New York.

In contrast to Arafat’s virulent anti-Israel speech in the same forum a few days earlier, Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA notes that Peres did not relate at all to continued Palestinian anti-Israel incitement and refusal to take concrete steps against Palestinian terrorism. The full text of the Foreign Minister’s speech can be read at .

At a press conference with UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan afterwards, Peres called upon the PA to agree to the deployment of an American observer force in Gaza as a first step towards accepting responsibility for security in the area.

In a letter to Prime Minister Sharon yesterday, MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu) wrote:
“Foreign Minister Peres is causing the State of Israel great damage as he strengthens the status of murderers and terrorists by offering a prize to unceasing Palestinian terrorism… In his unceasing undercutting [ed. note: a reference to Rabin’s famous criticism of Peres], Peres is attempting, in front of the whole world, to create facts, thus endangering your leadership… The Foreign Minister was never given the right to serve as the Nation of Israel’s commentator in the UN. He was rather sent as an emissary of the government, and as such he must express clearly and firmly its positions. Minimal intellectual and ethical honesty obligates him to resign from the government.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2001 and is filed under news.