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Unexpected warmth greets Peres in London By Anshel Pfeffer The "Hard Talk" interview program on the BBC news channel is considered a hard nut to crack in the British media. Every day, heads of state, veteran politicians and world economic titans are subjected to close scrutiny. The research team prepares a fat file on each interviewee and the questions are probing. When they came to interview Israeli President Shimon Peres this week during the course of his visit to London they did not need to work especially hard. During the 13 years the program has been on the air, Peres has been their number one interviewee and the interview on Tuesday was his tenth interview on the program. The number two interviewee, with the second highest number of appearances on the program, is Palestinian negotiating team leader Saeb Erekat, who has appeared seven times. Advertisement Last time Peres appeared on the program, before he was elected to the presidency, he found it difficult to answer the sharp questions fired at him by the interviewer. This time, before the interview, his advisors went over a series of messages and answers to expected questions with him in one of the rooms at Claridge's Hotel in London where he lodged. To their surprise, this time the interview was much more pleasant and relaxed. After it was over the interviewer, Stephen Sackur, denied that he had made life easy for the president. "But nevertheless there is respect for the president," he said, "and also an appropriate attitude by an interviewer of 45 toward an interviewee of 85." It was not only the British Broadcasting Corporation, which most of the time is considered to be hostile to Israel, that paid its respects to Peres. In three short days the British showered upon him all possible honors: a knighthood from the Queen, an honorary doctorate from Kings College and lectures at the most splendid venues: the Guildhall in the City of London, the ancient Sheldonian Theater at Oxford University and in one of the halls of the House of Lords. All of this happened at a time when Israeli diplomats and members of the Zionist lobbies are depicting Britain in a negative light as a major source of anti-Israeli activity in Europe. In an article published five months ago in The Daily Telegraph, the Israeli Ambassador in London, Ron Prosor, wrote that "Britain has become a hotbed for radical anti-Israeli views and a haven for disingenuous calls for a "one-state solution", a euphemistic name for a movement advocating Israel's destruction." This is Prosor's second tour of duty in London. Thirteen years ago he was the embassy spokesman. According to Prosor, even though Israel has since been to the Camp David summits, has disengaged from the Gaza Strip and has participated in the Annapolis conference, the official public relations of the state of Israel are in worse shape today and in the public discourse in Britain there is is far more delegitimization of the Jewish state. London is a major target of Israel's official public relations efforts because key media are based there, such as the BBC, the Sky Channel, The Economist weekly, The Financial Times and The Guardian, the importance of which goes far beyond Britain. London is also a center for the Arab media that are free to act without the restrictions that exist in the Arab countries. Peres has been brought in as a reinforcement player in this campaign because, at his age and due to his status, he is the only official Israeli figure who is treated sympathetically in this arena. He is also succeeding in a unique way to transmit the Israeli arguments without scrapping, thanks to ideas and slogans that coming from anyone else would sound hallucinatory, but coming from Peres sound like words of wisdom from the tribal elder. Peres' Aide de Camp, Brigadier General Hasson Hasson, is the most senior Israel Defense Forces officer to have visited Britain publicly in a long time. "He is lucky in that until now he was not known to the public and they haven't managed to gather material on him," they said this week at the Embassy of Israel in London. British law, which makes it possible to issue orders for arrest against visitors from foreign countries concerning whom there is prima facie evidence that they have committed war crimes, is one of the most fraught issues at present between the two countries. "It's sheer gall," a senior military source said this week. "The British have received everything they have requested from us in intelligence and military matters, and they have promised to rectify this issue, but haven't kept this promise." Peres himself brought up the issue in the diplomatic meetings he held. "Why aren't they doing these things against American military officers?" he asked angrily this week. "The British too have units that are fighting in Iraq and in Afghanistan and are using the same methods." Until several weeks ago, at the Foreign Ministry, they were convinced that the matter was close to a solution. The British government promised to pass an amendment in Parliament and heads of the main Conservative opposition announced that they would support it. Nevertheless, to date the issue has not come up. The British have promised that they are just waiting for the right timing. "I have heard that there is a proposal to amend the law, but I don't believe that it will pass," says British lawyer Daniel Machover, the son of Israelis who is at the center of an initiative of lawyers who support Palestine and which is preparing cases against Israel Defense Forces officers. "There will be a very big public storm because people support the law that makes it possible to try war criminals the moment they arrive in Britain." Three years ago, Major General (res.) Doron Almog, who arrived in London to raise funds for a non-profit organization he established to help brain-damaged children, was forced to remain on the plane and return to Israel after Machover's group arranged to have an arrest order issued against him for committing supposed war crimes. "I find it astonishing," Machover said, "that Israel is trying to intervene in another country's legal issues." Recently, especially warm relations have prevailed between Peres and opposition leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud and they have been meeting frequently. Peres tells his interlocutors that in his opinion, after the elections Netanyahu will be singing different tunes, will continue the negotiations with the Palestinians and with the Syrians and will even consider negotiating on the Saudi initiative. An echo of all this could be heard in things that Peres said about Netanyahu in the BBC interview: "Even if you win an election, you can't be blind, and Netanyahu is not blind. He will have to look at the reality. [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert also reached the point where he is now positioned much further to the right." Israeli sources who participated in Peres' meetings in London with heads of the British Labor Party say that he exploits the fact that he is still perceived as being from the Labor Party (his most recent affiliation has in fact been with Kadima), in order to reassure them that any government that arises in Israel will continue with the peace process. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Mikaeel Jackson Report: Pop star Michael Jackson converts to Islam. Peace now Abbas calls on Obama to enact Arab peace plan as soon as he takes office.

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