Peres: "Peace process is not a lost case"

Tel Aviv - The peace process under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government 'is not a lost case,' President Shimon Peres told the German Press Agency dpa Saturday. Peres spoke to more than 100,000 people gathered at a rally in Tel Aviv commemorating the 14th anniversary of the assassination of then- prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, and sent a clear message for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to give up on the peace process. The rally took place in the square were Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli activist on November 4, 1995, after two years of open peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords. 'There is a chance for renewing the peace process,' Peres told dpa, in a moment in which the negotiations between the United States, Israel and the Palestinian Authority are in an impasse over the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Peres called on the Palestinians to continue efforts for peace and reopen the negotiations, which were halted in late 2008 as Israel headed into elections. 'We both signed the Oslo Accord, and I am turning to you now as a colleague: don't give up,' Peres said in the opening speech of the ceremony. 'It is better an imperfect peace than a never-ending perfect war. Anyone who rejects the two-state solution won't bring a one-state solution. They will instead bring one war, not one state - a bloody war with no end.' Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Education Minister Gideon Sahar and opposition leader Tzipi Livni were in attendance at the ceremony. Barak called on the Palestinians to 'come to the negotiating table.' 'More victims are expected,' he said, 'and, especially because of that, it is worthwhile to press on.' Rabin and Peres, who was foreign minister, negotiated the so- called Oslo peace accords in 1993 with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. After the new agreement known as Oslo II, Yigal Amir, a right-wing Jewish student opposed to the peace process, shot the prime minister in the square that today bears Rabin's name. The Oslo accords were the first-ever agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), based on a declaration of principles for the transfer of authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - other than the Jewish settlement areas - to the Palestinians. The transfer of powers to the Palestinian Authority created deep divisions in Israeli society and between Israeli political parties. The Likud, headed by now-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also criticized the steps taken by Rabin. Arafat, Peres and Rabin were awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in negotiating the Oslo accords. Rabin signed a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan on October 26, 1994, the first with any of its Arab neighbours since since the treaty with Egypt 15 years earlier.