Joseph Gutnick responsible for Middle East violence?

I know it seems like 100 years ago now, but can anyone remember the political climate before Binyamin Netanyahu became Prime Minister of Israel in 1996? Remember the time in the mid 90s when there was GENUINE optimism of achieving peace in the Middle East? When Arafat attended Rabin's funeral as a GENUINE mark of respect for his partner in peace?
But then something funny happened, the likely winner of the upcoming elections and successor to the peace process Shimon Peres was the victim of a barrage of money (in the form of political donations) going to his opponent Netanyahu in the last week or so of the campaign by none other than the Australian Rabbi Joseph Gutnick. With the help of Gutnick as well as extreme forces on the Israeli Right, Netanyahu pulled off a shock victory. And needless to say what these forces wanted in return for their support? Not an inch of land to the Philistines......er...I mean the Palestinians! And what have we seen since that time? Nothing but violence, mayhem and fanaticism, with only a brief respite of the Camp David near agreement of January 2001. And with the election of the disgusting figure of Sharon went out the door any hope of human decency having any weight in the peace process.
Some may say it's a stretch to blame Gutnick for what's happened since 96, but before you ridicule that hypothesis, just imagine for a moment what the Middle East would've looked like today had Peres won the 96 poll?