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These two settlements, which have
become flagships of the settlement
movement, were the start of Jewish
colonization in Samaria, the northern part
of the West Bank. The previous year, as
a young reporter, I interviewed Peres,
after he and his political ally Moshe
Dayan had refused “on principle” to join
the government of Golda Meir. “If a
single child can learn that politics is not
just intrigues,” Peres told me, “I will be
satisfied that we have done our bit.” Just
one week later, when he and Dayan had
reversed their position for no discernable
reason, and were seated snugly around
the cabinet table, I asked Peres what he
had to say to the “single child.” His aides
sniggered, but Peres didn’t bat an eyelid:
“Just what my mentor, David Ben-Gurion
(Israel’s first Prime Minister) told me:
when the security of Israel is laid on one
side of the scales, and everything else on
the other side, security tips the
balance.” Peres subsequently used that
self-same argument to join every
government that would have him. The
late Menachem Begin lost nine elections
before finally becoming Israel’s Prime
Minister in 1977. He served as a
pugnacious and dedicated leader of the
opposition. Peres almost never headed
the opposition, always preferring a
ministerial appointment, once even
designing a grotesque system of

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