From the Editor

Rethinking Nobel Peace Prizes

Much has deservedly been written of the moral squalor of the three members of the Nobel Peace Prize committee who have publicly wished they could recall the 1994 prize to Shimon Peres (they remain perfectly happy with the award to Arafat). One of them said that the award to Peres threatened "to bring the prize into disrepute." The trio seems to have no inkling that it is they who have made the prize into a bitter laughingstock. It transpires that the most vocal of the three, Hanna Kvanmo, has a Nazi history; apparently in Norway a Nazi past is no barrier to becoming the world's moral arbiter.

AFSI is all in favor of withdrawing the Nobel Peace Prize from both Arafat and Peres (as well as from Rabin) and, so as to dispel the disappointment of both living laureates, proposes more fitting awards as a substitute. Finding the proper award for Arafat is easy: we hereby bestow upon him the Saddam Hussein Peace Prize. Peres is more difficult. On the one hand, we are tempted to give him the Alice in Wonderland Prize (that tale is gritty realism compared to Peres' The New Middle East).

The problem is that such an award gives the impression that Peres is merely a foolish, good-natured dreamer. Perhaps it is more appropriate -- retaining the Norwegian flavor -- to bestow upon Peres the Vidkun Quisling Prize for his role in undermining the state and promoting the fortunes of its enemies.

More Peres

Not content with being Arafat's flack, Peres now covers for the world's anti-Semites. First he denied the existence of anti-Semitism in France. Now he defends UN Middle East envoy Terje Larsen, who said Israel's actions in Jenin were "horrific beyond belief" and declared "Israel has lost all moral ground in this conflict." When Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein said Larsen's remarks were cause for declaring him "persona non grata," Peres rejected the "horrible calls to declare Larsen persona non grata." It turns out the Peres Peace Center had given Larsen -- a go-between for the PLO in the Oslo negotiations -- and his wife $100,000 in cash in 1999.

Jan Willen van der Hoeven of the International Christian Zionist Center has pointed out that Larsen has a long history of anti-Israel activity beginning in the 1970s when he served on the board of Palestinian News, a paper which editorialized against a "two state solution," supporting instead "the battle for the liberation of all of Palestine." More recently, Larsen was the UN official who denied the existence of the UN made video showing the abduction of three Israeli soldiers by terrorists wearing UN uniforms on the northern border; the UN was later
forced to admit possession of the video.

Nor has the discovery of documents showing Arafat gave direct orders to pay the expenses of assorted killers and suicide bombers caused Peres to waver. Asked on NBC's Today Show if these had hardened his view of Arafat, Peres would say only "I think myself that Arafat committed a terrible mistake." A few days later, at an Independence Day reception in Jerusalem, Peres played his nine year-old broken record: "Now we are starting on a voyage to peace and we will achieve it as well."

Kudos to John Walsh

Contrast the contortions of Israel's apologist-in-chief for Arafat, with a rare and refreshing voice, that of John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted. Walsh cut through the media hokum on Larry King Live:

Walsh: After September 11, the White House asked me to profile the world's most wanted terrorists, so I traveled to the Persian Gulf. When I was there, I saw what Arafat was saying on television in Arabic they gave me an interpreter....I would watch Arafat on Al-Jazeera and on Egyptian TV [and also on CNN]. He would say one thing to CNN like a victim and say that the Israelis are doing stuff -- but meanwhile he's sending suicide bombers. I mean, if those bombers were going into Nat 'n Al's in Beverly Hills or into Starbucks and blowing up your mother or wife or your children -- you would be after Arafat. Then he'd turn right around on Al-Jazeera and he'd say, 'The suicide bombers are with Allah and they are heroes. Drive the Israelis and the Jews into the ocean; Kill every Jew; Let's get back all of Israel.' He would say that the Americans are the bullies of the world, they support Israel...He's a thug, Larry -- a thug and a coward.

King (dryly): Other than that, you have no opinion of him.

Walsh: No, just that he should be dead.

(Continued on p.12)

Outpost               - 2 -               May 2002