New Israel president
Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal, New Delhi, India
As if to bring together the warring Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah amid the huge explosions, Nobel laureate Shimon Peres became the President of Israel on 13 June. He was the winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks that produced the Oslo Accords. Peres participated in these talks as the Israeli Foreign Minister. Peres has served three times as Israeli Prime Minister, though only once as the result of direct elections, and has held many significant Israeli cabinet posts including Finance Minister, Foreign Minister, and Defence Minister. Peres was nominated by the Kadima Party, founded by Ariel Sharon, to run for Presidency. Peres was elected by the Knesset for the presidency for a seven-year term.Like in many other countries, the post of president is a merely ceremonial post in Israel where the Prime Minister is the supreme authority in practical terms. It seems the post of President is practised by many countries just not only as a formality but also to tell the USA where the president is the deciding authority that President could be used as a rubber stamp, as it is done in India, without any real powers. Keeping a weak presidency promotes political manipulations at all levels and gives room for rampant corruption, which is beyond the president's capacity to stop or control. For Peres the second term is a remote future question. But the moot question would be: will the Nobel laureate be able to bring about a final settlement of the Palestinian problem, or will he also prove that there is nothing so great about Nobel Peace Prize?
|
|
