Following his political-media blitz in the US, Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres was dispatched by his Likud boss Ariel Sharon to Europe in pursuit of his mission as the most deceptive apologist for the most destructive policies of the most extremist government in Israel.

Fully exploiting his genteel mannerisms and his soft-spoken public persona, Peres indulged in the most lethal whitewash exercise on behalf of a most dangerous Israeli government.

Addressing a group of journalists in Berlin, Peres stated, “The United States told Arafat ‘If you don’t stop the terror, stay out of the U.S.’… It would be helpful if the Europeans would take the same view.” (Reuters, May 9).

In other words, having succeeded in getting the US to do Israel’s bidding and to boycott the victims of Israel’s occupation and brutality as well as the indispensable key to peace, Peres is now “politely” telling the Europeans what they need to do (i.e. follow the disastrous example of US bias and short-sightedness).

The “terror” litany, of course, is mindlessly recited in an attempt to make it gain a life of its own and in order to revive the convenient label of genetic “terrorism” as applicable to a whole nation. The implication is that the Palestinians are “fair game” and that Israel cannot be held responsible for the endless atrocities it is committing against the captive civilian Palestinian population, besieged and terrorized with impunity and immunity by the Israeli occupation army.

Peres is not only adding insult to injury; he is also compounding the very real injury to the Palestinians, the Israelis, and international public opinion.

At once, he is destroying confidence and aggravating hostility and hatred, while indulging in a grand deception that would perpetuate the conflict. He is also attempting to present a “civilized” front for the cruelest occupation and to legitimize Palestinian victimization.

International public opinion may be taken in temporarily, but ultimately it will grasp the hard reality of Sharon’s iron fist beneath Peres’s velvet glove. In reality, very few people take kindly to being manipulated or deceived. In the end, those who indulge in such machinations will be caught in their own trap.