Being elected president for a seven-year term when you are 84 has its disadvantages. Age, for example. But there are also benefits to starting a presidential career so late in life: You can thumb your nose at everyone - all the politicians who poked fun at you all those years, all the people who called you "Minister of the Diaspora and Sasporilla," all the bosses who palmed you off with desk jobs, or ridiculed your dream of a "new Middle East."

Anyone who expects to see Shimon Peres tottering like the queen of England from ceremony to ceremony doesn't know our new president. With all the frustrations of the past, with all the ungratefulness of the politicians whose careers he cultivated, it is completely in character for him to believe that he is in charge now, and he will be running the show. So what if the Basic Law: President of the State grants him only ceremonial duties and says he's a figurehead?

The duties of the president were defined when the state was established, against the backdrop of the complicated relationship between Chaim Weizmann, who had no party behind him, and David Ben-Gurion, who took all the political power for himself. Ben-Gurion was not anxious to share with a president with whom he had clashed so often in their Zionist Organization days. As a result, the powers of the president were ground down to almost nothing.

	Advertisement

Presidents of Israel made do with signing laws, pardons, treaties, etc. In the early days of the state, the commander of the military parade on Independence Day would go up to the president sitting on the dais, salute, and "request" permission to start the parade. Even that duty was taken away when one of the presidents didn't understand the question and it took a few embarrassing moments until the parade started moving.

There are many restrictions on the president. He cannot leave the country without the government's consent. He is not supposed to get involved in controversial issues. Even so, there have been a few presidents who crossed the line. Yitzhak Navon, for example, threatened to quit if a judicial commission of inquiry was not convened to probe the Sabra and Chatilla massacre in 1982. Chaim Herzog came up with the idea of a rotation government in 1984, but he also signed the scandalous pardon of the Shin Bet agents who bumped off the hijackers in the Bus 300 affair. At this stage of the game, with the country so gloomy and distrustful of its leaders, it is hard to digest the idea of a president whose job is to rubber stamp the debacles of the government.

No politician has been involved for so long in such a broad array of activities in the realms of defense and peace diplomacy, yet suffered so much humiliation, as Shimon Peres. Peres the prig, Uri Avinery used to call him in his paper, Olam Hazeh. Some day, maybe biographers and historians will crack the code of why journalists and politicians have felt such a mixture of admiration and antipathy toward this man.

Now that he has been elected president, seven years too late, the time has come for him to get even with these politicos who have made his life miserable, passed him over for the jobs he coveted, and prevented him from realizing his dream of a new Middle East, which they sneered and laughed at.

If Peres had a strategic advisor, he would tell him one thing: Don't be a "ceremonial" president. The Basic Law: President of Israel may grant him very few powers, but where does it say that the president cannot express views on controversial topics? Like, what ever happened to the Arab peace initiative unveiled at Riyadh? Or why is there so much corruption in Israeli politics? There are questions he can ask, like why it is that Israel's minorities feel they don't belong? He can refuse to endorse appointments he believes are unworthy. He can refuse to be a rubber stamp for underhanded legislation like the bill to limit the tenure of all court presidents to seven years.

At his age, with his long years of experience, Peres should not be a puppet or a figurehead at public ceremonies. This is not a matter of law, but of common sense. There are times when a nation needs the practiced hand of a tribal elder. With all his knowledge and experience, and all the international prestige he enjoys, Peres is clearly the first president we can look up to as a tribal chief and apolitical leader.

We already caught of glimpse of this on the day of his inauguration, when he told a British journalist that we need to "get the territories off our back," and mentioned the "London accord" that Yitzhak Shamir torpedoed when he was prime minister. As long as the law doesn't expressly forbid it, he's allowed. The man has an insatiable desire to achieve peace. He's got the reputation, the mike and the mouthpiece.

Don't let the fanatics and the peace refuseniks get in your way. Go for it, Peres.