As a life-long leader in Israel's fight for peace took the podium last night, the audience listened. As he talked about the special ingredients for peace, but not the recipe itself, they paused to think. And as former Prime Minister of Israel Shimon Peres weighed the promises made and the prices paid in the search for peace, all 300 people in the room understood.
Addressing Israelis and non-Israelis, Americans and non-Americans alike at the Geneen Auditorium in the Fuqua School of Business last night, Peres discussed the peace process in Israel-a race he has been publicly running since he was 16 years old.
The very nature of war and peace, he said, are at the crux of finding a solution to a problem that predates the state of Israel itself.
"Everybody is for peace, but not everybody is for paying the
costs of peace," Peres said. "For peace, you need a majority, but for war you do not. Yasser Arafat's experience has been as the leader of a revolution instead of the husbandry of a state. But he is the first Palestinian who was willing to turn from weapons to negotiations.
"There have been five wars in 50 years; We have demonized each other.... If I compare today's Israel with the Israel 40 years ago-then, war and peace was not entirely in our hands. Today, much more is in our hands, and we tried to gain our strengths so we should be able to negotiate out of war."
In the latter part of his political career, Peres worked closely with former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was slain Nov. 5, 1995. As minister of foreign affairs, he and Rabin toiled for the signing of the Oslo II Peace Accord with Palestinian leaders; for their efforts, Rabin, Peres and Arafat were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Together, they strove to end the violence on Israel's streets and the slaughter of its citizens. Alone, Peres watched as his friend was assassinated.
"It was a very painful experience," he said, "[Rabin's] being assassinated before my eyes. But I think we did what we should have done.... While I feel a great deal of remorse, I do not feel a bit of regret."
Despite the murder of his colleague, Peres went on to chase the goal they had shared and follow the course they had begun together-all the while bearing in mind the "two basic historic tests" of the peace process' success: the existence of a moral code guiding Israel's actions and an expeditious handling of the negotiations.
"It's not enough to win a battle in the field," he explained. "You have to be able to look at it at a different time, from a different place.... There must be a moral code that we still have. We need it.
"We must also decide on time and not postpone the decisions to future generations. Rabin and I knew that we must make decisions now to allow younger generations to worry about their own battles. I criticize the current government for putting off the decisions.... Let's face the future dangers because it demands not courage, but open eyes."
The current Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, displaced Peres in the June 1996 election. Sadly, Peres argued, Netanyahu has failed the second test in the time since. "What is so apparently difficult to do today," he said, "may be impossible for us to do tomorrow."
The challenge to find peace, he said, will continue. Perhaps the most difficult hurdle, however, is the tenuous line between finding peace with the enemy and finding peace with the splintered factions that neither side can control.
"The enemy has a given land, a given territory, a given flag," he explained, "but dangers are floating in the air. And it's difficult to conduct foreign policy when you don't have an enemy. Often the dangers can be more dangerous than the enemy."
Acutely aware of Israel's precarious situation, Peres made it clear that peace is imperative for the nation's growth and its citizens' safety. The country knew war before it knew independence, he said, and the greatness of the conflict has become comparable to the smallness of the state.
"In our history we have never dominated another people, but on the other hand, all the people that have dominated us are gone, so why would we want to?" he joked, but added sternly, "It's one thing to dominate the land, but it's another thing to dominate people."
Peres, whose lecture was sponsored by the North Carolina Israel Partnership and the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, will speak again today in the Griffith Film Theater at 1 p.m.
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