Peres backs a Palestine state

JERUSALEM — Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres dropped a bombshell
on
Israel by stating he would support PLO chairman Yasser Arafat’s plan to
declare Palestine a state on May 4.

Speaking in Ramallah, Peres received thunderous applause from the
Palestinian Legislative Council with former Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev, as well as Henry Kissinger, Peres’ guests.

Peres’ remarks weren’t a shock to Benny Begin, the son of the late
Prime Minister Menachem Begin and now running against present Benjamin
Netanyahu in the May 17 Israeli elections.

“They simply show what were his true intentions when he initiated the
Oslo peace process more than five years ago,” he told radio’s Arutz7.

Israel Radio, KOL Yisrael, also announced that Moshe Arens will
challenge Netanyahu for the Likud leadership and the right to run as the
party’s candidate during May’s elections.

Peres, 76, the Labor Party chairman was born in Byelorussia in 1923
and
immigrated to Palestine when he was 11 and raised in Tel Aviv.

Noted for being a military genius, Peres became a member of the
Knesset
(Israel’s parliament) in 1959.

From 1959 until 1965, he also tried to promote strategic ties with
France.

Now there’s every indication that the French connection still is
intact,
for France has called for Israel to allow Arafat to declare Palestine a
state, followed by Peres’ startling public statement.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon, meeting in Paris
with
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, told Le Monde he predicted
“autonomy will lead to a Palestinian state.”

However, Sharon warned if it’s declared a state, Israel might annex
all the
territories they still control.

So in less than five months, Israel could face its worst crisis since
its
rebirth in 1948:

• May 4. PLO rogue Yasser Arafat to declare Palestine a state and
  Jerusalem as his capital.
• May 14. Israel’s 51st birthday.
• May 17. Israeli elections.