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Reception in honor of President Shimon Peres

Remarks at Reception
in honor of
President Shimon Peres
August 23, 2007

Welcome President Shimon Peres, distinguished guests, and embassy colleagues. My wife Joan and I are delighted and honored to host you in our residence this evening.

I am supposed to make short remarks tonight, but when the focus of such remarks is Shimon Peres, this can present a problem. How can you succinctly capture six decades of public service in just a few minutes? The truth is, you can't. But fortunately, the careers of great leaders speak for themselves. That is definitely so with Shimon Peres.

President Peres has held every major cabinet post and served as Prime Minister during some of Israel's most challenging moments. His impressive run of offices began when he was just 25, when David Ben-Gurion asked him to head Israel’s navy.

Twenty-five?! These days most of us our happy if our children have moved out of the house by that age!

Yet by age 25, Shimon Peres was already a seasoned leader. During Israel’s War of Independence he was responsible for manpower and arms purchases for the Haganah. Capitalizing on this experience, he led the Defense Ministry’s arms purchases delegation to the United States in 1949.

By 1952, at the age of 29, he was appointed deputy director general of the Ministry of Defense, and a year later director general, serving in this capacity for six years, during which time he strengthened foreign relations and promoted the development of Israel’s aircraft industry.

In 1959, he was elected to the Knesset and appointed deputy defense Minister. In that capacity, he took progressive steps to ensure Israel’s security in a dangerous neighborhood, stepping up state weapons production, initiating a nuclear research program, and strengthening foreign military relationships.

So how does a leader so expert in the ways of war leave a legacy as a man of peace? Let me quote President Peres himself from 1994, when he shared the Nobel Price for Peace with Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

“I have changed because the situation has changed. When I thought that Israel was in danger, I was a terrible hawk. I thought it my duty to do whatever I could to defend Israel to make it stronger. But that wasn’t a purpose; this was a must. Once I felt that we could go for peace, I changed, because that is a purpose. War is a must, peace is a goal.”

For many years now, President Peres has invested great energy in his efforts to bring peace to Israel and the region. In 1997 the Peres Center for Peace was established with the goal of promoting business and economic ties between Palestinians and Israelis and advancing cooperation and mutual understanding. The Peres Center designs and facilitates tangible peace building projects, using cross-border, regional, and international partnerships to turn dreams into realities.

It has been a long, hard road, and President Peres has endured more than his fair share of domestic criticism, even within his own Labor Party, for his idealistic pursuit of peace. Yet his determination has never wavered. He has always placed the welfare of the nation as a whole ahead of partisan interest.

In this, the U.S. government shares President Peres' vision. There is a solid bi-partisan consensus in the United States in favor of efforts to promote peace and mutual understanding in the Middle East. We at the U.S. Embassy recently hosted a visit by Imam Yayha Hendi, the Muslim Chaplain at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., a man of faith who is dedicated to peace and serves on national and international interfaith councils. Here in Israel he met with senior religious leaders, interfaith NGOs, and important academics, bringing a message that President Peres would appreciate.

“[P]eacemaking, faith-based or even secular, is the most reasonable solution to humanity's differences. It can become a creative bond between people and elevate the human condition on a national and, eventually, global level.”

You, President Peres, understand that enduring peace cannot come at the expense of others, but only by investing in others and reaching out to them with sincere concern.

With Rosh Hashana less than a month away, let us all wish President Peres, the people of Israel, and the greater Jewish Diaspora, a peaceful New Year.
Now, with President Peres’ permission, I would like to show you a few scenes from his illustrious career. The history of his service literally is a history of modern Israel. With him in these photos you will not only see giants of Israeli history but of world history for the last half century. Try to see how many you can identify!