Former President Yitzhak Navon on Saturday defended President Shimon Peres for intimating that Israel could not strike Iran alone.
“It is clear to Peres, as it was clear to me, that it is not
his job to intervene in government decisions, but there are situations in which
it is necessary to say what you believe – even if you are president,” Navon
stated.
The fifth president recounted that during his tenure in the early
1980s, he voiced his opposition to government policies “when I felt it was my
responsibility as a human, like in the case of Sabra and Shatila, in which I
publicly called for an inquiry led by a judge, against prime minister Menachem
Begin’s wishes.”
According to Navon, Peres must have felt that this is a
“fateful time” and that he must have an influence on events.