Former President of Israel Says Peace to Take Long Effort

Chaim Herzog, the former president of Israel, hailed the Middle East peace effort here Sunday, saying the Jewish state is “irrevocably committed” to achieving peace with its Arab neighbors.

But he firmly rejected the idea of a sovereign Palestinian state or Arab control of East Jerusalem, and he called on Palestinians to help stop violent acts by extremists aimed at thwarting the peace accord.

“No government in Israel would last one day that is prepared to make any major concessions on Jerusalem,” he told an audience of nearly 1,000 at Temple Bat Yahm in Newport Beach. Yet he dismissed concerns over the much-debated status of the holy city as “one of our least difficult problems.”

While Herzog expressed confidence in the eventual success of the peace process, he warned that it would be “a long, trying and slow process.”

The peace agreement, signed Sept. 13 by representatives of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization at a historic meeting at the White House, calls for Palestinians to begin governing the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho as soon as arrangements can be made.

The peace plan ran into difficulties last week when negotiators disagreed on how many Israeli troops should be withdrawn from Gaza and Jericho, but negotiators said they will resume talks in Cairo today.

The Israeli army insists on maintaining access to some parts of the territories to ensure security for Israeli settlers, especially in light of Sunday’s attack on a right-wing rabbi and his driver by Arab gunmen who oppose the peace treaty.

Rabbi Haim Druckman was injured and his driver Ephraim Ayubi, 30, was killed when gunmen riddled their car with bullets near the West Bank town of Hebron.

Herzog, 74, calling Druckman a friend, commented Sunday that the right-wing Palestinians, the Hamas, must be stopped from undermining the peace effort.

“There’s a concerted attempt by the Hamas . . . to break up the peace process,” said the Irish-born Herzog. “The Palestinians themselves will have to take a stand to intervene in order to stop the rot.”

Herzog, son of Isaac Herzog, the theologian who became Israel’s first chief rabbi, served as president of Israel from 1983 until last May, when he was succeeded by former defense minister Ezer Weizman.

He spoke in Newport Beach as part of the Norman Schiff Scholar Series, which has featured former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and other leaders.

In Israel’s parliamentary system, the prime minister and his Cabinet hold most of the political power, but the president acts as a unifying national symbol.

As president, Herzog was an outspoken supporter of peace negotiations and saw religious fundamentalism among both Jews and Arabs as one of the gravest problems facing the Middle East. He also favored reforming Israel’s electoral system, which produces a myriad of political parties that often lead to parliamentary deadlock.

Herzog assumed the office of president after a long and distinguished career including posts as intelligence officer in the Israeli army, the first military governor of the West Bank and Jerusalem after the 1967 Six-Day War, and ambassador to the United Nations. He was present when the United Nations passed the fateful resolution equating Zionism with racism in 1975 and lived to see that resolution repealed last year.

Herzog was the first incumbent Israeli president to make an official state visit to the United States in 1987.