"It was a funeral of the man who led the peace, not a funeral of the peace."

—Acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres

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assured the crowd that violence
"is not the way of the State of Is-
rael."
And asked by a journalist cov-
ering that rally whether her hus-
band was wearing a bullet-proof
vest, a startled Leah Rabin
snapped, "What do you mean, a
bullet-proof vest? Are you crazy?
What (do you think, that) we're
in Africa?"
Yigal Amir not only did the un-
thinkable, he chose a particular-
ly sensitive juncture: the start of
the IDF's redeployment in the
West Bank and of an election
year that was expected to be a
shrill and violent one. The prime
minister had not yet declared his
intention to run for another term.
But from the momentum of the
peace process, his determination
to pursue it was clear. With his
recent recovery in the polls, few
doubted that Mr. Rabin would be
Labor's candidate.
Now the peace process stands
in the shadow of the question
that no one asked: How will it
fare in the absence of Yitzhak Ra-
bin? As acting prime minister,
Shimon Peres quickly recon-
firmed his determination to pursue peace and announced
the resumption of the IDF's redeployment. Yet Mr. Peres'
commitment to the process of which he is the chief al.-
. chitect was never in doubt. The question is whether he
can see it through future crises without Mr. Rabin behind
him, radiating solidity, authority, responsibility.
Mr. Peres' ability to keep the peace process in motion
depends, to a large degree, on the stability and credibil-
ity of the government he will form in the coming weeks.
According to Israeli law, upon the death of a prime min-
ister, the government is "deemed to have resigned," and
a care-taker government goes into effect until the presi-
dent can consult with all the parties in parliament and
invite the man most likely to succeed in forming a new
government to do so.
Clearly, President Ezer Weizman will choose Mr. Peres
for this task, not just because he can quickly reestab-

lish the present 58-member coalition (with the support
of the five deputies of the two Arab parties), but especially
because Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu has al-
ready announced that his party will recommend that Mr.
Peres be asked to form the new government. "The regime
in Israel is changed not through murder but through elec-
tions," Mr. Netanyahu wisely declared.
President Weizman will not begin these consultations
until the end of the seven-day mourning period, and Mr.
Peres has likewise declared that he will not engage in any
political activity during the shiva. But the media has
already turned its attention to readings of the political
situation, and the gist of these analyses is that the deci-
sions Mr. Peres must make boil down to three:
• First, he must decide whether to form a government
with the intention of braving out the next year, and not
going to the polls until November 1996, or to move the
elections to as early as January or February.

Early elections have already Opposite page: Acting
been promoted by a number of La- Prime Minister Shimon
bor leaders and offer the advan- Peres sits next to an
tage of gaining the sympathy vote. empty chair draped in
mourning.
The sooner elections are held, the
more Labor — and Mr. Peres per- Top: Mr. Rabin's family
sonally — will be identified as the grieves at the funeral.
executors of"Rabin's legacy." Few
in the party have forgotten that it
was Mr. Rabin's personal popularity, not Labor's collec-
tive image or platform, that decided the last election.
By the same token, Mr. Peres' record as a prime min-
isterial candidate is poor. Under his leadership, Labor
lost three elections. In its best showing, after the disas-
trous Lebanon War, it only tied with the Likud. This point
becomes critical in 1996 because, unless the law is changed
or postponed, Israel's next prime minister will be chosen
by direct election (not just as the head of a party slate).

Shimon Peres At The Top

INA FRIEDMAN

ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT

cting Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres is, without question,
the most veteran player on the
Israeli political scene.
During this 47-year career, he
has served as Israel's prime min-
ister (1984-86), defense minister
(1974-77), foreign minister
(1986-88, 1992-present), and
minister of finance (1988-90),
and in lesser Cabinet posts.
Born in Poland in 1923, Mr.
Peres arrived in Palestine, with
his family, at the age of 10, stud-
ied at the Ben Shemen Agricul-
tural School, and was later a
founder of Kibbutz Alumot. En-
tering public service during the

A

War of Independence, in the de-
fense ministry he became a pro-
tege of Prime Minister and
Defense Minister David Ben-
Gurion.
During the 1950s and early
1960s, he initiated or shepherd-
ed the foundation of Israel's Air-
craft Industries and the
construction of the nuclear re-
actor at Dimona (procured
through the special relations he
fostered with France). In 1965,
with such loyalists as Moshe
Dayan and Teddy Kollek, he fol-
lowed the disgruntled Mr. Ben-
Gurion out of the dominant
Mapai Party to help found the
rival Rafi List. Three years lat-
er, he negotiated a merger be-
tween Rafi and Mapai to form
the Israel Labor Party.

Under Prime Ministers Levy
Eshkol and Golda Meir, Mr.
Peres first reached the Cabinet
level. After the Yom Kippur War,
with much of Labor's Old Guard
discredited, he surged to the fore-
front of Israeli politics, pitting
himself against (and losing nar-
rowly to) Yitzhak Rabin in the
contest to succeed Mrs. Meir as
prime minister.
The tension and rivalry be-
tween the two prevailed. In his
autobiography, written after re-
signing in 1977, Mr. Rabin char-
acterized Mr. Peres as a "tireless
schemer" — a phrase that was
to haunt them in subsequent
elections.
Only in the past two years,
during their joint stewardship of
the peace process, has the mu-

tual suspicion given way to co-
operation and even appreciation.
In 1977, when Labor lost to
the Likud under Menachem Be-
gin, Mr. Peres inherited a dev-
astated party. He headed Labor
for its seven years in opposition
before attaining a sort of tie with
the Likud, in 1984, that was re-
solved with a National Unity
Government, the two parties'
leaders rotating as prime min-
ister. He served under Yitzhak
Shamir as finance minister in
another National Unity Gov-
ernment formed in 1988. Two
years later, that government fell
over Labor's sharp differences
with Mr. Shamir's approach to
proposed negotiations with the
Palestinians.
Despite vigorous horse trad-

ing, Mr. Peres failed to form a
new government. In 1992, in a
special primary to choose the
party's prime ministerial candi-
date, Mr. Peres lost to Mr. Ra-
bin, who led the party to its first
electoral victory in 15 years.
After the signing of the Oslo
Accord in September 1993 -- en-
gineered by Mr. Peres' aides in
the Foreign Ministry -- Mr.
Peres threw himself into the
peace process. His image in Is-
rael gradually changed from a
savvy politician to a world-class
statesman. An avid reader,
writer (of several books), and oc-
casional poet, he has a distinct
way with language and has
come be appreciated for his pol-
ish (so lacking in Mr. Rabin, his
partner in the peace enterprise).

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