No fool like an old fool

Former Israeli Prime Minister Simon Peres is about to celebrate his 80th birthday. Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post takes the occasion to roast this extradordinarily foolish man. Unlike the Democratic Party in the U.S., Israel’s Labor Party often produces sensible, tough-minded leaders (e.g., Rabin and Barak) whose understandable longing for peace sometimes clouds their judgment. But Peres is criminally feckless. Glick puts it perfectly when she says that Peres views reality as just another option to be chosen, or condemned as impossible to countenance, as one sees fit. Glick is also spot-on when she observes that “the upshot of all that Peres has told us for the past decade is that he cannot be held responsible for the consequences of his strategies [Oslo and all that]. He must only be congratulated for the hope he bestowed on us all.”
This weekend Peres will be congratulated at a big birthday bash to be attended by fellow narcissists Koffi Annan, Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Bill Clinton. It’s unfortunate that Jimmy Carter won’t be there, since he is the American politician who most resembles Peres. But even Carter never put his country in as much jeopardy as Peres has, if only because the U.S. in Carter’s day did not face the immediate peril that Israel does.
UPDATE: Joshua Sharf informs me that the Peres birthday bash has already occurred. Ariel Sharon showed up, which prompted Bill Clinton to quip/whine about how lucky Peres is; Clinton’s opponents wouldn’t even sit in the same room with him.