"President demands an int'l stand against terror in speech to world body’s General Assembly; asks Ban Ki-Moon to condemn Gaza missile fire.
After adressing the UN General Assembly, President Shimon Peres met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and PA President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday.
In his meeting with Ban, Peres discussed talks with the Palestinians, saying that he is optimistic after meetings in Washington, Sharm e-Sheikh and Jerusalem. Ban called upon the international community to help in the peace process."
"President Peres meets Pope Benedict XVI, says 'alternative to peace is Iranian hegemony'
President Shimon Peres met with the Pope Benedict XVI and asked for his help in releasing kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Benedict said he would do all he could to assist the process.
The pope and senior Vatican officials expressed hope that the Israeli-Palestinian talks starting Thursday would bring peace to the region and respect the 'legitimate aspirations' of both sides."
"Former and current NBA players arrive in Israel on trip planned by AIPAC to acquaint American sports figures with Israel's unique challenges.
President Shimon Peres welcomed a delegation of former and current NBA players to Israel on Wednesday morning.
The trip was planned by the American pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, with the purpose of strengthening American-Israeli relations by introducing leading figures in American sports to Israel and its unique challenges."
"AsiaNews (Tel Aviv) - On Thursday, the President of the State of Israel, will be received in Audience at Castelgandolfo by Pope Benedict XVI. In preparation for this appointment, the octogenarian Head of State told an interviewer on the First Channel of Italy’s public television (RAI): 'The relations between the Vatican and the Jewish State are the best since the times of Jesus Christ, and have never been so good in two thousand years of history.' He added too: 'The reigning Pontiff wishes to have a sincere dialogue with us, as we wish to have with the Vatican.'
It is difficult to foresee that the visit of Peres to the Pope will have any specific effect on practical details of these relations, which in substance are being dealt with through other channels. The President, in Israel, is an almost exclusively symbolic figure, while the executive power is exercised by the Government. More probably, President Peres’s travels are in the context of the task he has for a while now assigned himself of cultivating Israel’s international image, given wide-spread skepticism concerning the intentions of the Government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Prime Minister himself will on that day be in Washington, for the start of the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), chaired by Mahmoud Abbas, 'Abu Mazen' – negotiations convened by President Barack Obama of the United States.
As for the bilateral relations with the Catholic Church (or as is improperly said in the televised interview, 'the Vatican'), these are now at a phase of special importance. Since 29 July 1992, the Holy See and Israel are committed to concluding a series of 'concordat-type' treaties, which together are meant to achieve legal and fiscal security for the Catholic Church in Israel. Two of those treaties were already signed and ratified some years ago: The 'Fundamental Agreement' (30 December 1993), a kind of 'Bill of Rights' for the Church in the Jewish State, and the 'Legal Personality Agreement' (10 November 1997), which recognizes for civil purposes too the legal personality of the Church and of Church bodies. However, neither of these treaties has been introduced into Israel’s own legislation, which means that their usefulness is at present limited.
Since 11 March 1999, the Parties have been negotiating a third Agreement, for the purpose of confirming the fiscal status of the Church in Israel, especially the historic fiscal exemptions, which are an essential requirement for the ability of the Church to continue to carry out her functions of representing in the Holy Land the world-wide Church and of caring for the faithful locally. This third Agreement will also have to safeguard the Church’s properties in Israel, the Holy Places above all, and to provide for the restitution of certain such properties, such as for example the church-shrine in Caesarea, which was expropriated and razed to the ground in the 1950’s. The next 'plenary' meeting of the negotiators – who together constitute the 'Bilateral Permanent Working Commission between the Holy See and the State of Israel' - is scheduled for 6 December this year. In the meanwhile, well informed sources say, the negotiators are working intensively. The United States, France, Italy and other nations are closely (though discreetly) following the course of the negotiations, consistently with their support – and that of their Catholic citizens – for the presence and work of the Church in the Holy Land.
Once this Agreement is made (and it is impossible to foresee when this may be), or even before then and parallel to the talks about it, the 'agenda' foresees several more Agreements of no lesser importance. In the course of the years, three subjects in particular have been publicly emphasized. First of all, an agreement that would guarantee and regulate in a stable manner the issuance of entry visas and residence permits for Church personnel from elsewhere. Here the State’s policies have varied over time, though their overall direction has been rather restrictive.
More than anything else, it is the lack of legal certainty that is problematic, namely the lack of officially published criteria.
Then there is this subject that is of the greatest pastoral concern, norms to guarantee the access to pastoral care of members of the faithful who find themselves in circumstances of limited mobility, specifically prisoners, members of the military and hospital patients. The accord on these matters between the Government of Italy and the Union of the Jewish Communities in Italy is often mentioned as a model, given the analogy between the small Jewish minority in Italy and the small Christian minority in Israel. The third subject often publicly mentioned in these years is a review of the presentation of Christ, Christianity and the Church in Israel’s school system. It would serve to verify effective reciprocity in relation to the immense undertaking by the Catholic Church over recent decades to ensure a correct, indeed a friendly, presentation of Judaism and the Jews in Catholic education.
There is then still some way to go in order for the 'dialogue' mentioned by President Peres to achieve its purposes completely. However, the forward-looking optimism of the President of Israel is promising, and in fact it seems that both Parties are working towards that goal and are making steady progress.
Thus the Franciscan jurist, Father David-Maria A. Jaeger, an expert on Church-State relations in Israel, tells AsiaNews: “Especially in the last few years, it appears that the negotiations, which in effect constitute this ‘dialogue’ – to which President Peres refers – between the Holy See and the State of Israel, are being pursued by both Parties with great seriousness and commitment, as is evident from the ‘Joint Communiqués’ released from time to time by the Bilateral Commission. Though without ignoring the problems in various sectors of the day-to-day relations between the Church and the State, optimism is obligatory, and such optimism in itself has a decidedly beneficial influence.” He adds too: 'In the end, obstinate optimism endows the experience of daily life with an eschatological horizon.'" (source)
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"President ties attack to peace talks with Palestinians, says 'we should hold talks with those that denounce terror and want peace.'
President Shimon Peres on Wednesday morning expressed his condolences to the families of the four Israelis killed in Tuesday night's terror attack near Kiryat Arba, and added that 'the terrorists will not triumph.'
Yitzhak Ames, 47, and his wife Tali Ames, 45, Kochava Even-Haim, 37, and Avishai Schindler, 24, all from Beit Hagai, were killed in the attack."
In fact the last time there was one was nearly four years ago, when president Moshe Katsav held a media conference in which he tried to explain his side of the story in allegations of rape and other forms of sexual exploitation.
Gadi Sukenik, then a Channel 2 news anchor and reporter, got tired of the tirade and started shouting accusations, at which point Katsav lost his cool and began yelling that Channel 2 and the rest of the media were conducting a witch-hunt against him."
"President Shimon Peres is having no luck with his invitations to break the daily Ramadan fast with Israeli-Arabs. Last night’s affair was interrupted by a loud protest outside his residence, and the Israeli-Arab leadership has announced that it officially rejects the invitations.
During the Islamic month of Ramadan – which is parallel this year to the Hebrew month of Elul, and ends on Rosh HaShanah (Sept. 9) – devout Moslems fast during the day and break their fast with a festive meal each night, known as Iftar."
"Bulgaria is the ideal place for talks to be staged between Israel and the Palestinian authority, Israeli president Shimon Peres has told his Bulgarian colleague Georgi Purvanov.
'I can't imagine a better place, really. So close, so convenient; this sounds a bit like a self-invitation,' Peres said, cited by Bulgarian media.
The Israeli head of state said that it is of paramount importance for his country to push forward peace talks with the Palestine authority. He also said he had no objections to direct negotiations in the future. It was important that these negotiations, Peres said, should serve the peace interests of both sides."
President Shimon Peres said in Zagreb on Friday that Israel now sees Croatia as a friend because it has decided not to repeat past errors.
The country was pro-Nazi during World War II, became independent in 1991 and sympathetic to that historical era in the 1990s – prompting Israel to hold off recognizing it until 1997.
Since 2000, Croatia’s governments have denounced fascism. Peres’s predecessor, Moshe Katsav, visited in 2001."
"When President Ed Ray traveled to Israel in early July with a group of other university presidents, he was excited to talk with people on both sides of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, and learn more about the current political situation as well as to see places he’d only read about in history texts and the Bible.
What he wasn’t prepared for was the emotional impact the trip would have on him, from the power of the landscape itself to the stories he heard from those who had lived immersed in the conflict. It also helped him ease the loss of a close personal friend."
"Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor told President Shimon Peres on Friday, "I understand that Israelis are under the impression that Slovenia tends to support the Palestinian issue and fails to understand Israel's needs."
"During annual ceremony, president admires Druze heritage, chief of staff notes Druze integration into high command positions
'You were always a numerical minority but a majority in terms of quality,' President Shimon Peres said to Druze soldiers in Tiberias on Tuesday during a ceremony honoring the Druze in the IDF. Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi also praised them and congratulated them on integrating in the higher command echelons and all IDF units.
This is the seventh such ceremony which is held annually in one of the northern towns. This year, with support from Bank Hapoalim, the soldiers also enjoyed a day of fun activities on the shores of the Sea of Galilee."
"In meeting with Russian foreign minister, president says 'North Korean issue must not be left open.' As for Iran, he says, 'We must not be naïve. Ethical voice against this country must be heard'
President Shimon Peres told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday afternoon that 'North Korea has become a duty-free shop for nuclear material.'
Peres also said that Iran 'is bluffing to the world big time. The nuclear bomb is a tool for it to introduce Iranian hegemony in the Middle East. The situation is become extremely dangerous. We have very solid information.'"
"President Shimon Peres met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the President's Residence in Jerusalem and reminded him that Russian committed in 1998 not to sell arms to countries in the region that would alter the balance of power."
"President warns of Iranian threat at meeting with Estonian president.
President Shimon Peres warned of the threat a nuclear Iran poses, when Estonian president Thomas Hendrik Ilves visited Israel as the Peres's official guest on Monday. Ilves was received with a military ceremony and greeted by government ministers and businessmen.
Peres discussed the Iranian threat, saying 'unfortunately, we have to deal with difficulties and threates. Just this morning, we heard [Russian President Dmitri] Medvedev's words about an American report that Iran will have a nuclear bomb in two years.' Peres said, referring to Medvedev's comment at the Group of 20 meeting in Toronto that CIA director Leon Panetta's information on a nuclear Iran is 'worrying.'"
"President joins PR effort at request of Foreign Ministry, many citizens. European allies say difficult to defend Israel in light of government's policies."
"President Shimon Peres, citing the terrorist-sponsored international attempt to make Israel illegitimate, told the Jewish Agency on Sunday morning, “We are a people with faith. It is time to pray.” He also called on Jews all over the world to move to Israel."
""The Israelis never understood, and do not understand now why after we unilaterally retreated from the Gaza Strip for the sake of the two-state solution would the rulers in the Strip decide to fire thousands of rockets at our citizens," President Shimon Peres said Sunday."
