Sunday, November 05, 2006

Savir is No Savior

Uri Savir's op-ed ("Re-engage Rabin's road map", J Post, Nov. 3) was one of the more self-serving and misleading pieces of writing to appear in years, one of deceivement.

Rabin was circumvented in the entire Oslo process which Savir, along with Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin and others manipulated the Prime Minister. He initially opposed the process and never fully committed himself to it.

Despite Savir's claim that "only Rabin, together with his closest partner Peres, knew how to make peace", another, earlier Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, received the Nobel Prize for Peace. One can argue about the quality of that peace but in relationship to the Oslo Process, Begin's peace puts 'Oslo' into shame.

Moreover, the results of that process put the lie to Savir's insistence that the Rabin-Peres peace alliance possessed "foresight, pragmatism and courage". Actually, it was just the opposite.

Another imposturous point of Savir is that "Rabin was a true advocate for democracy…Rabin never attempted to gag the Right". From the use of "propellers" to "kuggelacher" to "I am responsible for the security for 97% of Israel's population", Rabin was a spiteful degrader of the opposition to his policies.

If there is an importance to the "legacy" of Rabin it is that leaders cannot disengage themselves and their polices from the people and what is the essence of national heritage.

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