Rabbis: Peres 'existential danger' to Jewish state

JERUSALEM – A group of hundreds of prominent Israeli rabbis today urged Knesset members here against electing former prime minister Shimon Peres for president, calling Peres an "existential threat" to the Jewish state.

"Electing Peres will be upholding the policies he has been promoting, like withdrawals from Judea and Samaria (West Bank), Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Peres is a major existential danger to the state of Israel," read a statement by the Rabbinical Congress for Peace, a coalition of more than 350 Israeli rabbinic leaders and pulpit rabbis.

"We witnessed the destruction and terror brought to our doorsteps from the evacuations Peres previously urged, including Israel's disastrous retreat from Gaza and Lebanon and Peres' brainchild, the Oslo accords, which offered PLO leader Yasser Arafat territory bordering Jewish cities," said the statement.

Peres last month formally announced his decision to run for president of the state of Israel after the former president, Moshe Katsav, lost his position amid a rape scandal. Elections will be held later this week in which Knesset members vote for presidential candidates by secret ballot.

Peres' in recent months attempted to push through the Knesset an amendment, titled the "Peres law," that would have seen the Israeli president elected by open ballot instead of the current secret ballot. The effort was widely regarded as a scheme to intimidate Knesset members and get Peres elected. The former prime minister is widely believed to have lost the previous presidential election, in 2000, because a number of Knesset members who publicly gave him their support instead voted for Katsav.

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Peres is Israel's longest-serving Knesset member. He was appointed deputy prime minister and minister for the development of the Israeli Negev desert for the current government. He has held a number of top positions, including foreign minister and minister of communications and defense. Although never elected to Israel's highest office, Peres served twice as prime minister, once following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and another time in an unusual deal that saw a rotating unity government for which he served for two years.

Peres was considered the driving force of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which invited late-PLO leader Yasser Arafat to rule the Palestinians and take over territory within rocket range of Israel's major population centers.

The Peres Peace Center, headed by the former prime minister, advocates the division of Jerusalem and Israeli withdrawals from the strategic West Bank and Golan Heights. The West Bank borders Jerusalem while the Heights looks down on Israeli population centers and twice was used by Syria to mount ground invasions into the Jewish state.

Peres repeatedly has come under fire by critics for policies and plans many say would greatly undermine Israel's security.

An official biography of the elderly statesman released earlier this year, entitled "Shimon Peres," revealed a draft agreement he hammered out with West Germany in 1961 to allow the creation of German military bases on Israeli soil less than two decades after the Holocaust.

The biography also detailed a controversial plan Peres concocted to lease French Guyana from France and create an Israeli colony there at a time when the 9-year-old Israel was desperate for immigrants and struggling to establish itself.

Peres: 'The rabbis are deceivers'

Last week, the religious council leading Israel's Shas party decided in a unanimous vote to throw its support behind Peres. The party's votes could be crucial for Peres to win. Analysts have speculated the Knesset is partially divided between Peres and Knesset Member Reuven Rivlin of the Likud opposition party.

"The High Council [of Shas] has decided to support the Vice Premier. We instruct all Shas faction MKs to vote for Peres as president of the state and we wish him luck in his position for the State of Israel," said a Shas statement.

But the Rabbinic Congress for Peace blasted Shas and called on all "who care about Torah values" to vote against Peres.

"Shas decision to vote for Peres in no way brings honor to the Torah but embarrasses the Torah," the Congress statement read.

Peres has multiple times been accused of making anti-religious statements.

A list of purported anti-Jewish quotes made by Peres to the media were recently plastered around religious communities by a group calling itself the Committee for Jewish Holiness.

Among the documented Peres statements listed were:

"What King David did was not Jewish."

"The rabbis are deceivers."

"There is nothing to be proud of in Jewish history."

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