Peres accused of invoking God for political gain

Shimon Peres

JERUSALEM – Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, running in this week's election for president of Israel, has been accused by some here of invoking the name of God to pander to the crucial religious vote.

Peres, a secularist, in the past has made a number of statements to media some charge are anti-religious. Last weekend, Peres gave an interview to a major Israeli religious newspaper repeatedly crediting God for his political career and using the terms "the Holy One Blessed be He" and "Master of the Universe" an unusually large number of times.

"What I can do with the strength that the Holy One Blessed be He has given me, I do willingly," Peres told Mishpahah, a popular weekly for the Israeli religious community.

"As long as the Holy One Blessed be He gives me the strength, I will continue to serve," Peres said.

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In response to a question about his age, Peres, 83, replied: "On the issue of age I can only say that I thank Heaven's benevolence for giving me long life and health. ... If anyone has complaints about my great age, please refer them to the Master of the Universe, who gives life to every living thing."

Other invocations of God during the religious community interview included:

• "Listen to me: the Holy One Blessed be He grants years, health, and life. I feel well, and I am thankful for that."

• "I will come with what the Holy One Blessed be He gave me with the purpose of serving my people."

• "As a Jew I take into account (that I’ll lose) because everything is from Heaven."

But a sampling of Peres' other recent interviews and hundreds of previous interviews to nonreligious newspapers found the veteran politician doesn't refer to God at all.

Uri Orbach, a commentator for Israel's leading Yediot Aharonot newspaper, charged in a column last weekend, "[Peres was] attempting to create the impression among the religious readers that [he] and the Holy One are on friendly terms. ... All these words were spoken hypocritically, and were intended only to be pleasing to the [religious] MKs so that they would support [him]."

Addressing Peres directly, Orbach charged, "A man of your age with your status who uses the name of God so suddenly and so frequently for earthly, personal needs, would appear to be sinning by taking the name of the Lord in vain."

Rabbi Joseph Garlitsky, chief rabbi of Center Tel Aviv, told WND, "Peres' relationship with God is something that is personal to him. But until he repents, until he comes out and says he made major mistakes with the Oslo Accords and with upholding PLO Leader Yasser Arafat as a partner for peace, and with urging withdrawals and land giveaways, bringing massive bloodshed to the Jewish state, he is not allowed to be president."

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

Last week, the rabbinic council leading Shas, Israel's largest religious 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 Rabbinic Congress for Peace, a coalition of more than 350 Israeli rabbinic leaders and pulpit rabbis, 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.

Orbach pointed out Peres in the past "has been quoted as saying things that were insulting to religion and to Judaism and to biblical heroes."

Peres often has 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."

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.

The Rabbinic Congress for Peace yesterday called 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 Congress, 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' 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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