With peace hopefully on the horizon soon in the present-day Middle East, one perhaps cannot help but think about a time when peace talks were on the minds of many Israelis 26 years ago.
In this month’s installment of “Remember When,” we look back to July 8, 1999, when Washington Jewish Week published the editorial “Making Room for Barak.”
In the election after Benjamin Netanyahu’s first term in office, the Israeli people elected Ehud Barak as the next prime minister because of his promise to keep the country secure while also pursuing peace talks with neighboring countries.
However, “some Jewish groups in the United States and the rest of the Jewish world were closely allied to the policies of the outgoing administration,” the article notes. “In their view, the peace process was anti-Israel at its core and put the security of the Jewish state
in jeopardy.”
It’s a debate that continues today, with Netanyahu still in the picture after returning to the prime minister seat a decade later and then again in 2022. The current Israeli government’s path has been to respond to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel by pursuing war against Israel’s enemies in the Middle East, from Hamas to Hezbollah to the Iranian regime. Yet the strategy has not been without its critics who want Netanyahu to prioritize bringing the remaining hostages that Hamas took on Oct. 7 back home.
After U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Israel appears to have the upper hand, but at least 50 hostages remain in the hands of Hamas. Finish the job or pursue peace now? The debate goes on.
