Post Peres Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PPTSS)
Post Peres Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PPTSS)

Shimon Peres left the presidency of Israel, after promising the world an era of peace in the Middle East. 

Yet, despite the total failure of his policies and the thousands murdered and maimed as a result of them, Peres continues to dominate the news. 

Perhaps the public is suffering from some kind of addiction?
And Peres will soon lead the roster as the guest of honor for major Jewish functions in London and New York.

The question remains: why?

Perhaps the public cannot shake itself of all of those self-assured unfulfilled promises of peace.

Perhaps the public is suffering from some kind of addiction?

As a mental health professional, perhaps we can call this a case of "Post Peres Traumatic Stress Syndrome" (PPTSS)

Peres reiterated his belief in peace at his final visit at the White House in June, when he proclaimed that Abbas, now serving the tenth year of his four year term as PA president, was a partner for peace.

Peres’s proclamation was based on the following ten illusions that Peres had implanted in the public peace process mindset, as if…

1. The PA never made an accord with Hamas, defined as a terrorist organization

2. The PA ratified the Oslo Accords with Israel, which it never did.

3. The PA changed its charter to remove the mission to destroy Israel, which it never did.

4. The PA adopted a peace school curriculum, which it never has done.

5. The PA renounced the “right of return”, which it has never done.

6. The PA settled for a Palestinian state outside the 1967 lines, which it never did.

7. The PA denounced “armed struggle” to liberate all of Palestine, which it never did.

8. The PA Arabic language media conveys a message of peace, which it never has.

9. The PA recognizes the state of Israel as a Jewish state, which it has never has.

10. Abbas renounced his PHD that “Zionists assisted Nazis”, which he never did.

Yet until the Gaza aerial attacks struck every nook and cranny of Israel, a good part of the people of Israel, suffering from PPTSS, believed the Peres narrative:

1. Peres adopted the Arab League position, that the PLO represents the Palestinian Arab people.

2 Peres dropped negative information on the PLO from the Israeli government's agenda.

3.Peres claimed that the country had an obsession with Kassam missiles, which were not lethal.

4. Peres falsifed the biography he gave to the Knesset, claiming that he had served in the IDF.

5. Peres refused to answer questions about incitement which emanated from Arafat and Abbas.

6. Peres claimed that videos of Arafat’s speeches in Arabic (whose message was wholly different from those for world consumption) were doctored

7. Peres accepted grants from 18 governments for the Peres Center for Peace.

8. Peres benefited from his financial investments in PalTel, the Palestinian telephone company.

9. Peres did not deny providing gratuities in order to receive the Nobel Peace Prize

10. Peres claimed that he was in contact with Abbas for 30 years- which meant that Peres was in contact with the PLO ten years before it was legal to do so.

IDealist or Illusionist?

As a high school student, I met Senator Robert Kennedy on one occasion, in May 1967, at a time when RFK pondered his position on the Vietnam War.

As he was making his decision, Kennedy said that he was thinking of the legacy of the English statesman, Edmund Burke, who once said that he would rather be an “idealist without illusions than to be an illusionist without ideals”.

Was  Shimon Peres an idealist or an illusioni​st without ideals? His record speaks for itself, as does the syndrome associated with blind worship of his name.