NRC AH
Letters Editor
Amsterdam, 03.07.2012

Dear Sir,

The obituary of your Israel correspondent, Leonie van Nierop, re Yitzchak Shamir is quite biased.

It was mentioned in this obituary as though the reliability of Israel’s Arabs adversaries is rather less honest than political stance of the deceased.

It has been clearly established that the PLO Charter, which calls for the destruction of the Jewish State, was never altered, despite their commitment to do so in the Oslo Accords,

It should also be pointed out the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, which Shamir opposed. is now being exposed and challenged, thanks to the take-over in Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Sincerely Yours,

Harry F Melkman

PO BOX 10120
1001 EC Amsterdam

Obituary of Yitchak Shamir, published in NRC-AH d.d. 02.07.2012, by the Israel correspondent Leonie van Nierop.

Hawk with a violent past:

NRC-AH d.d. 02.07.2012

Yitchak Shamir (1915-2012), erstwhile prime-minister of Israel. Yitchak Shamir resisted any kind of compromise with the Palestinians.

By our Israel Correspondent

The combination of a short posture, cold character and a violent past had Yitchak Shamir be called by the nickname “the murderous dwarf”…

Shamir came from white-Russia to Palestine to join the Jewish resistance against the British authorities. During the forties he was, amongst others, responsible for the assassination of the British governor and the mediator of the UN.

After the establishment of Israel, Shamir worked at the foreign secret service, Mossad, for 10 years. According to historians, he preferred to deal with enemies through letter-bombs.

In 1970, he associated himself with the right-wing Herut Party which later merged with the Likud Party. He was considered politically as the most hawkish amongst the hawks.

In the seventies, he was against the peace treaty with Egypt as he considered Israel paid too high a price in giving back the Sinai.

At the later times as prime-minister Shamir blocked the deal made between his Minister of Foreign Affairs and Jordan during peace negotiations.

Shamir adamantly refused to relinquish the Israeli control over the Palestinian West Bank. He was of the opinion Israel is entitled legally on the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the river Jordan, and he let built many Jewish settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The US Secretary of State at the time, James Baker, was so frustrated at Shamir’s resistance against any kind of compromise that he openly rendered the telephone number of the White House at a television broadcast inviting Shamir to call him if if he seriously wanted to talk peace.

In 1991 Shamir finally budged in over American pressure and attended the peace conference in Madrid.

He later acknowledged he just did it to keep the Americans happy intending in the aftermath to endlessly pushing on the brakes.

There still is no peace accord.

The Israeli Prime-Minister Netanyahu praised Shamir’s statements in respect of the unreliability of the Arabs.

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