While Israel disintegrates, Shimon Peres threw a birthday bash for himself at much public expense. Little did he know that he provided an opportunity to awaken a nearly defeated people by wrecking his celebration. But would the people exploit their moment? The signs were hopeful on Sept.19/03 when the left wing newsmagazine Yerushalayim published a huge expose of the proceedings. Not only was the public forced to pay the salaries of 1200 police officers assigned to secure the Peres' party, it was also made to pony up for the civil servants assigned by Likud cabinet ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert who had been working for six months on the orgy; not to mention whatever it costs to feed and entertain the guests at the President's house. All pretty scandalous stuff but the really big scandal was the fraudulent rental of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv by Peres staff for the 1100 guests. Normally the hall rents for 31,000 shekels, a reasonable sum for the facility. But Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai pressed his city council to defer all costs, based on a request sent on the stationery of the Ministry Of Regional Affairs. That was Peres' last government office, but the problem is he hasn't been Minister Of Regional Affairs for over two years, and in fact, the ministry doesn't even exist anymore. So how did Peres' spokesman Yoram Dori explain away this minor piece of buncoism? "We made a mistake." Well he fessed up, so all is forgiven...Unless someone actually submits a request to the State Comptroller to investigate the con, it looks like it will be. But if someone does demand an investigation, Peres' staff will be there to save him. Asked about the irregularities, Dori explained, "This is a surprise party. Shimon doesn't even know what we're planning for him." The challenge then was to trick Shimon into changing his plans for the evening and shocking him that all his friends would do such a nice thing without him suspecting a thing. But crime has its own price and in Peres' case it was those hard to ignore no-shows. For weeks the birthday boy organizers had promised a glittering array of arriving Hollywood celebrants like Steven Spielberg, Barbara Streisand and Naomi Campbell. None of them showed up. The only star who did was the long faded Kathlyn Turner, and who noticed? Shimon began his two day festivity by placing a wreath at Rabin Square to the man he murdered, Yitzhak Rabin. The irony was apparently not lost on the Rabin family, none of whom showed up for his celebration. And they were joined by nearly the full roster of the leadership of the far left including Yossi Sarid, Yael Dayan and Avraham Burg. They were furious that the organizers weren't from Peres' own party but were Olmert and Sharon from the enemy camp. To them, this signified that there was no political opposition in the country. Why they asked, would the birthday be not only sanctioned and paid for by Sharon but actually organized by him and his camp? The answer is that the outside power elite ordered Sharon to boost Peres' standing and pay for it. The prestige of Peres and Oslo was at stake and while they would supply Clinton, Anan, Mandela and Gorbechev, Sharon had darn well better be prepared to make sure this con job worked. But it didn't. The biggest embarassment of all was that Mrs. Shimon Peres, Sonia, refused to join the festivities. Here is Dori's amazing explanation for her refusal to return the RSVP; "Sonia is a feminist and does things her way. She hates crowds but will be there in spirit." Needless to say, Dori chose not mention Peres' well known womanizing or long affair with Collette Avital. Nope, 80 year old Sonia wasn't coming in order to take a feminist stand. So far, a hopeful start, but it wasn't long before disappointment set in. The Women In Green had organized a protest outside Mann Auditorium and I was certain thousands would join in. The demonstration was too far from the auditorium to make a serious difference and only 200 showed up anyway. And the speakers were, with the exception of one reporter from Maariv, the usual spokespeople from the Right. One of them was journalist Adir Zik, who is very ill. Everyone pray for him. He is irreplaceable. That same night 10,000 people showed up for a "protest" in Jerusalem on behalf of Jonathan Pollard. By scheduling their get-together on the same night, Pollard's people had sabotaged the Women In Green. There was a difference though. To fill their event, Pollard's people put on a free outdoor concert featuring well known religious musicians. Maybe five people who showed up actually cared about Pollard's fate, they wanted the free show, while every participant outside Mann auditorium cared profoundly that their nation was being buried alive. The Women In Green are the vanguard of Israel's resistance to suicide and some of us are grateful to them. But 200 isn't some enough. The rally ends and I walk to my car parked near the Mann Auditorium. I see the crowd is leaving so I take out my Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin banner and stood there. I'm amazed that I'm not seeing the creme de la creme of the Left emerging from the event but one after another, from the Right and religious sectors. Here is Netanyahu's aide, there is Likud politico Avi Pazner, here comes Rabbi Meshi, the government's agent in the Haredi camp. And then Shas Party spokesman Yitzhak Sudri passes me. I say to him, "Sudri what were you doing in there? You know who murdered Rabin." He answers, "You did." In April 1997, I sat with Sudri in the office of Welfare Minister Eli Suissa. The minister had requested that Sudri inform me that the 1996 general elections were rigged. Peres was blackmailed over his leading role in the Rabin murder to lose the elections. That is what Sudri told me then and now he was spending his evening celebrating Peres. My, my, how the religious political sector has been corrupted! There were a half dozen protesters shaming the party-goers and one was Iris Cohen. I had received reports that she was instigating provocations among various anti-government movements and that she was considered an obvious Shabak agent-provocateur. But there she was, almost alone, doing the work that all of Israel should have been doing. I said to her, "Then you're for real after all?" I recant my previous claim. The Shabak has planted so many instigators among the resistance movements that you don't know who to trust anymore. She is so aggressive that she appeared to be one of them. Now I think she is actually real after all. The last person out of the hall is Greer Faye Cashman, the Jerusalem Post gossip columnist who has been grinding out pro-Peres puffery for years. I say to her, "Greer, I've been getting reports that you are being paid by Peres' PR agency to plant nice things about him in your column. Do you get money from them?" Highly flustered, she denied it. "Then," I queried, "Why are you always going to bat for him?" She ran away from me. The next day her report on the party had a different tone. Half the front-page article concentrated on the protests against the celebrations. One more tiny victory.
*** When I go out and meet the public, I get information. One informant told me, "Get the tv films of the Rabin assassination night. I saw something important. The camera was aimed at Ibn Gvirol street and one of the crowd picked up a bullet clip wrapped in black tape. He gave it to a policeman. Whose clip was that? It wasn't Amir's." Another concerned Israeli took me aside and whispered, "This is inside information and it's accurate. There is a new policy in the Shabak. They think the settlers only suspect religious-looking Ashkenazim as agents, so they've switched to Sephardim mostly." Then attorney Menachem Koren-Weitz had a long conversation with me. "I knew there was a conspiracy before you did and here's why. I've been an attorney in criminal trials at the Tel Aviv Court building often enough to know the procedure. The building is designed to prevent the accused from having any verbal contact with anyone. When Amir was brought in for his hearing two days after the murder, all the regulations were lifted and he was allowed to say whatever he wanted to the media. All his public confessions then were a deliberate part of the coverup." Attorney Koren-Weitz also gave me career advice. He suggested I don't publicize my Hebrew edition of Save Israel! anymore. "Everyone is saying the Shabak gave you something to make you crazy. Stick with Rabin and forget the new book. It's too much for our people." I replied, "When I put out Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin the same people thought I was crazy then. Nine years later, half the country know I was right from the beginning. It'll take nine years, if we have them, but Save Israel! will be vindicated." A few days before, the influential newsmagazine Makor Rishon published a long cover story on my new book. The photographer was highly talented, the reporter not too bright. The result was precisely the sort of disbelief that Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin engendered. Selling New World Order conspiracy to a tired and unthinking Israeli public has its down sides but the truth will out this time, just as last. The birthday bash ends and I go home. At the protest rally, I'm told to turn on Channel One television at 12:15 for an unexpected surprise. Here, on government-owned tv is a one hour discussion of conspiracy with a well-respected host and three political scientists. They talk about the illuminati, the Jesuits, 9-11 and Rabin. They talk about me and show a clip of me lecturing. And the tone isn't angry or embarassing. The discussion includes admissions that some conspiracies are real. Without Save Israel published in Hebrew, and all the attention it has received, would this program have aired? Would Israelis have been given a new perspective on political reality? Another small victory. In time, they may all add up to actually Saving Israel.
