Behind the Nobel Peace Prize

I awaken to the radio telling me that 15 years ago today, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The thought throws Barack Obama’s award last week into sharp relief.

The more I think of it, the more I wonder why, wakened early to be told about his win, Obama did not immediately join Le Duc Tho, in rejecting it.

Who he?

He was the leader of North Vietnam who was awarded it with then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. He clearly could not brook enduring the experience of picking up his joint award.

For some, Kissinger was the low point in the chequered history of the Nobel Prize for his role in the bombing of Cambodia.

But then you realise that Kissinger has competitors for the position in the Nobel Prize. One only has to look at the desperate history of the Middle East since 1994 to wonder how wise it was to give the prize to Arafat, Rabin and Peres.

Rabin, after signing the Oslo Accords, has been sanctified by assassination – but Peres remains President of Israel and as far from any resolution as any Israeli ever has been. Arafat stands condemned for his personal and the Fatah-wide corruption that accompanied his leadership of the PLO.

Oh dear, not a pretty sight.

But I guess the $1.4m cash that goes with the prize, smoothes the way to acceptance.

Strange really that a prize set up by one of the most notorious weapons manufacturers in the world still holds so much sway.