Posted on 12/09/2004 5:54:58 PM PST by yonif
Exactly 10 years after Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, members of the Norwegian awards committee are adamant that they made the right choice, and that the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, rather than Palestinian terrorism, was the prime factor in the collapse of the Oslo process.
On the eve of today's 2004 award ceremony, four of the five Norwegian Nobel Committee members, including the chairman and his deputy, as well as the committee's permanent secretary, contacted by the Post, said they still consider Arafat to have been a worthy winner. The other committee member, whom The Jerusalem Post was unable to reach, has previously expressed disappointment in Shimon Peres's post-1994 support for the policies of Ariel Sharon and issued no reported criticisms of Arafat.
By contrast, Kaare Kristiansen, who resigned from the committee in protest against the award to Arafat, told the Post he is "more convinced than ever that I did the right thing," and that "in their hearts" his former colleagues must recognize that they did not. He also claimed that the committee broke its own statutes in pressing ahead with the award despite his resignation, asserting that Alfred Nobel "laid down a rule saying that the decision must be unanimous."
The committee's secretary, Geir Lundestad, denied this, and said that no committee member has a right of veto.
Peres, meanwhile, this week told the Post that news of the award had come as a complete surprise to him at the time. He'd had no idea, he said, that he was even a candidate. "I didn't ask for it. I didn't work for it."
This claim was ridiculed by Israeli sources closely involved, who told the Post that Peres had lobbied for months ahead of the closing date for nominations, February 1, 1994, to make sure that eligible international politicians, academics and the like were promoting his candidacy.
Indeed, the Post was told, Rabin's office learned of Peres's efforts only a few days before the closing date for nominations, by chance, and then scrambled to arrange for the prime minister's nomination. Rabin considered the whole Nobel process to be premature, the Post was told.
Former Labor Knesset member Shevah Weiss, then-Knesset Speaker, who was entitled to nominate two candidates, said he recommended Rabin and Peres, and that "there was no pressure." But Peres did "lots of lobbying" elsewhere, Weiss added. "It was only natural, no?"
Kristiansen told the Post that the committee's original intention was not to include Peres among the recipients.
"During the process it was clear that Rabin and Arafat were the first choice," he said, although consideration was also given to awarding the prize to "the technical people" a reference to the direct Oslo negotiators. "Actually," continued Kristiansen, who attended all but the committee's final meeting, "I don't know what made them choose also Peres, but the committee members from the [Norwegian] Labor Party were very [insistent] that Peres...was the main person on the Oslo accord."
Sources close to Peres responded by calling Kristiansen's allegations "ridiculous" and alleging that Nobel committee members have been besmirching Peres's name for a decade. A source close to Peres said that in fact Peres alone was initially going to be given the prize, and that Rabin and Arafat were added later.
God help us if these Liberals ever get a chance to rewrite history to match their delusions.
Too much lutefisk rots the brain
A girlfriend's father tricked me into eating a piece once and I thought I was gonna die- the things we do for love.
Did they bury Arafat standing up?
To prepare dried cod, from the gracious Lord of Lindau, who was Bishop in Constance.
First take river water and ashes and add caustic lime [lye], which should be rather strong, and soak the dried cod therein.
Allow it to soak for a day and a night, afterwards drain it off and pour on it again the previously described caustic lime solution.
Let it soak again for a day and a night, put it afterwards in a pot and wash it off two or three times in water, so that the fish no longer tastes like lye.
Put it then in a pot and put water therein and let it slowly simmer so that it does not boil over.
Allow it to only simmer slowly, otherwise it becomes hard. Let it cook approximately one hour, after which, dress and salt it and pour salted butter over it and serve it.
Also put good mustard on the outside in about three places.
One must also beat dried cod well before it is soaked (Armstrong, 33).
He's received a helluva lot of kicks since he awarded the "Peace Prize" to Jimmy Carter.
The Nobel is about as significant as any entertainment award.
Nobel judges stand by Arafat
That might be a little difficult, now if he wants to lay be arafat I'll be more than happy to provide a shovel.
members of the Norwegian awards committee are adamant that they made the right choice, and that the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, rather than Palestinian terrorism, was the prime factor in the collapse of the Oslo process.
Meanwhile back in the real world...
I just finish Sharansky's book "The Case For Democracy", he really hits this attitude hard.
One thing that we can say about the Nobel Peace Prize committees. They tend to find the biggest losers around to give the prize. I'm only surprised that they haven't found an excuse to give the Kim's of North Korea the prize. Or maybe they can give it to the leadership of Sudan for trying to solve their Christian problem.
Well after loosing Arafat, the father of terrorism, they now want Perez, the French mole. Sheesh, talk about starting at the bottom of the Barrel and working up.
Agreed. If they keep apologizing for terrorist, they will kill us all,then they can rewrite history. Thats if, the Islamist wish to keep useful idiots alive.
The poor Norwegians spend all winter in the dark.......
The rest of the year, they're in a leftist coma.
Semper Fi
LOL, I've tried it. It was actually pretty tasty.
BTW, if that's you in that pic I could be mistaken for your brother or cousin.
Sorry, I couldn't find "Bunny with a pancake". ; )
So have they made any since, or are they still using the original batch? (Which would explain a lot.)
I wonder if it would help to inform them that Arafat mass murdered Muslims in Jordan and Christians in Lebanon? They might be under the impression that Arafat only killed Jews.
That's the reason why people don't call it the 'noble' prize, but instead say "no-bell"
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