The expression "victims of peace" tends to be attributed to the attacks that followed the Oslo Accords, which were signed 30 years ago, but the truth is that the root of the expression actually came from the prime minister and right-winger Menachem Begin.
At a cabinet meeting in March 1982, after receiving calls from Knesset members protesting the concessions made following the peace treaty with Egypt, he turned to his critics and said: "We are fighting for peace. We are blessed to have had it. Yes, there are difficulties in peace, there are. There are sacrifices for peace. Everyone is better than the victims of war."
Labor Party rally in memory of Yitzhak Rabin // Photo: Yoni Rikner
In an article that will be published this weekend in the "Israel This Week" supplement, we will return to the victims who arrived after the signing of the Oslo Accords. Their families to this day don't like the connection they tried to make. "'Victims of peace' - I didn't believe it for a second, and I think it was more than stupid," said Batya Bahar, whose son Eran was murdered in an October 1993 terror attack, less than a month after the agreement was signed. "It was evil to use these words and aimed at instilling hope that the public would think that it was a good thing worth absorbing casualties, just as in wars we needed sacrifices in order to achieve. It was a huge and evil fraud."
In the 90s, it was Islamic Jihad and Hamas that carried out mega-attacks to ensure that no political progress would take place after the agreements. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said at the time that he did not intend to stop negotiations with the Palestinians, and that the enemies of peace should not be rewarded for their murderous activity, but the pressure increased from attack to attack. Israeli President Ezer Weizmann went to the press after the attack on bus No. 5 in Tel Aviv and said that Hamas terrorists had to be torn down and ripped off.
"I need to be here"
"In one of the attacks, we were on the eve of a trip to Germany, and the president said, 'Announce that I am postponing my arrival, because at these moments I have to be here and nowhere else,'" says Brig. Gen. (res.) Shimon Heifetz, who was President Weizmann's military secretary. "We met Arafat several times to tell him, 'Start taking the reins. We can't have signed agreements and you're not making an effort to improve the situation. You have to act.' I remember Weizmann saying something to him along the lines of, 'I'm more Palestinian than you. I was born here (in Tel Aviv), and you are not (Cairo).'"
We can't have signed agreements and you're not making an effort to improve the situation." Brigadier General Shimon Heifetz, Photo: Gil-Yohanan-Contact
In the article, we spoke with people who were injured in the attacks, and asked what they have been through since then and what their insights are today. "The incident sharpened a few things for me," says Yigal Dayag, 54, who was wounded in an attack on bus No. 20 in Ramat Gan in July 1995. "Not after a minute or a year, but from the perspective of a period it lowered the veil of innocence for me. I am not a lover of war, but as I understand it, those who talk about peace speak of innocence, and then there was a lot of innocence and a desire to see the world in beautiful colors. I realized that reality is not as beautiful as they are trying to portray it."
The full article - Friday in the special supplement.
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