In a rare public appearance Monday, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak blasted Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for plans to meet Yasser Arafat, saying the move conflicted with attempts to isolate the Palestinian president, reported Haaretz.
Without naming Peres, Barak attacked the foreign minister's efforts to engage Arafat in dialogue.
"You can't ask the foreign ministers of Germany, Britain or France not to meet with Arafat, if we're meeting with him. You can't ask the prime minister of Norway not to meet with him, if the person closest to the prime minister, does," said Barak, referring to Omri Sharon, the premier's son.
Barak, who was addressing an audience of the United Kibbutz Movement, said that "whoever thinks Arafat is still a partner is either suffering from self-delusion or fantasy."
"Now that we've seen the situation," said Barak, summing up his view of those who want to negotiate with Arafat, "they're either blind or people so psychologically connected to their beliefs that it is difficult for them to look clearly at the reality. When you listen to them, you have to pinch yourself and say 'Can this be?'"
An angry Peres lashed back, said the paper, quoting him as saying, "I do not draw my legitimacy from Barak... [it] comes from the voters and not from others."
Peres noted that Barak had met with Arafat in the past and had offered him a far-reaching peace deal. "I advise that all of us try and learn from their mistakes," he said.
The foreign minister of Israel, which has hired several large PR firms to sway world opinion, said Monday he was not ready to meet Palestinian leaders for ceasefire talks as long as they were waging "media wars."
Peres told Israeli radio stations that he did not “understand the logic of the Palestinian officials…who ‘raid’ press microphones with provocative statements whenever they see them.”
“What do they want?” he asked, “Just shooting?”
The minister, who has been given the green light to start talks with the Palestinian Authority by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said that publicity campaigns would not help solve the crisis.
Asked to comment on reports that Palestinian officials, including Arafat, were refusing to meet him, he said that in the last meeting with Arafat, the president told him that "my door is always open for you."
Peres said that he would meet Arafat “when there is a need.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
